Back in January, the Home Office updated and expanded its guidance on the “good character” requirement in British citizenship applications. One of the big changes in the guidance is the long overdue recognition of the existence of Article 31 of the Refugee Convention. As I’ll explain in this post, Article...
Government attempts to tackle illegal working are halting, aimless and ill-adapted to the post-Windrush dispensation, an independent inspection report has found. David Bolt’s latest report says that “the Home Office’s efforts are not really working and may have had the unintended consequence of enabling exploitation and discrimination by some employers”....
This article is about the High Court and Court of Appeal decisions in the leading (and so far only) case on segregation in immigration detention. They are R (Muasa) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 2267 (Admin) and R (TM (Kenya)) v Secretary of State for...
At the end of March 2019, the UK government launched its new innovator visa for overseas entrepreneurs and closed the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) category to new applicants. The innovator visa is aimed at “more experienced business people” who have £50,000 to invest in an innovative business which could be scaled...
The government has announced that a new immigration regulation chief will take office later this year, filling a post left vacant since 2015. John Tuckett, a former submarine commander now in charge of the Marine Management Organisation, will become Immigration Services Commissioner this summer. The role has been vacant since...
The immigration inspector has praised the Home Office for its work on the EU Settlement Scheme for European citizens applying to stay in the UK after Brexit. A new report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration says that the department was “largely justified” in describing the pilot...
There is a growing furore about the poor state of our visa application processes, which seem to have hit an all time low. The application systems for getting a visa, extension, settlement or citizenship are now mostly online and outsourced. But far from becoming more efficient, there is growing evidence...
The European Court of Human Rights has developed Article 5 ECHR beyond domestic law and potentially created a dramatic increase in the amount of damages payable for unlawful detention caused by a breach of detention policy. VM v United Kingdom (No. 2) (application no. 62824/16) is only a decision of...
The Law Commission has extended the deadline for responses to its consultation on simplifying the Immigration Rules to 3 May 2019. It had been due to close on 26 April. The influential law reform body has proposed major revisions to how the Immigration Rules are drafted. The regulations that underpin...
The Home Office has updated its policy on the requirements for accommodation and support to enable people to meet the conditions of their immigration bail. The policy applies whether that bail is granted by the Home Office or by the tribunal. While a new form has been introduced for some...
Three immigration lawyers have been convicted of a host of regulatory offences after raking in millions from incompetent and unsupervised immigration advice. Dan Romulus Dandes, Babbar Ali Jamil and Zia Bi were found guilty of 19 offences of providing unqualified immigration advice and/or services contrary to section 91 of the...
The Upper Tribunal has ruled that holding immigration appeals over video link does not breach European data protection laws. The case is CJ (international video-link hearing: data protection) Jamaica [2019] UKUT 126 (IAC). The appellant, CJ (no relation), came to the UK aged eight on a six-month visit visa. He...
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that EU nationals retain their status as workers for six months, even if they have only worked for two weeks in the host country. Case C‑483/17 Tarola v Minister for Social Protection concerned a Romanian national living in Ireland. Mr...
One of the requirements for Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) migrants extending their visas in the UK is to show they have invested £200,000 that they previously showed was available for investment in their initial applications. The important case of R (Sajjad) v SSHD [2019] EWCA Civ 720 is about the ways...
The UK’s inefficient visa system is hurting the country’s reputation as a venue for high-end dispute resolution, according to a legal consultancy. Hook Tangaza says that it has seen “numerous examples” of foreign lawyers being unable to get a UK visa in time to take part in a London-based commercial...
In the short but landmark judgment of R (Hamid) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWHC 3070 (Admin), the High Court affirmed that it has the power to oversee the conduct of lawyers in immigration cases. Judges have regularly used the disciplinary process that has evolved out...
We’ve been scooped on this one by The Sun, of all places. As every lefty lawyer’s favourite paper reports, a judge has temporarily abolished the 45-day limit on help for trafficking victims pending a further hearing. Victims of human trafficking are entitled to £65 per week, accommodation at a safe...
In 2011, the landmark case of MSS v Belgium and Greece concluded that conditions in Greece were so dire, asylum seekers’ human rights would be breached if returned. Removals to Greece under the Dublin III Regulation were suspended as a result. Though conditions in Greece remain critical, in December 2016...
When someone pursuing an appeal in the immigration tribunal decides that they no longer want the appeal to go ahead, who gets to decide when the appeal comes to an end? The person themselves, the tribunal, or the Home Office? In July 2017, Mr Justice McCloskey, President of the Upper...
A recent change in the Home Office’s good character policy for citizenship applications is set to have a significant impact on people with a history of overstaying. The department expressly states for the first time that any overstaying in the last ten years will see an application for British citizenship...
The Court of Appeal has handed down a blockbuster judgment on the highly controversial use of paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules to refuse settlement to migrants over alleged tax discrepancies. It says that the Home Office’s stance in these cases is “legally flawed” and needs a major overhaul to...
The Upper Tribunal has handed down two cases with guidance on a range of issues relating to the automatic deportation regime. In both cases the appellants sought to rely on statements from the Supreme Court in KO (Nigeria) and Others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] UKSC 53,...
On 11 February 2003, a Turkish man who had been refused asylum in the UK staged a protest at Manchester Airport, burning immigration papers before dousing himself, his wife and their daughter with petrol and threatening to light a match. Thankfully, the self-immolation was prevented. The Home Office made a...
Government guidance asserts that an asylum claim based on a blood feud in Albania is likely to be certifiable as clearly unfounded under section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. In my view, this is fundamentally misconceived. Certification under section 94 is a draconian measure which deprives...
The immigration tribunal has, once again, grappled with the public interest considerations which must be taken into account in all private and family life appeals against a migrant’s removal from the UK. It is now clear that, even where a child’s departure from the UK is unlikely to take place,...
The European Court of Human Rights has held that the extradition to Iran of a man accused of theft would breach Article 3 of the human rights convention despite the Iranian authorities providing an assurance that he would not be tortured. In GS v Bulgaria (application no. 36538/17) the Strasbourg...
The Upper Tribunal has referred an immigration adviser to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), accusing him of running judicial review cases without a licence and failing to properly check expert reports. The case is R (Hoxha & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (representatives:...
An East London immigration lawyer has been struck off after being caught on camera advising a client about a sham marriage. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal imposed its ultimate sanction on Zulfiqar Ali, who practised as ZA Solicitors in Stratford. Ali was one of several immigration lawyers recorded advising an undercover...
An adult primary carer of an British citizen can acquire a derivative right to reside under EU law, the Court of Appeal has said in MS (Malaysia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 580. On the facts, it is surprising that the Secretary of State...
Welcome to the March 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a couple of High Court victories by NGOs before turning to some significant developments in business immigration. There’s also been some movement in asylum law which we’ll review before looking at some...
The Court of Appeal has transplanted the test for admitting new evidence in private law appeals into immigration law. Ullah v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 550 is about when the Home Office is allowed to ignore an appeal judgment because it has discovered new...
From 29 March 2019 the government’s new ‘start-up’ visa finally opened for new applicants. Announced last June, the visa is intended as a replacement to the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) route but carries with it the expectation that it will, as Sajid Javid declared at the time, ensure that the...
Last week the Home Office announced the establishment of its compensation scheme for those affected by the Windrush scandal (the Scheme). We have published a briefing on how the Scheme will work, who is entitled to compensation, and the key documents involved. There are a number of issues in the...
