The High Court has called in the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Director of Public Prosecutions over the conduct of a shambolic citizenship case. The judgment is Jetly & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 204 (Admin). The circumstances of the case are baffling even when laid...
The upshot of the Upper Tribunal’s decision in AK and IK (S.85 NIAA 2002 – new matters) Turkey [2019] UKUT 67 (IAC) is that a person who relies upon a different category of the Immigration Rules to succeed under Article 8 at their appeal or in a section 120 statement,...
The Upper Tribunal has held that the non-EU partner of an EU citizen cannot start accruing time towards permanent residence status until they have a residence card, pointing out the well established distinction between family members and extended family members in EU free movement law. In short: a person married...
I will confess to overlooking this case initially. After all, Sir Stephen Richards introduces his judgment in KK (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 172 by saying “the issue is a narrow one, turning on the specifics of the individual case”. That is...
We’ve finally put the finishing touches to our comprehensive online training course on Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules. This is the bit of the rules dealing with the entry of family members, including spouses, partners, children, parents and grandparents. We cover the evidential requirements at Appendix FM-SE as well,...
In Mohammad Racheed v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] CSIH 8, the Inner House of the Court of Session held that a judicial review challenge to the certification of a human rights claim to remain in the UK as “clearly unfounded” can include new evidence. Mr Racheed,...
Last month, for the first time in my career, I took a client’s appeal to the media instead of the immigration tribunal. Mozaffar Saberi and Rezvan Habibimarand are an elderly Iranian couple (83 and 73) living in Edinburgh. They have four adult British children, 11 British grandchildren and a British...
In this blog post, Judith Reynolds, Research Associate at Cardiff University’s Centre for Language and Communication Research, offers immigration law practitioners some reflections and tips for communicating with foreign language-speaking clients. As all legal practitioners are keenly aware, communicating effectively with clients is central to good legal practice. Being aware of...
In a newly reported judgment the Upper Tribunal has quashed the Secretary of State’s decision to refuse a request from the Greek government to take charge of the asylum claims of a mother and her three children so they could reunite with the father, who lives in the UK. The...
The government has collected less than half the fines issued to employers for hiring undocumented migrants over the past five years, according to a Free Movement estimate using data released under the Freedom of Information Act. The value of illegal working fines handed out to companies, even if reduced by...
The UK government did not begin its deprivation of citizenship policy yesterday, when Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed an order stripping Shamima Begum of her British nationality. The deprivation of citizenship power has been increasingly used in recent years, with 104 citizens deprived of their British nationality in 2017 alone....
Bhandari & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 129 considered some fairly elderly Upper Tribunal case law on fairness and the Points Based System, and in particular a decision of Mr Justice Blake in Patel (Revocation of Sponsor Licence: Fairness: India) [2011] UKUT 211...
With so much focus on whether an asylum seeker has established a well founded fear of persecution in their country of origin, the question of whether their appeal falls to be allowed under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is often given only cursory attention. However, it...
illogical and inconsistent… plainly in error… plainly wrong… tenuous and unsubstantiated… failed to provide any reasoning… there is a basic minimum which is needed and, with respect to the Judge, it is lacking in this case… The Court of Appeal there, taking the “highly unusual” step of allowing an asylum...
The controversial story of British teenager Shamima Begum has dominated the news in recent days. Shamima left the UK in February 2015 to travel to Syria at the age of 15. She was very recently found in a Syrian refugee camp, heavily pregnant, after she had escaped from an Islamic...
The EU Settlement Scheme scheme has been set up by the UK government for European residents to apply for “settled status” after Brexit. It is considered necessary because most citizens of European Union countries will lose their existing legal status in this country after it leaves the EU. EU citizens who...
The government’s Integrated Communities Action Plan, published on 9 February, is worth a quick look. It is naturally enough published by the department with “Communities” in its name but in fact a lot of the proposed actions are for the Home Office to carry out. One commitment that I think...
R (AC (Algeria)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 188 (Admin) is about how long the Home Office is allowed to delay providing accommodation following the grant of bail in principle by the First-tier Tribunal. Unfortunately, the answer given by the High Court is at least...
Credit where it’s due. In numerous claims and fresh claims for asylum for well over half a decade now, the firm of Barnes Harrild & Dyer has been presenting the Secretary of State for the Home Department with various reports by Professor Emile Joffé giving his expert opinion about the...
In Fatima v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 124, the appellants tried to argue that free movement rules granting some rights to dependent relatives of EU citizens apply where the relatives are dependent on the EU citizen’s spouse instead. The EEA Regulations 2006 say that...
It will not have escaped your notice that today is Valentine’s Day. The day when love, new and old, seems inescapable. Whether it’s lovers gazing into each other’s eyes over candlelight or in moments snatched after the children have been put to bed — even if it’s just saying “I...
The government has published two draft sets of changes to UK immigration law to cater for the UK’s exit from the European Union. They include ending the “Dublin III” system under which asylum seekers are sent back to Calais and elsewhere in mainland Europe, which would be scrapped as early...
Under EU law it is not necessary that a person be working in a member state in order to be entitled to family benefits in respect of his children living in another member state. So ruled the Court of Justice of the European Union in C-322/17 Bogatu v Minister for...
Yesterday’s Sunday Times report that “Commonwealth soldiers don’t earn enough to bring families with them” will come as no surprise to immigration practitioners confronted on a daily basis with British citizen or settled clients who can barely meet the minimum income requirement. My experience of representing over a dozen Commonwealth...
Legal aid lawyers have never had an easy ride, but over the last few years since the introduction of CCMS and LASPO the iniquities and frustrations of working in this sector have grown exponentially. CCMS and LASPO may still be with us, but following two separate challenges to the operation...
The UK government has published an agreement on the residence rights of people from the three “EEA EFTA” countries if there is no Brexit deal. It covers citizens from the handful of nations that are not in the European Union, but are in the European single market: Norway, Iceland and...
Anybody over the age of ten who applies for registration or naturalisation as a British citizen needs to meet the so-called “good character requirement”. This is a mandatory requirement set out in the British Nationality Act 1981. Where a person is deemed by the Home Office not to be “of...
A major government review of legal aid proposes no significant changes in the immigration and asylum field. Despite evidence of the impact of cuts over the past five years, and the role that legal aid would have played in preventing the Windrush scandal, the Ministry of Justice has refused to...
Parliament’s human rights committee has recommended taking the decision to hold a migrant in immigration detention away from the Home Office. The group of MPs and Lords also call for an end to indefinite immigration detention, an idea that has gained political impetus recently with the possible support of the...
The KK brothers are two young men from Sri Lanka who claimed asylum in the UK off the back of claimed associations with the Tamil Tigers. Their asylum applications were rejected, by the Home Office and on appeal up through the immigration tribunals. In the Court of Appeal, their appeal...
There have been complaints about “the law’s delay” since William Shakespeare’s time. Given the under-resourcing of the court system and complexity of the laws and regulations (on immigration in particular) handed down to them, judges these days can be forgiven if they do not race through their decisions. In our...
A BBC investigation has uncovered organised cheating on the “Life in the UK” test taken by migrants applying for settlement or citizenship. For a fee of up to £2,000, crooked consultants will feed the answers to those sitting the exam through a hidden earpiece. The story does not establish —...
The government recently published information about arrangements for EU citizens who move to the UK after the UK leaves the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The proposals would mean that EU (and EEA) national children who move to the UK between the date the UK leaves the...
An immigration judge who tried to change his mind after granting asylum to a 16-year-old Iraqi boy has been overruled by the Upper Tribunal. The case is PAA (FtT: Oral decision – written reasons) [2019] UKUT 13 (IAC). Notes made by several different people present at a First-Tier Tribunal hearing...
In this research piece, the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association makes the case that the Home Office is subject to certain legal duties relating to the EU settled status automated data checks. These legal duties are: the public law duty to give reasons for the outcome of the checks where requested;...
A new report from the independent immigration inspector shines new light on how enforcement officials get their hands on data about migrants from other government departments. David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, also reveals that the department is building a centralised database of migrants’ legal status...
