In AMS v SSWP (PC) (final decision) [2017] UKUT 381 (AAC), Upper Tribunal Judge Ward dismissed a Dutch widow’s appeal against the refusal of her claim for state pension credit on the basis that she had no right to reside in the UK. Although a disappointing result for Mrs AMS, the...
This week the story of Dan Newton and his family has hit the newspapers. This post explains why the Home Office has acted as it has. It is not a mistake. Since harsh new rules were introduced in 2012, UK immigration policy does not usually allow British citizens working abroad...
Free Movement’s pick of the past week’s media reporting on immigration and asylum. The fallout from now-notorious Home Office deportation letters, sent in error to EU citizens over the summer, continued last week as the government agreed to compensate 106 recipients of instructions to leave the country (Daily Mirror). Home...
What can immigration lawyers do when immigration law is uncertain? This was not, admittedly, the advertised theme of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association annual seminar on free movement, which took place on 4 October. But the enervating effects of unpredictability and ambiguity in immigration law and policy ran through most...
The Home Office has revised its policy on the immigration “amnesty” for survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. In short, the government was offering a grant (or extension) of 12 months leave to enter or remain, with access to public funds included as well as the right to work. The 12 months...
James Hanratty RD, known as a compassionate and sometimes rather unconventional judge, will be a familiar name and indeed face to any London-based barrister specialising in immigration work. I for one was relieved rather than panicked when I would see that he was my client’s allocated judge in the morning...
A surrogacy arrangement is, broadly speaking, where a woman carries and delivers a child for another couple or person. Under section 2(1) of the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, it is a criminal offence for a person on a commercial basis to initiate or take part in a surrogacy agreement in the UK....
The Home Office has lost a judicial review over its controversial change to the definition of torture in a claim brought by unlawfully detained torture victims. The judgment is in the case of Medical Justice & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 2461 (Admin). In short, the...
The Honourable Sir Nicholas John Gorrod Blake retired from the High Court (Queen’s Bench) with effect from 3 October 2017. Sir Nicholas Blake (68) was called to the Bar (M) in 1974, took Silk in 1994 and was elected a Bencher in 2002. He was appointed an Assistant Recorder in...
In ND & NT v Spain, the European Court of Human Rights decided that the expulsion of two sub-Saharan migrants from a set of barriers surrounding the Spanish territory of Melilla breached their rights under Article 4 of Protocol 4 ECHR (prohibition of collective expulsions of aliens) and Article 13...
Two immigration law practitioners, Chris Williams and Nicola Braganza, made headlines today for their part in an investigation highlighting “racial profiling” in UK immigration checks. The pair, both Garden Court tenants, worked with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to analyse Home Office data showing that almost one in five people stopped for...
In one of his final judgments as outgoing President, Mr Justice McCloskey launched a bitter broadside at the conduct of government lawyers in long-running litigation over the entry of refugee children. While the criticism of the solicitors at the Government Legal Department and of previous barristers instructed for the Home...
If you want to look up how the Immigration Act 2016 works in practice, A Guide to the Immigration Act 2016 by Alison Harvey and Zoe Harper is the definitive guide to the legislation. More comprehensive than my own introductory ebook to the Act, Harvey and Harper dive straight into the detail. Every single section of...
Welcome to the July 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I begin by running through a whole load of judgments and determinations, including from the Supreme Court on sham marriages, some cases on procedure and costs and some shocking cases on unlawful detention. I then...
Stateless people in the UK face enormous hurdles in the road to becoming British citizens. One of those barriers is the extraordinarily high cost of acquiring British citizenship, writes Asylum Aid’s Cynthia Orchard. The UK government has taken some steps to ensure its approach to statelessness complies with international law....
Ovidiu-Mihaita Petrea emigrated from Romania to Greece, ready to build a new life there. However, he made a big mistake: he committed robbery and was sentenced by a Greek criminal court in 2011. The case is C-184/16 Ovidiu-Mihăiţă Petrea v Ypourgos Esoterikon kai Dioikitikis Anasygrotisis. Page contentsExclusion order and returnCJEU decisionWhat does this...
In Secretary of State for the Home Department v KE (Nigeria) [2017] EWCA Civ 382, the Court of Appeal tackled the narrow, but important, issue as to whether a non-British citizen who is convicted and sentenced to a hospital order with restrictions under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983 is “a foreign criminal...
IMMIGRATION BARRISTERS AND CASEWORKERS REQUIRED UK Migration Lawyers is excited to be seeking to recruit two Immigration barristers and / or caseworkers to join its Birmingham based team on a fixed term contract. We are seeking candidates with immigration law experience who are passionate, organised, self-motivated and who want...
The claimant in SSWP v NZ (ESA) [2017] UKUT 0360 (AAC) is a Polish national who worked in a chip shop. On 4 September 2017, the Upper Tribunal released a third interim decision in the case, relating to a very specific issue: had the UK derogated from Article 17 of Directive 2004/38 by the Accession...
Welcome to the June 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I’m starting with the current UK proposals on the future status of EU citizens in the UK and a few (!) problems with those plans, covering the major Supreme Court decision on the “deport first,...
The Home Office has broken the law by failing to publish the waiting times faced by EU citizens trying to get residence documents. The Information Commissioner ruled that Amber Rudd’s department is in breach of the Freedom of Information Act, having sat on the request for seven months and counting....
The Right Honourable Sir Ernest Ryder, The Senior President of Tribunals has appointed Sir Peter Lane to be the Chamber President for the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber with effect from 2 October 2017. This is the first “internal” appointment of an immigration tribunal judge to the top immigration...
“Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.” This was the introductory paragraph of Upper Tribunal Judge Wikeley in AF v SSWP (DLA) (No.2) [2017] UKUT 366 (AAC). When a judge expresses himself in this manner – and when the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions supports all three grounds of appeal...
The fourth round of Brexit negotiations are over, with some signs of progress on the future status of EU citizens living in the UK. At the end of August, the EU-UK joint comparison of negotiating positions on citizens’ rights showed some 30 issues highlighted in red, indicating no agreement. This has...
In the very recent case of Arranz (EEA Regulations – deportation – test) [2017] UKUT 294 (IAC) President McCloskey set out the correct approach to EU law deportations. The official headnote instructs us: (i) The burden of proving that a person represents a genuine, present and sufficiently threat affecting one...
Three judges of the Upper Tribunal have examined 13 separate decisions of the same First-tier Tribunal judge and found them “wholly failing to meet the standards that are demanded by the office of a judge and expected by the parties”. The unreported judgment in AA069062014 & Ors. [2017] UKAITUR AA069062014 (30 August...
Campaign group the3million has issued a statement on the latest plans for settled status following a meeting with the Home Office. Some clarifications were made during a meeting between the Home Office and the3million regarding some false information circulating around the future criteria required for all of us after Brexit to obtain...
Banks and building societies are to carry out immigration checks on a reported 70 million bank accounts in accordance with the Immigration Act 2016, amending the Immigration Act 2014. The provision ordering this will come into force on 30 October 2017. Regulations introducing a code of practice have been laid down. For...
Theresa May exercised her free movement rights with a trip to Florence on Friday to deliver a much-anticipated speech on Brexit. Conciliatory in tone and significant on the question of the ‘divorce bill’, the Prime Minister’s comments also touched on the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and on the...
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Conor James McKinney as Deputy Editor for Free Movement. CJ, as he prefers to be known, joins Free Movement with a strong background in legal journalism and communication. He has written on legal affairs for the Times, the i, the Evening Standard...
The Home Office has launched a new Assisted Digital service to help those who need it with online immigration applications. It is aimed at applicants who do not have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to complete an online immigration application form. The service does not offer immigration advice. The support...
Not much to say about this one, but clearly it is important in those cases where the Home Office does withdraw a decision once the appeal has been lodged. Official headnote: (i) The public law character of appeals to the FtT is reflected in the regulatory requirement governing the...
The facts of R (on the application of MMK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (consent orders – legal effect – enforcement) [2017] UKUT 198 (IAC) involved the not uncommon scenario of the Home Office withdrawing its decision in response to an application for judicial review, agreeing a consent order...
In Sleiman (deprivation of citizenship; conduct) [2017] UKUT 367 (IAC) the tribunal considered the question of how directly causative past deception must be of a subsequent grant of British citizenship in order for a person to be deprived of that citizenship on the basis of deception. The official headnote: In...
Pretty obscure looking at first glance, this one: TM (EEA nationals – meaning; NI practitioners : Zimbabwe) [2017] UKUT 165 (IAC). So much so I confess I overlooked it. Firstly, some dual national British-EEA nationals were protected from the UK’s arguably over zealous implementation of McCarthy. I’ve had to advise on...
The Home Office has been in the news for what one judge described as a “prima facie case of contempt of court.” Officials are reported to have breached multiple orders for the return of asylum seeker Samim Bigzad from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom. Ultimately, though, in legal terms it is...
With the approach of Brexit, managers at the Home Office are re-asserting traditional English facial grooming standards, it seems: Britain’s immigration officers have been told they are not allowed to sport stubble at work. Dress code guidance published by the Home Office on Tuesday advised staff that an “unshaven or...
Yes, “residence” is the same as “presence”, at least in paragraph 245AAA(a) of the Immigration Rules, says Upper Tribunal Judge Allen. Official headnote: (i) On a proper construction of paragraph 245AAA(a)(i) of HC 395, an absence from the United Kingdom for a period of more than 180 days in one...
Practitioners commonly rely on the “integration test” in the Immigration Rules to resist an individual’s removal on human rights grounds. The current rules can in some circumstances require a consideration of whether there would be “very significant obstacles” to an individual’s re-integration in that country if they were to be...
The recently leaked government immigration proposals indicate that European nationals who commit crime in the UK will be subject to the same automatic deportation rules as non-European nationals after Brexit. The UK Borders Act 2007 imposes a legal duty on the Home Office to bring deportation proceedings against any foreign...
