A former recruitment consultant has been given a 12-week suspended sentence for providing unregulated immigration advice. The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) prosecuted Namrata Thakkar, of Priory Gardens, Acton in London for continuing to give immigration advice despite no longer being covered by its regulation scheme. Ms Thakkar...
Since January 2015, 1,700 settlement applications from Tier 1 (General) migrants have been refused under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules, primarily due to discrepancies between earnings declared to HMRC and to the Home Office at the time of making an application. During that time, the higher courts in England...
The co-founder of an immigration law firm has failed in a High Court bid to overturn Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal sanctions for professional misconduct. Mr Justice Lavender rejected the appeal of Malik Mohammed Nazeer, a solicitor of over 21 years’ call, against a £20,000 fine and practice restrictions imposed by the...
Another example of selective cessation of refugee status by the Home Office, ostensibly based on a change in the country of origin but in truth triggered by criminality on the part of the refugee. In this case the refugee had entered the UK as a child but later committed several...
The Court of Appeal has reluctantly but unanimously agreed with the Home Office’s decision to refuse a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) application for further leave to remain based on a factual issue of specified documents not being submitted. It rejected arguments that evidential flexibility should apply. The case is Harpreet Singh...
The Secretary of State has confirmed that he intends to introduce appeal rights for extended family members of EEA nationals who have been refused a residence card. The government will lay legislation amending the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 “as soon as reasonably practicable”. This important statement arises out...
Most migrants who try to research their immigration case from inside detention centres find useful websites blocked by the authorities, according to data collected by the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID). The charity says that 83% of detainees have been unable to look up basic online resources on immigration...
Welcome to the December 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. It’s a bumper issue, with a host of immigration announcements just before Christmas to cover, including two sets of changes to the Immigration Rules, a white paper, an Immigration Bill and announcements on EU citizens’ rights. We...
In R (Mohamed) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 3547 (Admin), the High Court found that the Home Office had unlawfully delayed making a decision on an indefinite leave to remain application made by the claimant as a child. Frustratingly, though, the court also ruled that...
KC (Gambia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 2847 is an asylum case that bounced from the First-tier Tribunal to the Upper Tribunal twice before landing before the Court of Appeal. The various tribunal judges were unable to agree on whether the appellant, who was...
A newly published report by the immigration inspector deals with the Home Office approach to vulnerable adults. It is heavy on management-speak, being mostly concerned with internal processes and structures. These are important, of course, as evidenced by the case study of the South African man whose file was only...
In the case of Harverye v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 2848, Lord Justice Irwin in the Court of Appeal held that where an appeal against deportation is allowed, the Home Office cannot make a second decision to deport unless there has been a change...
Good, clear new policy on DNA evidence in immigration cases from the Home Office following the scandal last year: The Home Office cannot require that DNA evidence is provided as part of an immigration application. This is reflected in the fact that the department has no specific statutory power to...
There is so much in the immigration white paper, publishedjust before Christmas, that sounds pretty good for employers. But if the sponsorship system is to cope when extended to cover skilled workers arriving from the EU, a huge amount of work will be needed to simplify it. The white paper...
In Cabucak v Germany (application no. 18706/16), the European Court of Human Rights dismissed a strong Article 8 claim to uphold a deportation order made against a serial drug-dealer. Mr Cabucak, who despite being a Turkish national was born and raised in Germany, has a tragic life story. His father killed...
The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court decision that Operation Nexus — the “operational and intelligence partnership for immigration enforcement” between the police and the Home Office that we have commented on several times previously — is lawful. The case is R (The Centre for Advice on Individual...
In addition to the deluge of new Immigration Rules and legislation we faced in the May years, and now the looming Brexit iceberg, a major (if inevitable) change of recent times has been the digitisation of immigration applications. Unlike with Rules and legislation changes, there was little opportunity to scrutinise...
The immigration and asylum tribunal has issued updated but essentially unchanged Practice Directions. The new document is almost identical to the previous version, dated November 2014. I’ve put the new Directions into a text comparison programme alongside the old and it flags up just one change: 13. Bail applications 13.1...
The tribunal has concluded, finally, that particularly vulnerable asylum seekers face breaches of Article 3 if returned to Italy to have their asylum claims processed under the Dublin Regulation. It would be fair to say the circumstances where this applies are tightly drawn by the tribunal: the vulnerability would need...
A new Immigration Services Commissioner will finally be appointed in 2019 — over three years after the last commissioner stood down. There has been no leader at the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, which regulates over 3,000 registered immigration advisers, since late 2015. Deputy commissioner Dr Ian Leigh wrote...
Windrush The defining event of 2018 in the world of immigration law was without doubt the exposure of what has become known as the Windrush scandal. The way the scandal was eventually picked up by all news outlets caught everyone by surprise, me included. It has led to significant changes...
Speeches at the Criminal Law Review Conference are not natural reading material for immigration lawyers, but Lady Justice Rafferty’s contribution is of wider interest. It is about the merits of brevity and clarity in legal writing. This is a core concern for us as a legal blog — and perhaps...
The High Court has ruled that a claimant is entitled to extra unlawful detention damages for frustration and anxiety where the Home Office fails to provide a release address. The guidance on this issue provided by R (Diop) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 3420 (Admin)...
When Sergei and Yulia Skripal were near-fatally poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in March 2018, suspicion immediately fell upon the Russian state. The British government released footage of the men said to be responsible and the aliases under which they secured UK visit visas. But it took a website called...
Brexit notwithstanding, 2018 is likely to be remembered as the year the lid was blown on the government’s hostile environment policy. The debate about how difficult we want the lives of migrants unlawfully in the UK to be has now caught the attention of the mainstream media. It is therefore...
Some holiday reading for those who just can’t get enough citizens’ rights. Seraphus Solicitors has put together a comprehensive list of materials on the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, almost all of whom will be affected by Brexit. It includes not just the key documents on the...
Most of us take for granted that we will spend Christmas with our families. Many others, thanks to the Immigration Rules, will not. The financial requirements for securing a partner visa now mean that, across the UK, settled residents and British citizens will spend Christmas on Skype with loved ones...
Appendix EU of the Immigration Rules was introduced at the end of August 2018 to implement the post-Brexit settled status scheme which will enable EU citizens and their family members living in the UK to remain after Brexit. When reviewing the new rules, eagle-eyed immigration lawyers may have noticed that...
There is one, overwhelming, message from the immigration White Paper published on 19 December. It is mentioned in the Foreword by the Prime Minister, and the Foreword from the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The aims of the White Paper are: to bring an end to free movement...
The immigration health surcharge will double on 8 January 2019. The extra fee paid by visa applicants to fund the NHS will rise to £400 a year, up from £200, for applications made on or after that date. Students and those on the Youth Mobility Scheme pay £300 (up from...
Reading the case of R (Prathipati) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (discretion – exceptional circumstances) [2018] UKUT 427 (IAC), it is impossible not to feel deep admiration for Ms Prathipati. The 28-year-old Indian citizen appeared without a lawyer before Mr Justice Kerr in her application for judicial...
Welcome to the November 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we again take it from the top with the Supreme Court’s latest attempt to cut through the complexity of our immigration law before turning to a major High Court decision on trafficking. November also saw...
The long awaited Immigration Bill has finally been published. Its mission: to end the free movement rights of nearly four million EU citizens and their family members in the UK. There is as yet no proposed commencement date for when it will take legal effect. The full short title is...
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was laid on 20 December 2018. It follows hard on the heels of another set published on 11 December, but these latest changes are to do with the EU Settlement Scheme rather than ranging across the immigration system. The Home Office...
