Making an immigration application for clients is all in a day’s work, but working on your own wife’s visa is enough to reduce even an expert to tears, writes an anonymous Free Movement contributor. While courting my wife during a sabbatical abroad, I would worry about things like whether I...
In one of his first decisions as the new President of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal, Mr Justice Lane has urged caution in making awards of costs on the basis of unreasonable behaviour. The case is Thapa & Ors (costs: general principles; s 9 review) [2018]...
EU citizens already living in the UK are opting for British citizenship at record levels even as more depart and fewer arrive, this morning’s quarterly immigration statistics from the Home Office and Office for National Statistics confirm. The big picture The number of EU citizens coming to live in the...
Thousands of staff at more than 60 universities around the country have gone on strike, starting today. Some members of the University College Union (UCU), which has called the strike, will be non-EU nationals sponsored under the relevant university’s sponsor licence. Here, I consider the Home Office’s position on whether...
Seasoned Brexit watchers will be familiar by now with the trope that there is a “need for a level playing field”. Coined by the EU out of concern that the UK may turn itself into a tax haven, the phrase has now been appropriated by Brexiteers in the government. Cabinet...
The headnote for OO (Burma -TS remains appropriate CG) Burma [2018] UKUT 52 (IAC) is a short one: TS (Political opponents-risk) Burma CG [2013] UKUT 281 (IAC) remains appropriate country guidance on the risk to political opponents in Burma. The Home Office was arguing in this case that there was...
On 1 February 2018, the High Court decided that the Home Secretary had discriminated against two Muslim men as a result of conditions at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre. For the immediate reaction to this case, this news piece by the BBC is worth reading, but we have only just...
The UK government’s policy paper on EU citizens’ rights in the UK after Brexit, released in June 2017, offered reassurances about “safeguarding” rights, while leaving substantial question marks hanging — in particular about what kind of residence would be required to qualify for the new category of “settled status”. After...
Owing to continued and steady growth we are seeking to recruit an experienced immigration law solicitor. Whilst we will give due consideration to applicants from all levels of experience, we would particularly be interested to hear from practitioners with extensive experience and varied background. The successful candidate must possess or...
Here’s your round-up of the immigration and asylum stories that made national headlines this week. Legal aid worries The number of people given legal aid for immigration cases is lower than in any previous quarter on record, BuzzFeed News reports, alongside some on-the-ground reporting from Hatton Cross. (Compare and contrast with my...
Asylum seekers routinely share their most sensitive information with the Home Office in order to support their asylum claims, write Daniel Carey and Zac Sammour. They do so in good faith, trusting that the Home Office will treat that information with the sensitivity and confidentiality that it warrants. But what...
UK businesses seeking to hire skilled non-EU workers are losing out as it emerges that the monthly quota has been hit for an unprecedented third time in a row. Yesterday afternoon, the Home Office sent out hundreds of emails to UK businesses that have been waiting for the outcome of...
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has begun a judicial review challenge aimed at G4S, the controversial private company that runs two of the UK’s immigration detention centres. The charity aims to have G4S officially branded a “High Risk” supplier by the government in an effort to hold the outsourcing giant...
The case of SM (Algeria) v Entry Clearance Officer [2018] UKSC 9 mainly revolved around the question of whether a child adopted abroad, where the adoption is not recognised by an EU member state, could be considered a “family member” under the EEA Regulations 2006. The Supreme Court has referred...
Spring is in the air (for those optimists among us). For Tier 2 sponsor licence holders, this can only mean one thing. It’s time to grab the organisation’s “leave expiries” list, a crystal ball and a calculator and work out how many unrestricted certificates of sponsorship (CoS) the organisation is...
The Home Affairs Committee of MPs today published its report on whether or not the Home Office has the capacity to deliver effective immigration services once the UK leaves the European Union next March. No, is the short answer. Not a lot of love from @CommonsHomeAffs Valentine's Day report on...
The Court of Appeal has held in PK (Ghana) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 98 that the criterion of “compelling personal circumstances” for a grant of limited leave as a trafficked person in the Secretary of State’s guidance failed properly to reflect Article 14(1)(a) of...
A solicitor has been suspended from practice for 18 months, and his brother heavily fined, in the latest disciplinary ruling over tactical judicial reviews designed to frustrate deportations. Malik Mohammed Saleem and Malik Mohammed Nazeer, of London firm Malik & Malik, were sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal following a...
Free Movement deputy editor Conor James McKinney has been exploring the day-to-day workings of the immigration tribunals. Above is a discussion with Emily Dugan of BuzzFeed News, a journalist with a long-standing interest in immigration and asylum issues whose latest report on the subject was published over the weekend. Below...
Are there adequate procedures and protections for mentally ill migrants in detention centres who wish to challenge the lawfulness of their detention? No, said the Court of Appeal in R (VC) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 57. Detention centres have long been considered the...
Here’s your round-up of the immigration and asylum stories that made national headlines this week. “De-risking” closes migrant accounts The Guardian‘s business section raises concerns about immigrants’ bank accounts being closed down, with some financial institutions accused of “dumping customers and organisations with links to countries about which they have...
Job Summary A boutique immigration law firm based in the heart of London’s Mayfair is currently looking for an experienced immigration lawyer. Applicants must hold level 1 OISC / LSC accreditation or better and/or be actively working towards the same. An Immigration Caseworker occupies a vital place within our...
The Supreme Court yesterday held in the case of B (Algeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] UKSC 5 that the Home Office cannot impose bail conditions on a migrant who cannot be lawfully detained. Or, at least, the Home Office could not do so at the...
The Supreme Court has opened up British citizenship by double descent to all children born to British women in non-Commonwealth countries between 1949 and 1983. Delivering a judgment which makes no attempt to disguise his academic interests as a historian, Lord Sumption delivered a simple solution to a question of...
Around 1.3 million British citizens are currently settled in other EU member states, but do not have citizenship of those countries. Just like EU citizens living in the UK, they can do this by relying on free movement rights granted by the EU. Speaking precisely, Article 20 of the Treaty...
The Upper Tribunal is on the hunt for examples of Home Office delay in formally responding to judicial review cases taken against it. Immigration and Asylum Chamber President Peter Lane is keen to look again at the 2014 Kumar decision that granted government lawyers considerable leniency in filing acknowledgement of...
Another five salaried judges have been appointed to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) in the past fortnight, all to be based in London. Joe Neville, 37, solicitor turned barrister. A former legal blogger – which activity is actually permitted by the judicial conduct guidelines – focusing on employment law,...
The Brexit vote to leave the EU has caused huge anxiety amongst EU citizens and their family members living in the UK. The UK government continues to advise these citizens not to make applications for proof that they have the right to permanent residence under EU law. It is asking...
The government has announced that the controversial health surcharge paid by applicants for entry clearance or leave to remain is to double. The main rate will go from £200 a year to £400 a year, with students and those on the Youth Mobility Scheme paying £300 (up from £150). Immigration health...
The Court of Appeal last week issued “authoritative guidance” on Article 3 medical challenges against removal, reflecting the European Court of Human Rights’s decision in Paposhvili v Belgium. Lord Justice Sales, giving the court’s judgment in AM (Zimbabwe) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA...
Another bumper week – but then, immigration and asylum are hardly ever out of the headlines these days. EU citizens in immigration detention The number of EEA nationals held in immigration detention has increased sharply in recent years, from 768 in 2009 to 4,701 in 2016, according to figures secured by the...
Welcome to the December 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I cover some changes to the Immigration Rules, the latest Brexit developments and a trio of decisions on deportation. I then mention two cases at the Court of Justice of the European Union – one...
In many cases, employers who wish to hire Tier 2 skilled workers must pass the Resident Labour Market Test. This means that Tier 2 sponsors must offer a position to a settled worker ahead of a migrant where both candidates have the necessary skills and experience. Discrimination, but the acceptable...
Campaigners are marking Saturday 17 February as a celebration of migrants and migration in the UK. One Day Without Us is organising various events and rallies around the country, but latte-loving metropolitans like me are urged to gather in Parliament Square that afternoon (here’s the Facebook event). The organisers say:...
The web of Rules and Guidance has become so tangled that even the spider has difficulty controlling it. So says Lord Justice Underhill in Mudiyanselage v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 65, the latest decision in a long lineage examining the much maligned Points Based...
Countries are being declared safe for refugees to return to, but only if they have criminal records, a new report by the government’s immigration inspector suggests. The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, found that the Home Office unit that investigates migrants with criminal records is routinely...
In the High Court last month, Mrs Justice Moulder found that the Home Office had gathered partly unreliable intelligence in the course of an investigation into a college, breaching its right to peaceful enjoyment of its Tier 4 sponsor licence under Article 1 Protocol 1 of the European Convention on...
The Home Office is struggling to control the cost of legal fees and compensation for immigration cases, an independent report says. One of the three inspection reports released today by David Bolt, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, raises concerns about the department’s “ability to control its expenditure in...
The head of the organisation that regulates immigration advisers has hit out at the Home Office, accusing the department of failing to make basic decisions about what the regulator is allowed to do. Dr Ian Leigh said that “unacceptable delay in decision-making on the part of the Home Office on...
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has urged the Home Office to fundamentally overhaul the country of origin information it gives to officials making asylum decisions. David Bolt’s latest report, published today, says that the department “needs to examine whether the current format and contents of [Country Policy...
