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On Friday 15 June, a new statement of changes was laid. Rather atypically, many of the changes are welcome news! All changes will come into force on 6 July 2018, although some only apply to applications made after that date. As always, practitioners are encouraged to read the new rules...

18th June 2018
BY Nath Gbikpi

Less than two months into the job, Sajid Javid appears to be, so far, quite a pragmatic Home Secretary. Following six months of the Tier 2 cap wreaking havoc amongst employers and users of the Points Based System, resulting in the NHS losing out on hiring over 2,300 doctors, the...

18th June 2018
BY Joanna Hunt

The Home Secretary has today laid a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules to exempt doctors and nurses from the limit on visas for skilled non-EU workers. Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, announced in a press release that “there will be no restriction on the numbers...

15th June 2018
BY CJ McKinney

Free Movement contributor Bilaal Shabbir is organising an Immigration Law Masterclass Conference in Edinburgh on 7 September 2018. The all-day event follows on from last year’s Brexit conference held in Glasgow. The conference will attract 5 CPD points and include the following topics: Dos & Don’ts in the Tribunal: An...

15th June 2018
BY Free Movement

In the case of R (Wandzel) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Rev 1) [2018] EWHC 1371 (Admin), Nigel Poole QC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, had to deal with the effect of the famous case of Kiarie and Byndloss (discussed on Free Movement here) for...

15th June 2018
BY Nath Gbikpi

Revised Practice Statements for the First-tier and Upper immigration tribunals have been published by the Senior President of Tribunals, Sir Ernest Ryder. They took effect on 11 June 2018 and replace the previous version from November 2014. The new document is almost identical to the old. There appears to be...

14th June 2018
BY CJ McKinney

Baigazieva v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1088 is about what happens to a non-EEA citizen spouse if they divorce their EEA citizen partner. Article 13(2) of the Citizens Rights Directive 2004 lays down a set of criteria on how the non-EEA citizen can retain...

14th June 2018
BY Alex Schymyck

Almost half the recommendations made by the independent immigration inspector over the last three years have not been followed by the Home Office, the inspector’s annual report shows. David Bolt’s survey of the 2017/18 financial year says that while only a small minority (4%) of his recommendations since May 2015...

14th June 2018
BY CJ McKinney

The recent case of Inga Lockton is the most high-profile recent example of growing problems that EU citizens and their families face with applying for British citizenship. Ms Lockton lived in the UK for 39 years, was married to a British citizen and had British children. She was elected a...

14th June 2018
BY Colin Yeo

With London Tech Week upon us, Sajid Javid today announced the introduction of a new “start-up” visa route for entrepreneurs looking to set up businesses in the UK. According to one part of the announcement, it will replace the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) route from spring 2019, although another part...

13th June 2018
BY Nick Nason

Most unaccompanied child asylum seekers and refugees will be “children in need” for the purposes of the Children Act 1989. So the issue of whether or not local authorities have properly exercised their duties to provide accommodation and care frequently arises for this vulnerable group. In R (KI) v London...

13th June 2018
BY Sophie Caseley

I was appalled to see Saturday’s footage of the violence directed against the police in central London by protesters demonstrating against the imprisonment of Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist jailed for contempt of court last month. The police were outnumbered and had to retreat, a baying mob pursuing them. I...

12th June 2018
BY Darren Stevenson

The Court of Session has refused to make a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg to determine whether the UK’s notice that it is leaving the EU under Article 50 can be cancelled. Given that the subject matter involved “the most contentious and political...

11th June 2018
BY Iain Halliday

Welcome to the April 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This was the month that the Windrush scandal came to a head, so I start by focusing on the fallout from that before looking at an issue that would otherwise have led this update: more law firms...

8th June 2018
BY Colin Yeo

A Church of England bishop accused of committing crimes against humanity during the Rwandan genocide has won an appeal by the Home Office challenging his right to settle in the UK. The case is Secretary of State for the Home Department v Ruhumuliza [2018] EWCA Civ 1178. The legal points...

7th June 2018
BY CJ McKinney

Just a few days ago Thomas Beamont wrote on this blog about the Court of Appeal’s decision in Mwesezi v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1104 in which the court upheld a decision to deport a foreign criminal. In Secretary of State for the Home...

6th June 2018
BY Iain Halliday

Today marked a big step in the advancement of the rights of same-sex couples. Following a reference made to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by the Romanian Constitutional Court, the CJEU has ruled that “spouses” in Directive 2004/38 include same-sex spouses. The case is C-673/16 Relu...

5th June 2018
BY Nath Gbikpi

On 14 February 2018 the Home Affairs committee of MPs published a rather critical report on the Home Office delivery of Brexit, which Nick promptly summarised in a post at the time. The government’s response to the report was published on 25 May. A lot of it is not news,...

5th June 2018
BY Nath Gbikpi

In October 2011 the Home Office amended the Immigration Rules to allow immigration applications to be refused where the NHS had notified the Secretary of State of an outstanding debt of £1,000 or more. In early 2017, this figure was reduced to £500, hot on the heels of the Immigration...

4th June 2018
BY John Vassiliou

In ZN (Afghanistan) and KA (Iraq) [2018] EWCA Civ 1059, the Court of Appeal considered the tricky issue of costs in public law cases, in a scenario where the appeals were withdrawn following consent orders. The main points The judgment is interesting for three reasons: it summarises various authorities on...

4th June 2018
BY Gabriella Bettiga

The test for an Article 8 claim to stay in the UK within the Immigration Rules is whether there are “insurmountable obstacles” to continuing family life outside the UK. But even if an applicant does pass this test, there is a further hurdle: whether removal is disproportionate. An important question...

1st June 2018
BY Paul Erdunast

Government proposals aimed at stamping out discrimination in British nationality law are welcome but do not go far enough, a parliamentary committee said today. A new report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights argues that discrimination on the grounds of a parent’s gender or marital status will persist in...

31st May 2018
BY CJ McKinney

Today the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down a decision in the case of C-647/16 Adil Hassan v Prefet du Pas-de-Calais concerning the Dublin III Regulation. The press summary is here. Practitioners will be well aware how intricate and complex the provisions of the Dublin III regulations...

31st May 2018
BY Bilaal Shabbir

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, whose Tier 1 Investor visa is apparently subject to processing delays, has reportedly been granted Israeli citizenship. The media coverage of the Russian billionaire’s visa woes heavily implies that this is to ensure that he can continue travelling to the UK despite no longer...

31st May 2018
BY Nichola Carter

Back in January, we wrote about the case of Dr Syed Kazmi, a foreign doctor due to be removed from the UK because of a “HMRC tax issue” disqualifying him from settlement. Since then, many more refusals of settlement applications by highly skilled migrants — declined because of discrepancies between...

30th May 2018
BY Nath Gbikpi

For members of the Windrush generation or others with a right to be in the UK but no documents to conclusively prove that, the government’s “hostile environment” policy has vastly upped the stakes. But at the heart of many of the problems faced by members of the Windrush generation lies...

30th May 2018
BY Tim Buley

The European Court of Human Rights took a strict approach to non-exhaustion of domestic remedies in the case of Khaksar v United Kingdom (application no. 2654/18), decided last month. The message to potential applicants is clear: all domestic remedies need to be exhausted. That includes applying for permission for judicial...

29th May 2018
BY Clare Duffy

Buried in the government’s official reply to a recent report of the Home Affairs committee of MPs is the following nugget: We keep all our Immigration Rules under review, and respond to feedback from applicants and other interested parties where appropriate. For example, in January 2018 we implemented re-written rules...

29th May 2018
BY CJ McKinney

R (Eroje) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 1010 (Admin) is a shocking story of Home Office incompetence which led to the unnecessary and unlawful detention of someone who had made repeated attempts to leave the UK voluntarily. Ms Eroje is a Nigerian national and spent...

29th May 2018
BY Alex Schymyck

What started as a minor aberration has now turned into a worrying trend. The Home Office confirmed on 24 May that we have hit the monthly cap on visas for skilled non-EU workers for the sixth month in a row. On top of that, Freedom of Information data shows that...

25th May 2018
BY Joanna Hunt

The Court of Appeal upholding a decision to deport a foreign criminal is hardly front-page news at the moment. But Mwesezi v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1104 throws up some interesting reminders about how to approach Strasbourg jurisprudence in this area. The appellant is...

25th May 2018
BY Thomas Beamont

The Home Office has announced a formal application process for victims of the Windrush scandal and other long-term residents to get documents proving their right to live in the UK. The “Windrush Scheme” will go live on 30 May, replacing a helpline that was set up under Amber Rudd. Instead...

24th May 2018
BY CJ McKinney

The number of people removed from the UK by the Home Office is at its lowest level in well over a decade, new statistics show. Fewer than 7,000 migrants were recorded as leaving the UK under either an enforced or voluntary Home Office scheme in January-March 2018 — the lowest...

24th May 2018
BY CJ McKinney

The Court of Appeal in R (Joshi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1108 has decided that a claim is a human rights claim if in substance, regardless of form, it is a human rights claim. Ms Joshi had applied to extend her leave to...

24th May 2018
BY Paul Erdunast

Yet another procedural change to update you on. This one took effect on 14 May 2018 and is about the time limit for appeals to the Upper Tribunal. Basically the clock starts ticking on the date that written reasons are sent out — not the date on which they are...

23rd May 2018
BY CJ McKinney

It’s been a little quiet on the Brexit front recently, but negotiations started up again this week. The talks don’t cover the status of EU migrants living in the UK, as the legal text on that was agreed in March. That agreement is at the mercy of an overall breakdown...

23rd May 2018
BY CJ McKinney
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