The Government has confirmed that the Immigration Skills Charge will be set at £1,000 per year per migrant worker sponsored under Tier 2 of the Points Based System. A lower rate will apply for small businesses and charities. On 21 March 2016 in a House of Lords debate on the...
I recently made a partially successful Freedom of Information request on waiting times for different types of EEA residence documents. The information for the whole of 2015 taken as an average was released but not more recent information on current waiting times in 2016. The waiting times were as follows:...
I have belatedly updated my Surinder Singh ebook, which is now available for purchase or to be downloaded by previous customers who created a user account at the time of purchase. There are some quite significant changes and additions. I no longer recommend to clients that they should use the...
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights today published a Memorandum addressed to the UK Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, in which he condemns the use of anti migrant language and rhetoric by Ministers including David Cameron and Theresa May, criticises discriminatory and disproportionate measures against migrants and expresses disappointment...
Very upsetting news on Saturday from the French lawyers in the migrant camp in Calais. You can donate here to show solidarité. Today, March 17th 2016, just prior to 6 p.m., an arson attack was committed against the wooden cabin occupied by the Calais Appeal Legal Centre. This wooden cabin, built...
An interesting set of draft Council conclusions on convergence in asylum decision practices obtained by Statewatch sets out a roadmap towards greater consistency in asylum decision making. There is a lot of work to do on this front, as shown by IRIN in their excellent and infographic heavy piece Playing the EU asylum...
In an interesting but almost impenetrable judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union gives some guidance on procedural protections available to those bringing challenges to EU law decisions which adversely affect them. The case is Benalla v Belgium C‑161/15. The point that arose was a fairly obscure one. Mr Benalla,...
Big increase to fees for immigration judicial review applications from 21 March 2016. See paragraph 4 of the Civil Proceedings, Family Proceedings and Upper Tribunal Fees (Amendment) Order 2016: (a) for the entry corresponding to fee 2.1 (application on notice where no other fee is specified) for “£80” substitute “£255”; (b)...
Just a quick catch up post to alert readers to the Government’s response to the damning report by James Ewins, published on 17 December 2015, and developments since then. The review concluded that the Coalition Government’s amendments to the Immigration Rules on overseas domestic workers exposed them to enhanced risk...
The fantastic organisation Right to Remain have published their Toolkit for migrants seeking to understand and defend their legal position in the UK. It is a great resource and I can highly recommend it: The Right to Remain Toolkit is a guide to the UK immigration and asylum system. It gives...
This guide is intended for tenants and those advising individuals in the private rented sector. This includes those currently renting as well as those seeking a property to rent. It is intended as a guide to ensure that tenants and practitioners understand: The background to the ‘right to rent’ scheme...
Encouragement and incitement is sufficient for a refugee to fall within the exclusion clauses of the Refugee Convention, the tribunal has held: For a person to be excluded from refugee protection under Article 1F(c) of the Refugee Convention on the basis that they knowingly incited and encouraged acts contrary to...
The tribunal has held, inevitably, that the statutory human rights considerations apply to children as well as adults, although other considerations must also be taken into account: (i) In section 117B(1)-(5) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 parliament has made no distinction between adult and child immigrants. (ii) The factors...
Family life can be precarious even though Parliament forgot to mention it in the statutory considerations on Article 8. Or The Home Office May Have Its Cake And Eat It. That “precariousness” is a criterion of relevance to family life as well as private life cases is an established part...
A date stamp in a passport or travel document does not confer ILR in cases of returning residents, the Upper Tribunal has held in an interesting case. The facts make it all the more interesting: it involves a recognised refugee from Libya who had returned to live in that country...
The tribunal is sticking to its guns on whether a human rights claim must meet the paragraph 353 test for fresh claims in order to give rise to a right of appeal: 1. Notwithstanding the amendments brought about by the Immigration Act 2014 to the types of decisions appealable under...
What requirements does a Tier 4 student need to meet if his or her college loses its sponsor licence whilst they wait for a decision on an application to extend their stay? In this case, the student received a letter telling him that the Home Office had suspended a decision...
UPDATE: overturned by the Court of Appeal in R (On the Application Of Raza) (Pakistan) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 807. R (on the application of Raza) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Bail – conditions – variation – Article 9 ECHR)...
A new set of Immigration Rules has been laid in Statement of Changes HC877. The changes take effect on 6 April 2016. You can access the explanatory notes or the full rules or both together. There are a LOT of changes. Stand out features include: Those with a “litigation debt” to...
The result of this reference on the free movement rights of EEA citizens who naturalise as British and thus become dual citizens will be very interesting and important. The transitional provisions in Schedule 3 to the Immigration (EEA) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 are fiendishly complex, although perhaps ultimately irrelevant in the greater scheme...
The “right to rent” scheme and legislation refers to a mysterious “permission to rent” which can be granted by the Secretary of State, presumably to those who do not otherwise possess the right to rent. Section 21(3) of the Immigration Act 2014 reads: But P is to be treated as...
Is it unlawful for the UK to curtail the visas of Japanese nationals? Maybe. Maybe not. See Article 3(3) of the Treaty of Commerce, Establishment and Navigation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan (14 November 1962): Any conditions as to the duration of his...
The Free Movement blog has turned nine; the first blog post was published on 7 March 2007. In the last nine years the blog has received over 6.3 million page views. The single most popular blog post was about Paddington Bear (109,429) but in a depressing sign of the times...
The Annual Report of the tribunal system has been published. The review of the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber review starts at page 74. The First-tier report tells of long waits caused by fluctuations in caseload, a long-term change from salaried to fee-paid judges and with it a loss...
The document entitled Guidance on how Syrian nationals in the UK can extend their visa based on the concessions to the Immigration Rules was updated on 29 February 2016. Essentially, it allows Syrians in the UK as Tier 4 or short term students, family members of Points-Bused System migrants, visitors...
An unannounced inspection of short term detention facilities for refugees and migrants crossing the Channel into the UK has revealed that hundreds, including many children, have been held in “wholly unacceptable” and insanitary conditions. Many were held in a disused freight shed and forced to sleep on concrete floors, with no...
Abdul (section 55 – Article 24(3) Charter : Nigeria) [2016] UKUT 106 (IAC) is a case involving a Nigerian national aged 41 who had resided in the UK for 25 years and who had two British daughters aged 11 and 13. He had acquired a permanent right of residence under EU law. He was a serial […]
...The case of G and H v Upper Tribunal and SSHD [2016] EWHC 239 (Admin) is notable as the first reported case of a successful substantive Cart JR against a decision of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) refusing permission to appeal from the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) to the Upper Tribunal...
UPDATE: for the fees for 2017-18 see here. The Home Office first proposed and is now going ahead with a massive 25% increase in already high immigration application fees for families for the year 2016-17. The changes will be implemented on 18 March 2016 rather than the usual date of 6 April. Family and...
A welcome effort by the Home Office to explain and encourage Tier 4 student applications: The UK recognises the important contribution international students make, and welcomes those who wish to study at our world-class institutions. This leaflet is designed to provide you with some information about the Tier 4 visa routes...
The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, has published a new report which is highly critical of Home Office complaint handling. The findings echo those of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman from November 2015. Bolt and his team find “considerable room for improvement” in many respects. For...
The new HM Chief Inspector of Prisons is not holding his punches. Peter Clarke’s first report is on the Harmondsworth detention camp used for short and long term detention of migrants near Heathrow airport. In an unannounced inspection his team found “appalling” and “desolate” conditions for detainees. You can access...
Open justice is one of the most crucial features of a free state. In weighing up individual cases, courts have sometimes decided that open justice shoud give way to other, equally necessary, ideals. For instance, national security won the day in the Court of Appeal decision in the Erol Incedal case. This...
Further to the decision of Blake J in the case of Gheorghiu (reg 24AA EEA Regs – relevant factors) [2016] UKUT 24 (IAC) (FM post: Upper Tribunal considers when EEA nationals should be readmitted to UK to attend own deportation appeal hearings) the Upper Tribunal has returned to the issue of the readmission of...
This text is based on a talk given by Sonel on 24 February 2016 at an ILPA event on family immigration law. Since 2012, family immigration in UK has taken a particularly nasty turn, even where and maybe especially where, the sponsor is a British citizen. There was Quila, interfering...
Official headnote: Much of the guidance given in AM & BM (Trafficked women) Albania CG [2010] UKUT 80 (IAC) is maintained. Where that guidance has been amended or supplemented by this decision it has been highlighted in bold: “a) It is not possible to set out a typical profile of trafficked women from Albania:...
