The latest tribunal statistics, published in March 2017, show that the average waiting time for appeals to be heard in the immigration tribunal is now 48 weeks. This is the time between the appeal being lodged and the appeal being promulgated, I understand. The breakdown for different types of appeal...
Welcome to the February 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This episode I start with two major developments, namely the coming into force of new EEA immigration regulations and the judgment of the Supreme Court in the MM case. I run through some Home Office and enforcement...
Official headnote: (i) A decision of the Upper Tribunal refusing to exercise its power to reinstate a judicial review claim which has been struck out may be the subject of an application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal. (ii) Such a decision, given its nature and consequences,...
Important if dealing with cases involving exclusion from the UK: This guidance has been completely re-formatted and deals with the exclusion of both non-Economic European Area (non-EEA) nationals and European Economic Area (EEA) nationals and their family members. It replaces Exclusion decisions and exclusion orders guidance which has been archived....
Theresa May refused to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK but did at least assure them that their situation would be a early negotiating priority. That perhaps was not terribly reassuring given that Theresa May also suggested that everyone should prepare for the UK to crash...
Chowdury and Others v Greece (Application number 21884/15 – the judgment is only available in French. An English-language press summary is available.) The European Court of Human Rights has found that strawberry-pickers in Greece were subjected to forced labour. The Court found that the authorities failed to prevent forced labour...
Official headnote: (i) In cases involving convictions for an offence for which the person was sentenced to a period of imprisonment of less than 4 years, the Secretary of State’s policy, as expressed in paragraph 391(a) of the Immigration Rules, is that the public interest does not require continuation of...
A few months ago a group of UK volunteer immigration lawyers, together with the support of ILPA (Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association) set up the Athens Legal Support Project, a 4 month pilot to run from 10 April through to July 2017 to provide legal advice and support to refugees and...
In this thoughtful and full exploration of refugee law, nationality and statelessness Eric Fripp explores some interesting and underdeveloped themes. Added to his earlier and excellent work from 2015, The Law and Practice of Expulsion and Exclusion from the United Kingdom, Eric is establishing himself as pre-eminent in this important...
Most Home Office application forms are accompanied with guidance explaining how to make a valid application, and the EEA(PR) application form is no different. While the EEA(PR) form was last updated in March 2016 the guidance accompanying that form was last updated in December 2015 and so an update has...
Official headnote: (1) The expression “self-serving” is, to a large extent, a protean one. The expression itself tells us little or nothing. What is needed is a reason, however brief, for that designation. For example, a letter written by a third party to an applicant for international protection may be...
In a controversial determination, the President of the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber, Mr Justice McCloskey, has found that the Home Office has wrongly issued British passports to hundreds or even thousands of children of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens born in the UK before 2 October 2000. The...
Shortly after Christmas in 2009, a young woman from Somalia flew into Stanstead and claimed asylum. She had just turned 18. As later accepted by the Home Office, she had experienced severe depredations in her home country. This included her rape at the age of six in the presence of...
The case is UK v Banger C-89/17. Text of the reference here: Do the principles contained in the decision in Immigration Appeal Tribunal and Surinder Singh, ex parte Secretary of State for the Home Department (Case C-370/90) [1992] operate so as to require a Member State to issue or, alternatively,...
There is an excellent report out today by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees about the problems faced when a refugee is granted refugee status following an asylum claim. Essentially, central government asylum support and accommodation is immediately terminated and local authority support takes time to become available. This...
The Home Office is now advising EU nationals to sign up for Government email alerts rather than applying for residence documents as proof of status. The guidance was issued on 7 April 2017 and is a tacit admission that the Home Office is overwhelmed by applications from EU citizens and...
Official headnote: (I) The settlement of migrant Turkish nationals and their family members does not fall within the scope of the “stand-still clause” in Article 41(1) of the Ankara Agreement (ECAA) Additional Protocol as it is not necessary for the exercise of freedom of establishment under Article 13. Thus the...
The case of R (Majera) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] UKUT 163 (IAC) is a thoughtful judgment from the Upper Tribunal giving helpful guidance on the legal status of a First-tier Tribunal bail decision which may have an error on its face. It may be helpful...
Operation Nexus was officially launched in November 2012, a law enforcement initiative aimed at deporting more ‘high harm’ foreign nationals. It has been criticised on many occasions for its opacity, and the lack of any publicly available policies which govern its implementation. See, for example, our previous post: Operation Nexus...
Official headnote: (I) The question of whether the Secretary of State has made a decision on the exercise of the discretionary power in Article 17 of the Dublin Regulation is one of fact which will be determined on the basis of evidence, direct or inferential. (II) Article 17 is an...
Welcome to the January 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This episode I start with a few EU law issues, including whether the Home Office can force EU citizens and family members to use the official application forms and the position of EU citizen spouses of British...
Well, that did not take long. The Court of Appeal has in the case of NE-A (Nigeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 239 decided that the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Hesham Ali [2016] UKSC 60 is confined to cases in which the Immigration...
UK Migration Lawyers is excited to be seeking an immigration caseworker to join its Birmingham based team. We are seeking a candidate with immigration law experience who is passionate, organised, self-motivated and who want to show their abilities in this fast paced and challenging environment. This position is an excellent...
The “Liberal” Democrats are apparently calling for President Assad’s wife to be deprived of her British citizenship. I am loathe to refer to anyone as “x person’s wife” but this seems to be exactly the basis for the deprivation of citizenship: that she is President Assad’s wife. The remainder of...
Interesting, given that the UK is now doing exactly the opposite by taking away driving licences for migrants with no status (and some who do have status but where the Home Office makes a mistake): States that let unauthorized immigrants get driver’s licenses make their roads safer for all, a...
Looks like an unusually helpful guide to the technical aspects of immigration applications: This guidance is for decision makers and describes how to decide whether an application for leave to remain in the UK is valid, and what to do if it is not. It also describes how an applicant...
The case of Akinyemi v SSHD [2017] EWCA Civ 236 concerns the deportation of a man born and raised in the United Kingdom, a country he has never left. It provides valuable guidance on the meaning of the word ‘unlawful’ within the context of deportation provisions introduced by the Immigration...
After that, targets increased to the point that almost everything became subservient to the end-decision. We were set a target of 220 “units” a year. Only an interview or a decision would count as a unit – any casework would not. If I had to call social services because I...
In the judicial review case of Ayache, R (on the application of) v SSHD (paragraph 353 and s94B relationship) [2017] UKUT 122 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal considers the lawfulness of a decision to certify a human rights claim under s.94B Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. For those not already...
The facts behind the case are notorious; the law elucidated is notable. See the background legal discussion on the history of citizenship laws, the process behind deprivation, the relevance of the best interests of affected children and the relevance (or rather lack of it) of EU law at paragraphs 26...
The question of what rights are enjoyed by an EU citizen who naturalises as a British citizen and becomes a dual citizen has become a critically important one in the context of Brexit. There is huge uncertainty amongst EU citizens and their family members living in the UK about their...
In Butt v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 184 the Court of Appeal considers the weight to be given to the relationship between parents and their adult dependent children in the Article 8 balancing exercise. It is notable – and this was the principal reason...
Two interesting and important legal points emerge from the Upper Tribunal’s determination in SF and others (Guidance, post-2014 Act) [2017] UKUT 120 (IAC). The first is on the issue of when, if at all, a British child might be required by immigration policy to leave the UK and the second...
