In a recent freedom of information request, the S.A.F.E project asked the Home Office for information on how long EU Settlement Scheme administrative reviews are
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is at committee stage in the House of Lords. The Bill as first introduced has several government amendments
The Upper Tribunal has declined to decide a policy challenge to the ten day deadline, and “exceptional circumstances” requirement to extend it, to respond to
Under the EU Settlement Scheme, an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen or their family members, or in some cases former family members, are either granted pre-settled status for
The statement of changes to the immigration rules HC 836, published on 24 June, will amend the definition of “continuous qualifying period” in Annex 1
A new statement of changes to the immigration rules (HC: 836) has been published today and before your adrenaline gets going I can tell you
The Court of Appeal has once again asked the Home Office to please do something about the state of Appendix EU. The context this time
The Court of Appeal has considered in Ackom v SSHD [2025] EWCA Civ 537 an appeal by a German national against deportation. The key point
There is a strong argument that the answer to this question is yes. The Home Office recently conceded a judicial review brought on this basis.
The latest statement of changes to the immigration rules has been published, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum and a ministerial statement. A visa regime has
We recently ran a very helpful webinar on family member applications to the EU Settlement Scheme presented by Chris Benn. Chris leads legal and policy
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Home Secretary’s decision to refuse an application made under Appendix EU by an extended family member who had
The Court of Appeal has said that a child, who is over 21 and has rights of residence based on dependency on their EU citizen
The statistics for the period July to September 2024 have been published today, showing a very large drop in health and care worker visas, a
The Upper Tribunal has dismissed the appeal of an EEA national who was in prison over the Brexit deadline of 31 December 2020 on the
The Court of Appeal has held that where a notice of decision fails to advise an applicant of their right of appeal a refusal in
The High Court has dismissed a challenge to changes made to late applications to the EU Settlement Scheme which removed the right to appeal where
Following the article ‘EU Settlement Scheme: automatic extensions and potential curtailments’, published on 30 July 2024, we are now able to provide a bit more
What protections under EU free movement law does someone with status under the EU Settlement Scheme enjoy if they are facing deportation due to committing
Over the summer, the Home Office published Border Force guidance explaining how those with status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) should be treated when
The Upper Tribunal has held that the Home Office guidance on Zambrano carers is wrong to require decision makers to assess whether a person may
We have recently seen several cases where a person has received a ‘minded to curtail’ notice from the Home Office following the automatic extension of
The court has held that a parent granted a family permit under the EU Settlement Scheme based on assumed dependency must show actual dependency to
It’s the return of the “mystery” stamp! Although the Court of Appeal has come to a different conclusion than the Upper Tribunal did, holding that
The “Pending Prosecutions” section of the EU Settlement Scheme: suitability requirements version 8.0 policy, which provided for applications to be paused where there was a
Excess absences remain a real risk for holders of pre-settled status, with recent changes announced to the EU Settlement Scheme likely to cause more confusion.
The Court of Appeal has, for the third time this year, had to intervene where the Upper Tribunal has failed to do so, in a
The Home Office has published statistics for the period January to March 2024 showing a marked drop in the grant rate for asylum cases, tens
The Upper Tribunal has overturned a decision by the First-tier Tribunal to allow the appeal of a couple who were trying to rely on their
If a European national receives a criminal conviction arising from conduct which took place before the Brexit cut-off date, how can they rely on those
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Upper Tribunal’s decision that those who applied for the wrong type of family permit before the end of
The latest instalment of the Akinsanya litigation, which looks at the entitlement of Zambrano carers to leave under Appendix EU has been decided by the
In the context of British nationality law, EEA citizens residing in the UK from 2 October 2000 continue to not meet the definition of “settled”,
The latest immigration and asylum statistics have been published today. We have highlighted some of the interesting data below on asylum, EU Settlement Scheme, fee
The Home Office has introduced some flexibility for some people who are applying late to the EU Settlement Scheme, after the rules were severely tightened
In Dani (non-removal human rights submissions) Albania [2023] UKUT 293 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has said that an application made under the EU settlement scheme
It is well established that the requirements of procedural fairness will very often require that a person who may be adversely affected by a decision
The Home Office has changed the immigration rules and the guidance on making applications to the EU Settlement Scheme, taking a far more restrictive approach
From 1 October 2023 any claim governed by the Civil Procedure Rules relating to a breach of citizens’ rights under the withdrawal agreements must be
…some parts of the rules relating to the EU Settlement Scheme are so difficult to comprehend that it is at least arguable that they lack
In a recent freedom of information request, the S.A.F.E project asked the Home Office for information on how long EU Settlement Scheme administrative reviews are taking to decide, in light of the ever increasing published processing time. The Home Office’s response shows that four in five applications for administrative review...
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is at committee stage in the House of Lords. The Bill as first introduced has several government amendments made as it completes its passage through Parliament, and so I have detailed those below. I look only at those put forward by the government...
The Upper Tribunal has declined to decide a policy challenge to the ten day deadline, and “exceptional circumstances” requirement to extend it, to respond to a notification that the Home Secretary is considering excluding someone from trafficking protections under the public order disqualification. The challenge to the individual decision was...
Under the EU Settlement Scheme, an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen or their family members, or in some cases former family members, are either granted pre-settled status for five years (as limited leave) or settled status as permanent residence (as indefinite leave). In this article we’ll refer to EU/EEA/Swiss citizens as EU citizens....
The statement of changes to the immigration rules HC 836, published on 24 June, will amend the definition of “continuous qualifying period” in Annex 1 of Appendix EU from 16 July to offer an another way for a pre-settled status holder to complete a five year continuous residence period. The...
A new statement of changes to the immigration rules (HC: 836) has been published today and before your adrenaline gets going I can tell you that unlike some of the more recent ones, there are no immediate changes being made. As ever, the explanatory memorandum is a useful read but...
The Court of Appeal has once again asked the Home Office to please do something about the state of Appendix EU. The context this time was trying to understand what the rules say about the definition of a durable partner. The case is Mustaj v Secretary of State for the...
The Court of Appeal has considered in Ackom v SSHD [2025] EWCA Civ 537 an appeal by a German national against deportation. The key point of contention was whether Mr Ackom would face ‘very significant obstacles to integration’ upon removal to Germany. The court considered the Kamara test in the...
There is a strong argument that the answer to this question is yes. The Home Office recently conceded a judicial review brought on this basis. However, to date, the argument has not been tested in court. The eligibility requirements for entry clearance as a spouse are in Appendix FM of...
The latest statement of changes to the immigration rules has been published, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum and a ministerial statement. A visa regime has been imposed on Trinidad and Tobago with immediate effect, I am pretty sure you can guess why. Details on that and many of the other...
We recently ran a very helpful webinar on family member applications to the EU Settlement Scheme presented by Chris Benn. Chris leads legal and policy work at Seraphus and is an expert in European citizen rights. During the Q&A portion of the webinar, we received so many great questions that...
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Home Secretary’s decision to refuse an application made under Appendix EU by an extended family member who had not first obtained a residence document under the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2016. The case is Emambux v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024]...
The Court of Appeal has said that a child, who is over 21 and has rights of residence based on dependency on their EU citizen parent, does not lose those rights if they start working and are no longer financially dependent on the parent. Essentially, dependency is determined at the...
The statistics for the period July to September 2024 have been published today, showing a very large drop in health and care worker visas, a lesser but still significant drop in students, a fall in the asylum grant rate that doesn’t seem likely to achieve much beyond creating further chaos...
The Upper Tribunal has dismissed the appeal of an EEA national who was in prison over the Brexit deadline of 31 December 2020 on the basis that he was not exercising treaty rights immediately prior to the end of the transition period. The case is Manyo (EEA deportation, Imprisonment at...
The Court of Appeal has held that where a notice of decision fails to advise an applicant of their right of appeal a refusal in breach of the Immigration (Notices) Regulations 2003, the time limit for appealing does not start to run. The consequence of that in this case, R...
The High Court has dismissed a challenge to changes made to late applications to the EU Settlement Scheme which removed the right to appeal where it is not accepted that the applicant had a good reason for applying late (i.e. where the application is rejected as invalid, rather than being...
Following the article ‘EU Settlement Scheme: automatic extensions and potential curtailments’, published on 30 July 2024, we are now able to provide a bit more insight about current curtailment activity under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), gained from stakeholder engagement with the Home Office. Background The Home Office has the...
What protections under EU free movement law does someone with status under the EU Settlement Scheme enjoy if they are facing deportation due to committing a criminal offence after 31 December 2020? This question was considered by the Upper Tribunal in Secretary of State for the Home Department v Vargova...
Over the summer, the Home Office published Border Force guidance explaining how those with status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) should be treated when entering the UK. The guidance also addresses pending EUSS applications and those who may be eligible but have yet to submit an EUSS application (late...
The Upper Tribunal has held that the Home Office guidance on Zambrano carers is wrong to require decision makers to assess whether a person may be able to make an application with a “realistic prospect” of succeeding under Appendix FM. This was the same conclusion reached by the High Court...
We have recently seen several cases where a person has received a ‘minded to curtail’ notice from the Home Office following the automatic extension of their permission under the EU Settlement Scheme. Below we look at what is happening in more detail and what people in this situation should do....
The court has held that a parent granted a family permit under the EU Settlement Scheme based on assumed dependency must show actual dependency to get leave to remain when applying after 1 July 2021. That decision is Secretary of State for the Home Department v Rexhaj [2024] EWCA Civ...
It’s the return of the “mystery” stamp! Although the Court of Appeal has come to a different conclusion than the Upper Tribunal did, holding that while a passport stamp did not amount to a relevant document for Appendix EU purposes, the protection of the Withdrawal Agreement was engaged because of...
The “Pending Prosecutions” section of the EU Settlement Scheme: suitability requirements version 8.0 policy, which provided for applications to be paused where there was a pending prosecution, has been held to be unlawful by the Upper Tribunal. The case is R (Lukasz Krzysztofik) v Secretary of State for the Home...
Excess absences remain a real risk for holders of pre-settled status, with recent changes announced to the EU Settlement Scheme likely to cause more confusion. The changes mean that some people with pre-settled status may see their status automatically upgraded to settled status by the Home Office, while others may...
The Home Office has published statistics for the period January to March 2024 showing a marked drop in the grant rate for asylum cases, tens of thousands of EU Settlement Scheme applications rejected as invalid, and a fee waiver backlog that seems to be rapidly spiralling out of control. My...
The Upper Tribunal has overturned a decision by the First-tier Tribunal to allow the appeal of a couple who were trying to rely on their residence rights under EU law in circumstances where their sponsor had lost his EU citizenship. The case is Secretary of State for the Home Department...
If a European national receives a criminal conviction arising from conduct which took place before the Brexit cut-off date, how can they rely on those previous EU rules in an appeal against deportation? The question is important because of the very large difference in the protections afforded by the previous...
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Upper Tribunal’s decision that those who applied for the wrong type of family permit before the end of the Brexit transition period cannot benefit from the EU Settlement Scheme or the EU Withdrawal Agreement. The decision is Siddiqa v Entry Clearance Officer [2024]...
The latest instalment of the Akinsanya litigation, which looks at the entitlement of Zambrano carers to leave under Appendix EU has been decided by the High Court in Akinsanya & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 469 (Admin). Both appellants...
In the context of British nationality law, EEA citizens residing in the UK from 2 October 2000 continue to not meet the definition of “settled”, unless they held indefinite leave to remain or had acquired permanent residence. This was confirmed last week by the Court of Appeal in R (on...
The latest immigration and asylum statistics have been published today. We have highlighted some of the interesting data below on asylum, EU Settlement Scheme, fee waivers and student and work routes. Asylum As many have been predicting for a while now, the asylum grant rate has dropped substantially in the...
The Home Office has introduced some flexibility for some people who are applying late to the EU Settlement Scheme, after the rules were severely tightened in August last year. The new version 22 of the guidance for caseworkers on the EU Settlement Scheme applies to decisions made from 16 January...
In Dani (non-removal human rights submissions) Albania [2023] UKUT 293 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has said that an application made under the EU settlement scheme does not in itself amount to a human rights claim. This is yet another case where people trying to access their rights under the EU...
It is well established that the requirements of procedural fairness will very often require that a person who may be adversely affected by a decision is given an opportunity to make representations before the decision is taken with a view to producing a favourable result. There is a duty to...
The Home Office has changed the immigration rules and the guidance on making applications to the EU Settlement Scheme, taking a far more restrictive approach to late applications than has been the case previously. The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has updated its guidance to reflect these changes...
From 1 October 2023 any claim governed by the Civil Procedure Rules relating to a breach of citizens’ rights under the withdrawal agreements must be notified to the Independent Monitoring Authority. The authority was set up under the terms of the withdrawal agreements with a duty to investigate breaches of...
…some parts of the rules relating to the EU Settlement Scheme are so difficult to comprehend that it is at least arguable that they lack the clarity of law. An aspect of the definition of a ‘durable partner’ contained in Annex 1 of Appendix EU (definitions) is one such example. ...
