All Articles: Family immigration

What happens when relationships breakdown on the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) route?

The Home Office has recently updated its guidance to clarify that leave under the Hong Kong BN(O) route cannot be cancelled because of relationship breakdown. Background Like most other immigration routes, a dependent spouse/ partner under the Hong Ko ...

1st December 2023 By

Making sense of sole responsibility for child visas in immigration law

The “sole responsibility” immigration test comes into play where one of the parents of a child is relocating to the United Kingdom and one parent remains abroad. The United Kingdom’s immigration rules effectively presume that a child ...

15th November 2023 By

Refugee family reunion: a user’s guide

This post is intended for refugees (including those with humanitarian protection), their families and their friends trying to understand the rules on refugee family reunion. The requirements to be met are fairly straightforward and simple for chi ...

7th September 2023 By

How to apply for a UK spouse or partner visa

Spouses and partners of British citizens or people settled in the UK can apply for a visa to join or remain with their loved ones. These applications are dealt with by the Home Office under the immigration rules. Specifically, the part of the rules th ...

5th September 2023 By

Getting an adult dependent relative visa is hard but not impossible

Adult dependent relative visas have one of the highest refusal rates of all immigration routes. Between 2017 and 2020, 96% of applications were refused. In this article I look at why these applications often go wrong and what you can do to try make th ...

29th August 2023 By

What are the financial requirements for UK spouse and partner visas?

The Appendix FM minimum income requirements for spouse and partner visas can catch out even those with enough money to meet them. Having the money only takes you so far: the income must come from a specific source, must be calculated in a certain way, ...

21st August 2023 By

Manufacturing risk: the exclusionary effect of positive discretion in the family immigration rules

The immigration rules are full of harsh general rules accompanied by potential exceptions. These exceptions require a subjective judgment to be made and they make the rules complex. They also manufacture risk for applicants, making the outcome of immi ...

9th May 2023 By

Exceptional circumstances in a spouse or partner visa application under Appendix FM

In other posts we have looked at the requirements to be satisfied by a spouse or partner who seek leave to enter or remain. Under Appendix FM, the sponsor can be a British citizen, a settled person, a refugee, or someone with humanitarian protection, ...

5th April 2023 By

New Appendix Adult Dependent Relative immigration rules

The adult dependent relative rules have been buried in Appendix FM since their inception on 9 July 2012. From 1 June 2023, they have been transposed into their own standalone Appendix Adult Dependent Relative. The new appendix was announced in the 9 M ...

17th March 2023 By

All families matter: An inquiry into family migration

The scandal of asylum-seeking children going missing from Home Office hotels (Ministers resist terms such as ‘kidnapped’) is an extreme situation. But they are not the only children suffering at the hands of the UK’s migration policies. The Lord ...

7th March 2023 By

A modest proposal for reforming the immigration system: shorten key immigration routes

The Home Office is not beloved as an institution. Some consider it necessary. But no-one likes it. That seems to include not just migrants and their families but also many of the civil servants at the Home Office itself, the lawyers and judges who int ...

30th January 2023 By

Developments in third party financial support for spouse or partner visa applications

The minimum income requirement for a spouse or partner visa is well known. Broadly speaking, applicants must show that their sponsor has a gross annual income of at least £18,600. Alternatively, they can rely on savings or, if they are already in th ...

15th November 2022 By

Indefinite leave to remain applications under Appendix FM: slow, expensive and inaccessible

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published a new report reviewing the Home Office’s processing of family visas, with a focus on indefinite leave to remain applications. It highlights that despite the findings of the Law ...

24th October 2022 By

Can Ukrainians take refuge in the UK? The Ukraine Family Scheme and other routes

The Home Office has put in place some immigration concessions and special visa schemes in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This includes the very important Ukraine Family Scheme. The department’s “core plan” ...

20th October 2022 By

Dependency under EU law: education as an essential living need

In the recent case of Singh v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1054; [2022] 7 WLUK 328, the Court of Appeal turned its attention back to the EU law concept of “dependency”. The appeal was brought by an extended fa ...

20th September 2022 By

A decade of lost care and relationships for generations: the need for a post pandemic review of the Adult Dependent Rules

The pandemic threw into sharp focus the overlooked and marginalised needs of the frail and bereaved elderly parents applying to be regarded as part of their settled families in the UK. The 2012 version of the Adult Dependent Rules for adult parents, s ...

12th August 2022 By

Top tips for making refugee family reunion applications outside the normal rules

The current immigration rules on when a refugee may be joined by family members — often referred to as refugee family reunion — are woefully outdated and simply do not reflect the nature of modern families. Reform is long overdue. But in the meant ...

10th August 2022 By

Home Office offering extensions to people denied settlement

The Home Office has published guidance on when officials should vary an application for indefinite leave to remain and instead grant an extension of permission to stay (i.e. limited leave to remain). The stated rationale is to ensure that people who a ...

6th July 2022 By

Free family visas: the entry clearance fee waiver policy

The Home Office has published guidance on fee waivers for entry clearance applications (in other words, when it is possible to get a visa for free). This is important as the fees are set at a level that is prohibitive for many families. The waiver app ...

30th June 2022 By

Home Office policy on no recourse to public funds found unlawful, again

The High Court has declared that Home Office policy on allowing migrants to have access to public funds is unlawful for failing to take account of the best interests of children, or of a previous judgment along similar lines. The case is R (AB & o ...

27th June 2022 By

No change to settlement rules for Zambrano carers despite Akinsanya judgment

Zambrano carers who already have permission to stay in the UK under the Immigration Rules cannot use the EU Settlement Scheme as a fast track to permanent residence, the Home Office has confirmed. The department announced today that it would not be ch ...

13th June 2022 By

New statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 1220 (Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine)

The Home Office is writing two special visa schemes for Ukrainians into the Immigration Rules and adding a third for people already here. Statement of changes HC 1220 codifies the existing Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme (described ...

30th March 2022 By

How come my Ukraine Scheme visa doesn’t last three years as promised?

As a result of the almost aggressively complex way our immigration system works, not just in law but procedure as well, Ukrainians applying under the Ukraine Family Scheme or Homes for Ukraine may appear to be granted less time in the UK than they wer ...

29th March 2022 By

Statement of changes HC 1118: new family and private life rules

On 9 July 2022, the first people granted permission to stay under the ten-year private and family life routes will start to qualify for indefinite leave to remain. Now, just in time for that anniversary, the Home Office has introduced what it describ ...

17th March 2022 By

Dependent relatives to get EU Settlement Scheme family permits

The UK’s agreements on the post-Brexit rights of EU, EFTA and Swiss residents allow beneficiaries to sponsor their non-European family members to live with them in the UK. There are broadly two types of eligible family members: direct family mem ...

8th November 2021 By

Early settlement concession for young people living half their lives in the UK

Some young people born or brought up in the UK without immigration status can now apply for settlement after five years rather than ten. The change in policy comes in a new and very welcome Home Office concession, published yesterday. What follows is ...

26th October 2021 By

The 180-day absence rule doesn’t apply to people with a spouse or partner visa

Many UK immigration categories impose a requirement that the visa holder must not be outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period — that is, if the person wants to apply for indefinite leave to remain. Joanna and Nath have explor ...

30th September 2021 By

Did the Home Office inadvertently strengthen the rights of Zambrano carers in 2018?

In Velaj (EEA Regulations – interpretation; Reg 16(5); Zambrano) [2021] UKUT 235 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal looked at whether the Home Office accidentally liberalised the regulations on when the primary carer of a British child can be removed from ...

22nd September 2021 By

Briefing: to Zambrano or not to Zambrano?

The important case of Akinsanya, which we introduced in these articles, has opened the door for many non-European primary carers of British citizens to now apply for residence rights under the EU Settlement Scheme. There are many advantages to doing s ...

22nd June 2021 By

Latest on Zambrano carers and the EU Settlement Scheme

On 9 June, in the case of Akinsanya, the High Court found that the definition of Zambrano carers in the rules for the EU Settlement Scheme was wrong, insofar as it prevented those with permission to remain under another part of the Immigration Rules f ...

21st June 2021 By

Getting permission to remain in the UK as an adult dependent relative: not likely

Since the introduction of highly restrictive rules for adult dependent relatives there have been numerous stories, all desperately sad, of parents trying and failing to join or remain with their children in the UK. Mobeen v Secretary of State for the ...

16th June 2021 By

High Court finds the EU Settlement Scheme rules for Zambrano carers unlawful

In a welcome judgment handed down yesterday, R (Akinsanya) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1535 (Admin), Mr Justice Mostyn found in no uncertain terms that Zambrano carers do not lose their EU law right to reside just because ...

10th June 2021 By

Sponsor changing job is not a reason to refuse a spouse visa

If you meet the financial requirements of Appendix FM at the date of application but your sponsor then leaves their job, do you still qualify for a spouse visa? Yes, the Upper Tribunal found in Begum (employment income; Rules/Article 8) [2021] UKUT 11 ...

20th May 2021 By

Windrush family priced out of UK win human rights challenge

In this edition of “have I got immigration news for you”, we look at the case of Mahabir v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1177 (Admin), in which the High Court found that the Home Office had caused a “colossal interferenc ...

11th May 2021 By

Fresh blow to “no recourse to public funds” scheme

Rules restricting migrants’ access to benefits are back in the spotlight following a new High Court decision, which found that aspects of the “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) scheme fail to protect the rights of children. The case of ...

4th May 2021 By
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