A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published today, 7 March 2019. It is 294 pages long and covers a lot of ground. The main changes are to Tier 1 entrepreneur and investment visas, and to the EU Settlement Scheme. This requires, inevitably, a new appendix to the...
Over the next 12 months, the government will be rolling out a whole package of measures designed to enhance the UK’s global image. These will include both new and relaxed immigration options for innovators, tech experts, scientists, researchers, artists and sportspersons. The Home Office’s approach to visiting artists and sportspersons...
Bhandari & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 129 considered some fairly elderly Upper Tribunal case law on fairness and the Points Based System, and in particular a decision of Mr Justice Blake in Patel (Revocation of Sponsor Licence: Fairness: India) [2011] UKUT 211 (IAC). Unfortunately...
The government recently published information about arrangements for EU citizens who move to the UK after the UK leaves the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The proposals would mean that EU (and EEA) national children who move to the UK between the date the UK leaves the...
For reasons that don’t appear to have been explained anywhere, at least not that I can find, the Home Office has made significant changes to the definition of a professional sportsperson. This is important because a prohibition on performing activities as a professional sportsperson is a condition of most UK...
The Court of Appeal has reluctantly but unanimously agreed with the Home Office’s decision to refuse a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) application for further leave to remain based on a factual issue of specified documents not being submitted. It rejected arguments that evidential flexibility should apply. The case is Harpreet Singh...
There is so much in the immigration white paper, publishedjust before Christmas, that sounds pretty good for employers. But if the sponsorship system is to cope when extended to cover skilled workers arriving from the EU, a huge amount of work will be needed to simplify it. The white paper confirms...
There is one, overwhelming, message from the immigration White Paper published on 19 December. It is mentioned in the Foreword by the Prime Minister, and the Foreword from the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The aims of the White Paper are: to bring an end to free movement...
The government has published its plan spelling the end of free movement. A long-awaited white paper on post-Brexit migration proposes that EU workers would in future have to earn a minimum salary in a job requiring A-level qualifications or above to be sponsored for a UK work visa. “Low-skilled” workers...
A statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published today, 11 December 2018. The main changes are to introduce the pilot scheme for short-term agricultural workers that was announced earlier this year, and to expand the domestic violence settlement scheme to cover refugees. The more fundamental changes to Tier...
The Home Office has rowed back last week’s announcement that the Tier 1 (Investor) route was suspended with near-immediate effect. It was widely reported last Thursday that the route would be closed to new applications from midnight the next day due to concerns over money laundering, but the department provided...
We expected a full statement of changes to the Immigration Rules to be laid before Parliament yesterday but instead we got a statement about the statement. The immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, gave us a sneak preview of a range of tweaks to the rules that will be laid “shortly”. The...
R (Liral Veget Training And Recruitment Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 2941 (Admin) was a challenge to the Home Office’s decision to revoke a company’s licence to sponsor non-EU citizens for work visas. It failed. The case was about the Tier 2 (General) visas issued...
To go along with the private jet and luxury yacht, the current ‘must-have’ for a discerning multi-millionaire seems to be a range of international passports. The phenomenon of citizenship by investment has emerged over the last few decades and developed into a billion dollar industry. These “CIP” schemes enable the super-rich...
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was laid on 10 October 2018. There is some very welcome news, including more flexibility given to caseworkers on whether and when they can write to applicants to ask for missing documents. (Whether they will in practice or still refuse for minor...
In the case of Pathan & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA 2103 the Court of Appeal reminds us, once again, of the rigidity and inflexibility of the Points Based System. It is also a good reminder of the purpose and policy behind the Tier 2...
After months of uncertainty we finally have a picture emerging of what the post-Brexit immigration system will look like. We have known for some time that after we leave the EU on 29 March 2019, the plan is to enter a transition period until 31 December 2020 which will see...
Today’s Migration Advisory Committee recommendations are incredibly significant from a UK employer’s perspective. I can immediately see that a huge number of UK employers are likely to be faced with potentially significant new administrative burdens if the recommendations are implemented. The vast majority of UK employers have little or nothing to...
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published its long-awaited research into migration from the EU and how it should be managed after Brexit. The report will disappoint advocates of a fairly liberal regime, recommending as it does that if there is no specific agreement with the EU on migration, there...
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott delivered a speech today on what Labour in government would do about immigration. It doesn’t do to get too excited about these pronouncements, because Labour is not in government, but here is a link to the full text and a few highlights. Labour wants to...
Immigration lawyers helping sponsoring universities navigate the complexities of the Points Based System naturally have an economic interest in overseas students — but then so does the rest of the nation. That is the uncompromising conclusion of the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), whose experts find that “there is no...
The guidance that Tier 2 and 5 sponsors must follow was updated last week. The new version applies to sponsor licence applications made, and certificates of sponsorship assigned, on or after 18 July 2018. Some of the key changes are: Fees and refunds Application fees for sponsor licence applications and...
Taking part in strike action can be stressful enough. But for migrant workers who are sponsored by their employer, striking has also had the potential to place their immigration status in the UK at risk. This is because the Home Office’s position has been that unpaid absence from work due...
As regular readers of this blog will be aware, the Home Office’s latest statement of changes to the Immigration Rules comes into force tomorrow (Friday 6 July 2018). Nath has summarised the various changes being introduced in a previous post. Although a relatively small part of a fairly lengthy statement...
In the case of R (Nesiama & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1369, the Court of Appeal found that “residence” in the UK means “physical presence”, such that continuous residence in an application for indefinite leave to remain may be broken by too...
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...
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...
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...
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 the situation does...
The responsibility to take the utmost care to ensure that the Points Based System, Immigration Rules and guidance are followed remains with the sponsor. A Mr Talpada attempted to challenge the applicability of the Rules and guidance to his case on the facts and by using common law legal principles...
One of the interesting aspects of the ongoing national debate about Brexit is the prominent position occupied in the debate by the UK fishing industry. I would venture to say that maritime immigration control is a topic infrequently encountered even by Free Movement readers, and with the current focus on...
Today is the deadline for employers with 250 or more employees to publish calculations showing the size of the pay gap between their male and female workers. The gender pay gap is the percentage difference between the average hourly earnings for men and women; men earn 18.4% more than women...
Businesses across the UK began receiving notification emails last week from the Home Office confirming that their applications for restricted certificates of sponsorship had been approved. This is because they had met an as yet unpublished points threshold. The Home Office has saved the bad news for today. Yet again there...
The Ganges and Gurkha is the 60th most popular restaurant in Plymouth. It serves Nepalese and Indian food, and was shortlisted for the British Curry awards in 2013. In 2015, it had a Tier 2 sponsor licence, meaning that it could sponsor workers from overseas to come and work in...
On 1 March the Court of Appeal looked at Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the context of a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) appeal. Although the appeal was dismissed, the court confirmed that running a business may amount to private life for the purposes of Article 8. The...
Last week the Court of Appeal dealt with the issue of fairness and discretion in the context of the Points Based System. Specifically, it decided that such values take a firm second place to predictability. The case is R (Dharmeshkumar Bhupendrabhai Patel & Anor) v Secretary of State for the...
Thousands of staff at more than 60 universities around the country have gone on strike, starting today. Some members of the University College Union (UCU), which has called the strike, will be non-EU nationals sponsored under the relevant university’s sponsor licence. Here, I consider the Home Office’s position on whether...
Seasoned Brexit watchers will be familiar by now with the trope that there is a “need for a level playing field”. Coined by the EU out of concern that the UK may turn itself into a tax haven, the phrase has now been appropriated by Brexiteers in the government. Cabinet...
UK businesses seeking to hire skilled non-EU workers are losing out as it emerges that the monthly quota has been hit for an unprecedented third time in a row. Yesterday afternoon, the Home Office sent out hundreds of emails to UK businesses that have been waiting for the outcome of...
Spring is in the air (for those optimists among us). For Tier 2 sponsor licence holders, this can only mean one thing. It’s time to grab the organisation’s “leave expiries” list, a crystal ball and a calculator and work out how many unrestricted certificates of sponsorship (CoS) the organisation is likely...
