Since 17 October 2011, some immigration judicial reviews have been heard in the Upper Tribunal. Until now this was confined to asylum fresh claims and disputed age assessments. From 1 November 2013 most new immigration judicial reviews are heard in the Upper Tribunal. There are a few teething difficulties, though....
Two mundane, day to day things are getting my goat at the moment. The first is the mislabeled “cross examination” many Home Office Presenting Officers are trained into and allowed to get away with at court. The other is Presenting Officer failure to put points to witnesses that are then...
Both parties and practitioners are entitled to expect that the practice and procedure of the court in which their case is heard will be consistent and fair irrespective of which court it is and where it is. Yet a Freedom of Information Act 2000 request made by academics at the...
Short procedural point to this one and the use of some invisible magic hats: Where an application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal is made to the First-tier Tribunal outside the prescribed period, rule 24(4) of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (Procedure) Rules 2005 requires that the First-tier...
In R (Ignaoua) [2013] EWHC 2512, the Administrative Court held that under powers conferred by section 15 Justice and Security Act 2013 the Secretary of State can automatically and unilaterally terminate qualifying judicial review proceedings. The appeal hearing concerning this controversial ruling is imminent. The Claimant was a Tunisian national...
On Wednesday 23rd October 2013, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights heard oral evidence on the government’s latest proposals to cut legal aid. The evidence was clear. Those that will suffer the most from the proposals are society’s most vulnerable groups – children, care leavers, and victims of sexual abuse...
The new Immigration Bill proposes removal of rights of appeal to an independent judge, to be replaced with and replacement with ‘Administrative Review’ by one of its own staff. Immigration appeals have almost a 50% success rate according to the Government’s own figures: A recent Freedom of Information request I...
The new Immigration Bill (see Ronan’s previous post “Summary of clauses“) is so packed with nastiness that some really unpleasant parts of it – perhaps the whole of it – will make it to the statute book. No mainstream politician with influence will today stand up for the rights of...
When a right of appeal is removed, what is removed is a valuable and necessary constraint on those who exercise original jurisdiction. That is true not merely of immigration officers but of anybody. The immigration officer who knows that his decision may be subject to appeal is likely to be...
Just a quick note on this. As I previously mooted (‘Judicial review of Upper Tribunal‘), it is possible to appeal to the Court of Appeal from refusal of permission in a Cart-type judicial review of a decision of the Upper Tribunal to refuse permission to appeal to itself. However, there...
One overlooked solution to the one way asylum fast track to refusal and removal is to seek an injunction preventing consideration under the fast track process. This option should be seriously considered where the client has good grounds for asserting that a premature refusal decision by the Home Office will...
It is finally almost upon us: the transfer of judicial review claims from the High Court to the Upper Tribunal will take place on 1 November 2013. In addition, applications for permission lodged after 9 September 2013, including those where permission has been refused on the papers and oral renewal...
Don’t let this one slip by unnoticed: Wang & Chin (Extension of time for appealing) [2013] UKUT 00343 (IAC) Colin recently alerted readers by way of a short post to the recently promulgated determination in Wang & Chin. If you have not done so already, I strongly recommend you read...
Last week Monday, I represented a married couple in the husband’s immigration appeal in the First-Tier Tribunal instructed by Yomi Oni-Williams of Owens Solicitors. I have the couple’s consent to write this post although there is no need for me to publish any identifying information.
...In the case of Secretary of State for the Home Department v Raju & Ors [2013] EWCA Civ 754 the Court of Appeal has overturned the Upper tribunal’s earlier judgment in Khatel and others (s85A; effect of continuing application) [2013] UKUT 44 (IAC). The outcome is a further setback to...
Another short one. Not to be outdone, this time the Deputy President criticises a First Tier judge for extending time for appealing for the Secretary of State on the basis of an untrue and un-evidenced assertion. Guidance is given to judges (and by extension lawyers) on the correct approach to...
Another short case. President criticises First Tier judge for granting permission on a technicality. Where there is no reasonable prospect that any error of law alleged in the grounds of appeal could have made a difference to the outcome, permission to appeal should not normally be granted in the absence...
F (Para 320(8); type of leave) USA [2013] UKUT 00309 (IAC) New reported immigration tribunal case on paragraph 320(18) of the immigration rules, one of the discretionary general grounds for refusal. The Entry Clearance Officer had failed to exercise discretion one way or t’other. In this case there was only...
In the reported case of Green (Article 8 – new rules) [2013] UKUT 254 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal again reaffirmed that despite the Immigration Rules pertaining to incorporate Article 8, tribunals should continue to consider the substantive Article 8 claim even if the Immigration Rules cannot be met. The official...
If the cuts to the scope of legal aid brought by LASPO 2012 have been significant, the cuts proposed by the Ministry of Justice in the recent consultation “Transforming legal aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system” would be severe. It is of particular concern that the Government has...
At Renaissance Chambers we have been involved with a number of recent Afghani and Pakistani (Ahmadi) charter flight cases and injunctions. I have noticed a couple of things that are troubling me. Firstly some of the factual immigration summaries prepared by the Home Office omit references to previous fresh...
Many thanks to Eric Fripp of Lamb Building for the following note: On 8th May 2013 in the First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) at York House, a panel consisting of First Tier Tribunal Judges Woodcraft and Samimi dealt with two cases (references AA/04010/13 and AA/04016/13) in which asylum...
Many thanks to David Saldanha of Howe and Co for this interesting note for legal aid lawyers: Practitioners will be aware that the LAA has been refusing funding for Cart type judicial reviews of the Upper Tribunal on the basis that they were placed outside scope by para 19(5) of...
Last month saw the advent of a very useful decision from the High Court concerning the lack of provision in the Immigration Rules to allow migrants in the Points-Based System to switch whilst in-country into a PBS dependent category: Zhang, R (on the application of) v SSHD [2013] EWHC 891...
It has been over a year since the High Court heard a challenge to the introduction of pre-entry English language tests for spouses and partners (and fiancés and proposed civil partners). It was argued in Chapti & Ors, R (on the application of) v SSHD & Ors [2011] EWHC 3370...
All appellant advocates appearing before the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal will be familiar with the growing trend for UK Border Agency Presenting Officers to withdraw decisions either very shortly before or even at the appeal hearing. At Renaissance Chambers we are experiencing this many times every...
The Court of Appeal in the UK has very recently granted stays preventing the removal of asylum-seekers to Cyprus under Dublin II. The proceedings have been stayed pending the appeal against the judgment in EM (Eritrea) & Ors v SSHD [2012] EWCA Civ 1336. The cases are: – MD (Guinea)...
A big thank you goes to Jane Heybroek of Bell Yard Chambers for persisting with her Freedom of Information request in relation to further documents concerning the Evidential Flexibility policy. You can access the disclosure here. The policy (but not Jane’s FoI instructions) was very recently covered by the Upper...
CM (EM country guidance; disclosure) Zimbabwe CG [2013] UKUT 59 (IAC) is important not only as Country Guidance on Zimbabwe but also on the law of evidence in the immigration tribunal. The broad effect of the Country Guidance findings are summarised in the headnote, already posted up last week on...
The latest report by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, was published this week. It concerns applications to enter, remain and settle in the UK on the basis of marriage and civil partnerships and the summary of recommendations is that the UK Border Agency: Assesses all...
Litigation is an expensive business, and immigration is a litigious business. As the recent brouhaha around judicial review revealed, the vast majority of judicial review cases in the High Court and on appeal up to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court are immigration cases. On top of that are...
Just a reminder that time does not run over the Christmas period for lodging appeals in the First-tier Tribunal against its decisions. See the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (Procedure) Rules 2005 (as heavily amended) rule 2 definition of ‘business day’, which excludes 25 to 31 December, read with rule 57,...
The consultation on changes to the procedure for judicial review has opened and it closes on 24 January 2013. Regular readers will recall that these proposals were said by David Cameron to be part of the Government’s efforts to combat the recession, an effort comparable to Britain’s wartime effort against...
Following on from the case of Ahmadi ( s. 47 decision: validity; Sapkota) [2012] UKUT 00147 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has (for now) resolved the perplexing issue of what to do when the Secretary of State combines a refusal to vary leave with a Section 47 removal. This issue is...
The reported Upper Tribunal case of Kalidas (agreed facts – best practice) [2012] UKUT 00327 (IAC) underscores some important points of practice and procedure in the First Tier Tribunal (FTT). The case concerned an appeal before the FTT where it appears to have been agreed between the Appellant and Respondent...
