Author Archive

A solicitor who is suspended from practice can nevertheless advise clients on immigration law. This simple but perhaps surprising fact was highlighted by a recent case before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in which an East London solicitor unsuc ...

First-tier Tribunal appeals against asylum decisions are twice as likely to succeed at some hearing centres compared to others, a BBC investigation has found. 47% of appeals succeeded at Taylor House, whereas the success rate was as low as 21% at Yarl ...

Over a quarter of the officials who take decisions on asylum applications quit the Home Office in a single six-month period, an inspector’s report has revealed. The number of “active” asylum decision-makers fell from 319 in January 2 ...

There is some good news, some bad news and some not-exactly-surprising news in today’s Budget. The good news comes in the form of more liberal rules for scientists, researchers and international students who want to work and settle in the UK: 4. ...

Immigration minister Brandon Lewis had rather a torrid time before the Home Affairs committee of MPs this morning. Committee chair Yvette Cooper raised concerns about the new requirements for banks to freeze or close the bank accounts of anyone who sh ...

A judicial review challenge to the Home Office policy of detaining and deporting rough sleepers from EU countries has begun in the High Court. In 2016 the Home Office began accusing people – mainly Eastern Europeans – found sleeping on the ...

The legal representatives of immigration detainees who claimed to have been tortured or who may otherwise be unsuitable for detention were not given copies of their medical records, internal Home Office analysis shows. This was contrary to the depart ...

There have been “significant improvements” at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, according to the latest report by the independent Chief Inspector of Prisons. Peter Clarke nevertheless documents “ongoing concerns” ab ...

A woman from Northern Ireland who refuses to identify as British in order to facilitate her husband’s immigration application has succeeded in her First-tier Tribunal challenge against the refusal of a residence card. The Home Office had told Em ...

Laws designed to combat trafficking are being misused to target those giving humanitarian assistance to migrants trying to reach the EU, the Institute for Race Relations says. A new report by the think tank finds that criminal laws are being used to p ...

There has apparently been politics happening in the past few days, leading to a mini-reshuffle of government ministers. Priti Patel’s humiliation is Sarah Newton’s promotion: the Home Office’s most junior minister moves to the Depart ...

The Migrants’ Rights Network is crowdfunding for a legal challenge to stop the NHS becoming more involved in immigration enforcement. A data-sharing agreement with NHS Digital will allow the Home Office to access previously confidential informa ...

In Sala (EFMs: Right of Appeal : Albania) [2016] UKUT 411 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal held that there was no right of appeal against a decision by the Home Office to refuse a residence card to the extended family member of an EEA citizen. The Court o ...

A judge of the First-tier Tribunal has reportedly said that some Home Office presenting officers appearing before him are “worse than useless”. Judge Nicholas Easterman, who became an immigration judge in 2003, told a Bar Council event las ...

The government has put a little flesh on its promise that EU citizens living in the UK will be able to apply for settled status in a way that is “new”, “streamlined” and “low cost”. A “technical note” &# ...

Practitioners may be wondering where on earth the Home Office guidance on bail and detention has got to. It used to be housed in a section of the Home Office website entitled “Chapters 46 to 62: detention and removals“. But as visitors to ...

The average immigration appeal takes almost 12 months to be resolved, up 13% on the same period last year. This is despite the fact that less than half as many people now have the chance to challenge Home Office decisions. The number of appeals handle ...

It’s beer o’clock, and if you’re in a JD Wetherspoon establishment this evening you may see a beer mat with this intoxicating sentiment: The UK should unilaterally and immediately grant full rights of citizenship to legal EU immigran ...

The government has responded to a report by MPs on the work of the Immigration Directorates – a mere 456 days after the report came out. When Home Affairs Select Committee began its enquiry, Brexit had not yet happened. It published its report ...

The hostile environment policy is making it more difficult for the Home Office to keep track of foreign national offenders and could even push up crime, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has said. David Bolt’s inspection ...

Help Refugees has lost its challenge to the Home Office’s delay in relocating child refugees under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. The decision in R (Help Refugees Limited) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 2727 ( ...

£1 million in Home Office funding is now available to help with community sponsorship of refugees. The department says that The fund is for the community sponsorship scheme which enables community groups to take on the rewarding role of welcoming and ...

Measures requiring banks to check on the immigration status of existing account holders come into force today. To celebrate, the Home Office has published some brief guidance for those who, as “disqualified persons”, find their current acc ...

With Halloween approaching, a refugee charity is combining spooky tales with support for free movement. The Dead Poets Live event in London on Saturday 28 October promises “the most terrifying poems ever written”, read by a collection of w ...

The Upper Tribunal has granted an application for judicial review in a case concerning service of a curtailment letter, holding that: (i) The effect of Article 8ZA of the Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000 (SI No. 2000/1161), conside ...

Last week, we discussed the case of the Waterman family. Simon Waterman, a British citizen, had suffered a life-altering stroke, but the needs of Mr Waterman and his two children did not to the Home Office constitute “exceptional circumstances&# ...

The Upper Tribunal, in a case concerning service of a curtailment letter to an address in Bangladesh, has held that: (i) Where the Secretary of State relies on a curtailment notice as having been deemed to have been given by being placed “on fil ...

The government has announced changes to the National Referral Mechanism, the official framework for identifying those who have been trafficked or enslaved. The Modern Slavery Taskforce announced the first three of what are to be a serious of improveme ...

An ex-soldier who struggles to walk, speak or perform basic household tasks following a stroke has been told that he must look after his children without their Philippine national mother because these do not constitute “exceptional circumstances ...

As I travel to Brussels today, I know that many people will be looking to us – the leaders of the 28 nations in the European Union – to demonstrate we are putting people first. I have a firm grasp of the technical detail. I have been clear th ...

An immigration lawyer praised for his “good deeds” among the Chinese community has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Vay Sui Ip, a partner at Manchester firm Sandbrook Solicitors, was prosecuted by the Solicitors Reg ...

Grants of up to £30,000 are now available through the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association to promote the rights of vulnerable migrant children and young adults. ILPA has relaunched the Strategic Legal Fund for Vulnerable Young Migrants. ...

What can immigration lawyers do when immigration law is uncertain? This was not, admittedly, the advertised theme of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association annual seminar on free movement, which took place on 4 October. But the enervatin ...

The Home Office has lost a judicial review over its controversial change to the definition of torture in a claim brought by unlawfully detained torture victims. The judgment is in the case of Medical Justice & Ors v Secretary of State for the Hom ...

Two immigration law practitioners, Chris Williams and Nicola Braganza, made headlines today for their part in an investigation highlighting “racial profiling” in UK immigration checks. The pair, both Garden Court tenants, worked with the ...

The Home Office has broken the law by failing to publish the waiting times faced by EU citizens trying to get residence documents. The Information Commissioner ruled that Amber Rudd’s department is in breach of the Freedom of Information Act, ha ...

The fourth round of Brexit negotiations are over, with some signs of progress on the future status of EU citizens living in the UK. At the end of August, the EU-UK joint comparison of negotiating positions on citizens’ rights showed some 30 iss ...

Three judges of the Upper Tribunal have examined 13 separate decisions of the same First-tier Tribunal judge and found them “wholly failing to meet the standards that are demanded by the office of a judge and expected by the parties”. The ...

Campaign group the3million has issued a statement on the latest plans for settled status following a meeting with the Home Office. Some clarifications were made during a meeting between the Home Office and the3million regarding some false informatio ...

Theresa May exercised her free movement rights with a trip to Florence on Friday to deliver a much-anticipated speech on Brexit. Conciliatory in tone and significant on the question of the ‘divorce bill’, the Prime Minister’s commen ...