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

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

Receiving unsettling news: how to challenge the refusal of EU settled and pre-settled status

The settled status scheme for EU citizens to stay in the UK after Brexit is about to complete its last test phase and will be fully open on 30 March 2019. We have talked about how the Settlement Scheme operates here: How to apply for “settled status ...

22nd March 2019 By

Still Falling Short: recent study highlights special features of LGBTQI+ asylum claims

The recently published UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group report Still Falling Short examines the Home Office’s decision-making in  asylum applications from LGBTQI+ people. The report is a qualitative study of mainly lesbian, gay and bisexual c ...

22nd August 2018 By

No costs awarded despite “clearly unfounded” certification being withdrawn

In ZN (Afghanistan) and KA (Iraq) [2018] EWCA Civ 1059, the Court of Appeal considered the tricky issue of costs in public law cases, in a scenario where the appeals were withdrawn following consent orders. The main points The judgment is interesting ...

4th June 2018 By

Good news for people appealing curtailment of leave on human rights grounds

Lord Justices Hickinbottom, Kitchin and Coulson have delivered an interesting judgment concerning the free-standing balancing exercise of Article 8 ECHR in the context of a leave curtailment. The case is Tikka v Secretary of State for the Home Departm ...

10th April 2018 By

Running a business may amount to private life for the purposes of Article 8

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 ...

12th March 2018 By

No duty of fairness to student left in the lurch by college

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 P ...

27th February 2018 By