Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) has been on the government’s agenda for some time. Finally, in the March 2023 Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules HC 1160, the long-awaited Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme was announced. This po ...

More than a quarter of people crossing the Channel in small boats came from Albania in 2022, although the numbers have since then declined massively. Until recently, around half of asylum claims from Albanian nationals were initially accepted. However ...

In a report published yesterday, the Joint Committee on Human Rights warns that the Illegal Migration Bill would deny access to the asylum system to the vast majority of refugees, in breach of a number of binding international human rights obligations ...

The Ukraine Scheme homelessness statistics released each month provide an update on the long-term consequences of additional schemes for people with Ukraine Scheme visas. Monitoring of progress through regular data publication (even if incomplete) hig ...

The Independent Monitoring Authority has released a report following an inquiry into the delays in issuing Certificates of Applications to EU Settlement Scheme applicants. The report confirms the government’s obligations under the Withdrawal Agr ...

A judgment in the High Court details multiple examples of unlawful detention of individuals re-entering the UK because an unpublished Home Office policy wrongly suggested officers had the power to stop, detain and question individuals who have unpaid ...

The government have introduced a new bill confirming people’s British citizenship rights to confirm how British nationality law is applied to people born in the UK to parents who are EU citizens between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000. The Bri ...

In a written statement to parliament today, Suella Braverman announced that the government intends to tighten the rules for international students in an attempt to bring down net migration figures, which are due to be published this Thursday, 25 May. ...

The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) has released an update on the concerns raised with the EU Settlement Scheme and the implications of the Home Office’s updates to the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) accounts of EU Settlement Scheme appl ...

The Upper Tribunal has given guidance on the correct approach in deprivation appeals. The headnote to this case, Chimi (deprivation appeals; scope and evidence) Cameroon [2023] UKUT 00115 (IAC), says: Background Ms Chimi was born in September 1977 in ...

The Home Office recently announced a new requirement for employers sponsoring overseas workers to report their usual working locations. They have now U-turned on that policy. During the pandemic the Home Office advised that there was no obligation for ...

Yesterday the Prime Minister announced a quota of 45,000 seasonal worker visas for 2024, “to give certainty to the horticulture sector next year, enabling them to plan ahead for the picking season”. It is billed as part of a larger package of supp ...

New legislation comes into force today that ensures that UK and Irish nationals, and any other individual with a status in the UK that provides them with recourse to public funds, who left Sudan as a result of the recent violence are exempt from the r ...

New and accessible guidance has been released by the Home Office on the deprivation of British citizenship under section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981, detailing the approach caseworkers should take when deciding such cases, replacing previou ...

The appeal of C3 and C4, two British women who travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant who were subsequently detained in a camp in northern Syria, has been dismissed. The case is C3 & Anor v Secretary of State for Forei ...

The Home Office has now published caseworker guidance on requests from applicants not to attend Visa Application Centres overseas to submit their biometrics data, or alternatively to delay attending a centre, where it is not safe to do so. Usually, an ...

The High Court has confirmed that the restrictive parameters of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme put in place in January 2022 do not stray from the intention of the policy as it was originally announced in September 2021. R (GA) v Secretary of ...

Last month, two new visa concessions were added to the Hong Kong British Nationals (overseas) (BN(O)) route. You can read about them in more detail in the Home Office guidance. Leave outside the rules where financial or residency requirements cannot ...

A recent appeal concerning third country national’s right to continue residing in the UK after divorce from an EU national and release from prison was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The case is Balogun v Secretary of State for the Home Department ...

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has now published a report on visit visa operations between December 2022 and January 2023 which confirms that overall, this area of the Home Office is functioning well, with an apparent “fo ...

An exploration of the different entitlements to family reunion for parents and siblings of refugee children and partners and children of adult refugees was recently heard in a judicial review that highlights the barriers to family reunions in the immi ...

One of the latest cases to be brought to the High Court concerning accommodation standards for asylum seekers in the UK states that the UK is in a “crisis” and that the “current influx of refugees is presenting the government with ve ...

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has today announced that it will no longer be necessary for a decision that an asylum or human rights claim is clearly unfounded to be checked by a second caseworker. You can read his written statement to parliament ...

An important update confirms British citizenship rights for people born to EU citizens between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 following a change in the Home Office’s position on how British nationality law applies to them. The change was firs ...

An addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda signed last month when Suella Braverman visited Rwanda has now been published. The memorandum aim is to “create a mechanism for the relocation to Rwanda of individuals arri ...

Over the past week the Home Office have announced a number of plans to re-accommodate asylum seekers, culminating in yesterday’s announcement of an “accommodation barge”.  So far the government has announced substitute accommoda ...

As well as guidance for individuals receiving the new asylum questionnaires under the streamlined process, Refugee Action has produced guidance for unregulated or OISC Level 1 caseworkers, and guidance for asylum volunteers. The aim of these guides is ...

The High Court has ruled that the government’s second attempt to produce an immigration exemption to the Data Protection Act 2018 is still incompatible with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Only a week after the hearing, the jud ...

In a bizarre policy-like update, the Home Office has amended its guidance on automatic acquisition of British citizenship: “While the Home Office assesses recently identified legal issues, the policy for acquisition of citizenship by individuals ...

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Neal, has expressed his frustration at the Home Office’s inability properly and promptly to address report recommendations in his comments published yesterday alongside the annual ...

Resources have been published by Refugee Action to assist those who have received one of the new asylum questionnaires under the Home Office’s streamlined process. You can read more in detail about what to do with the questionnaire, how to fill it i ...

Yesterday’s Spring Budget 2023 announced upcoming changes to the business visitor visa requirements and the addition of construction workers to the Shortage Occupation List. Additional language support for Ukraine Visa Scheme holders was also announ ...

A new statement of changes to the immigration rules has now been published. The explanatory memorandum to the statement can be found here. The most significant changes are the addition of the Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme, and the introductio ...

The Court of Appeal has granted refugee status in a case turning on the credibility of the appellant’s evidence. MAH (Egypt) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 216 provides helpful guidance on the standard of proof in asylu ...

The much anticipated India Young Professionals Scheme visas ballot will open at 2:30 pm India Standard Time on 28 February. The ballot will close at 2:30 pm on 2 March 2023. You will be able to enter the ballot here. The page also confirms some genera ...

New guidance has been published by the Home Office confirming how consideration will be given to whether an applicant to the EU Settlement Scheme is a person with a derivative right to reside.  A derivative right to reside in the UK was confirmed by ...

In early July 2022 a consent order was made between the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ALTEU) and the Secretary of State for Justice confirming that the Secretary of State would develop guidance on victims and potential victims of mode ...

Yesterday, the Home Office published a number of reviews of internal data and processes relating to the hostile environment. The reviews include a range of data, including figures like 450,000 people being flagged as unauthorised migrants or in breach ...

The High Court confirms that there is no duty to provide longer term or different accommodation when the Home Office moves asylum seekers from section 98 accommodation. The case is DSM v Secretary of State for the Home Department (anonymity order), c ...

The system of legal aid for asylum seekers in the UK is broken. The legal advice and representation available is becoming so inadequate that it may breach the state’s human rights obligations and will inevitably lead to significant miscarriages ...