Author: Sonia Lenegan

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Sonia Lenegan

Sonia Lenegan is an experienced immigration, asylum and public law solicitor. She has been practising for over ten years and was previously legal director at the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association and legal and policy director at Rainbow Migration. Sonia is the Editor of Free Movement.

During judicial review proceedings it has been disclosed that around 80 children were evacuated from Afghanistan and separated from their families and a new route is to be put in place to facilitate the reunion of these families shortly. The case is R (HR & Ors) v Secretary of State...

15th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

On 10 April 2024 the Home Office introduced a fee waiver process for those applying to extend their leave in Appendix Hong Kong BN(O) however the new process introduces barriers that do not exist for other routes and will be insurmountable for some applicants, through no fault of their own....

11th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (’OISC’) has published their response to last year’s consultation on the code of standards. Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 it is a criminal offence to give immigration advice unless you are properly regulated. For those who are not practicing solicitors, barristers...

10th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Court of Appeal has told the Ministry of Defence that they must reconsider whether an Afghan former Supreme Court judge is eligible for resettlement to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). This was following an unsuccessful appeal by the Home Secretary and the Defence Secretary...

5th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

As reported last week, the Irish High Court has held that the decision to put the UK on the list of safe third countries to return people seeking asylum to has been held unlawful. The case is A & anor v The Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General...

28th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s report An inspection of the immigration system as it relates to the social care sector’ has been published and has identified some serious shortcomings in the sponsor licence process for the sector, while noting that the Home Office has started putting systems...

28th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The High Court has heard three Hamid referrals, two of which concerned asylum cases and one of those resulted in a referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Given the professional implications, any practitioner reading this should already be well aware of the Hamid jurisdiction, which is essentially a disciplinary process...

27th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

There was a notable omissions from last year’s immigration application fee increase, namely limited leave to remain applications (i.e. under Appendix FM). The Immigration, Nationality and Passport (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 will bring in increases to those applications from 24 July 2024 and several others, including some that were increased...

21st March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The latest instalment of the Akinsanya litigation, which looks at the entitlement of Zambrano carers to leave under Appendix EU has been decided by the High Court in Akinsanya & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 469 (Admin). Both appellants...

20th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The government continues to try to maintain its ability to redact the names of junior civil servants in judicial review proceedings and the courts continue to tell them that they cannot do this. The latest instalment is MTA, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home...

18th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan
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