Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #53

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

The Home Secretary has named her preferred candidate as the next Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration – John Tuckett, who is currently the Immigration Services Commissioner. It’s over to the Home Affairs Select Committee now, who will carry out a pre-appointment hearing before publishing its recommendation. Remember that the committee did not recommend the appointment of the previous inspector, David Neale. Revisiting that now I can’t help but laugh at the committee’s concerns about his ability to challenge the Home Office’s performance publicly. 

Last week a Home Office minister said that a “big migration White Paper is due shortly” and will apparently cover integration and asylum as well as how to deal with a potential shortfall in skills. That comment was made during a debate on the use of hotels as asylum accommodation. Also in Parliament last week was a debate on the potential merits of the introduction of a certificate of common sponsorship to address the problems caused by employment that is “tied” to a specific employer, leading to exploitation.

Another debate, this one following on from a petition, was on the minimum income requirement for family visas. It was pointed out that an inflationary increase to the 2012 requirement was equal to £26,250 in December 2024. Instead, the previous government increased it to £29,000 in April 2024, a change left in place by the new government which has also postponed rather than cancelled the proposed further increases, while leaving the new limit in place, all pending the outcome of a review by the Migration Advisory Committee. This is a good time to remind everyone that we have this very useful post by Barry O’Leary on what options people have where they cannot meet the income requirement. 

On Free Movement, I wrote up an interesting Court of Appeal decision on deprivation of citizenship, where the Home Office’s practice of not allowing representations to be made in “conducive to the public good” cases (under section 40(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981) was held to be procedurally unfair. The Court of Appeal also gave guidance for appeals against deprivation based on fraud, false representation or concealment of a material fact (under section 40(3)).

There were also a couple of cases involving sponsored workers – one where the person had their leave cancelled after immigration enforcement found her behind the counter of a shop. The second was an unsuccessful challenge on procedural unfairness grounds where an applicant was not told that his sponsoring employer’s licence had been revoked.

The Home Office has announced that eligible holders of pre-settled status will start being automatically upgraded to settled status by the end of January. We also looked at the detail of the recent announcement of increases to fees for nationality, electronic travel authorisation and sponsorship fees.

For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere, read on.

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

Asylum appeals backlog could reach 100,000 cases by end of 2025 – Colin’s Substack, 23 January

UK eVisa system problems persist despite repeated warnings – Computer Weekly, 23 January

Travellers denied entry to UK as new eVisa system falters – The Times (£), 21 January

The Home Office barred me from attending my own graduation – The Guardian, 27 January

Rescuing Love from the Hostile Environment – ILPA Blog, 22 January

New report – All families matter: uncovering injustice and discrimination in the UK visa and immigration system – Action for Southern Africa, 22 January

Family visa rules are ‘a tax on love’, says MP – BBC News, 23 January

Manston immigration processing centre set for upgrade as demolition plans submitted to Thanet District Council – Kent Online, 25 January

The story behind Essex’s coffee shop run by refugees that supports asylum seekers – Essex Live, 21 January

Invisible Walls: How AI Tech at Europe’s Borders Threatens People Seeking Refuge – Solomon, 16 January

Winter appeal: ‘She handed over her house key — I couldn’t believe her trust in me, a complete stranger’ – The Standard, 23 January