Immigration roundup podcast: March 2024

In the March roundup, Sonia and Colin discuss the latest with Albanian cases as uncovered in the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s report on asylum casework. We cover articles looking at recent changes to the Ukraine schemes, as well as a reminder of the existence of Hamid cases and how to avoid being on the receiving end of a telling off from the High Court. We also recap the recent telling off that Swift J gave the government legal department, changes to work routes, costs in SIAC reviews, GPS tagging, deportation of stateless people, new fee waiver process for Hong Kong BN(O) nationals and much more!

If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free on Spotify and iTunes. Using a mobile device and subscribing has the advantage that each new podcast can be automatically downloaded for listening to on the go. You can also sign up for notifications when a new episode is out.

To access previous Free Movement podcasts click here.

If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, then you can take our monthly update quiz. In order to access the quiz you do need to be signed up as a Free Movement member, you can do that here. There are well over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all of our available courses here.

The 32 minute podcast follows the running order below:

Asylum (00:32)

Asylum casework inspection report reveals mishandling of cases, secret ministerial directions

How to effectively represent Albanian people seeking asylum in an increasingly difficult environment

How the changes to the Ukraine Schemes will make it more difficult for Ukrainians to come to the UK – and why they should be cancelled

Procedural (08:40)

Two Hamid referrals made in asylum cases where out of hours injunctions were sought

Government Legal Department told by High Court to keep “rather basic point” in mind when advising on redactions

Special Immigration Appeals Commission has the power to award costs in reviews

Points based system (12:40)

Statement of changes HC 590: salary thresholds increased, shortage occupation list gone

Changes to work visa routes from 4 April 2024 and what it means for employers

Detention (14:30)

Court finds that the Home Office’s imposition of a GPS tag was unlawful for over a year in the first case of its kind

Deportation (17:35)

Can a stateless person be subject to deportation proceedings?

EU Settlement Scheme (20:00)

Akinsanya latest: guidance on Zambrano carers found to be unlawful, Appendix EU unaffected

British Citizenship (22:10)

Roehrig upheld by Court of Appeal: no changes for certain children of EU citizens not entitled to British citizenship

Appellant keeps British nationality after Court of Appeal overturns dishonesty finding

General immigration (24:40) 

More increases to application fees, including passports and Appendix FM