The Home Secretary has made a useful concession to the High Court, confirming that she has a discretion to grant indefinite leave to remain outside the immigration rules without a fee being paid. The child claimant in the case successfully challenged the rejection of his application for indefinite leave to...
Further submissions, sometimes referred to as a ‘fresh claim’ or ‘fresh asylum claim’, is a process for submitting a human rights or protection claim where a previous claim has been refused, withdrawn, treated as withdrawn or become appeal rights exhausted. It can be an effective tool for rectifying years of...
The Appendix FM minimum income requirements for spouse and partner visas can catch out even those with enough money to meet them. Having the money only takes you so far: the income must come from a specific source, must be calculated in a certain way, and specified evidence must be...
Sponsorship compliance is high on the Home Office’s agenda. Suspensions and revocations are on the rise and the Government has made cracking down on ‘shameless employers’ central to their future immigration policy. The impending government white paper should also set out tougher sanctions for employers who fail to meet their...
A visit visa allows a person to visit the United Kingdom on a temporary basis, usually for up to six months at a time. As is typical of many sections of the immigration rules, the rules for visitors are complex and spread across several appendices. The rules are also updated...
The Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme was first announced in the March 2023 Statement of Changes to the immigration rules HC 1160. This post explains what the scheme is, who needs an electronic travel authorisation, and how to apply. The relevant immigration rules are found in Appendix Electronic Travel Authorisation and Appendix ETA...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! A survey of Ukrainians in the UK has indicated that a high proportion had lost either lost out on a new job, their tenancy was not renewed, were unable to sign a new tenancy or had a job contract that was not renewed,...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Upper Tribunal that the First-tier Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to consider an appeal based on a grant of humanitarian protection that had not been made by the Home Secretary, on the grounds of a nationality that...
The Court of Appeal has held that the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) was entitled to decide that it would not be unjust to refuse to allow a woman in a refugee camp in Syria to lodge a late appeal against the Home Office’s decision depriving her of her British...
The government announced increases to some Home Office fees, including for electronic travel authorisation, skilled worker and naturalisation applications, earlier this year. It has now been confirmed that these and other increases, including to visitor, indefinite leave to remain and Appendix FM applications, will come into effect on 9 April...
Despite the expansion of the Legal Services Act in 2022 to allow for pro bono costs to be awarded in tribunals, many legal professionals remain unaware of the scheme. Pro bono costs orders are an untapped resource within the legal profession, with unfulfilled potential to help close the funding gap...
Under the EU Settlement Scheme, an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen or their family members, or in some cases former family members, are either granted pre-settled status for five years (as limited leave) or settled status as permanent residence (as indefinite leave). In this article we’ll refer to EU/EEA/Swiss citizens as EU citizens....
A claimant seeking compensation under the Windrush Compensation Scheme after being denied entry to the UK and removed from the UK in July 1999 will have his application reconsidered after the High Court quashed the Home Office’s refusal. The case is R (Lee) v Secretary of State for the Home...
The latest statement of changes to the immigration rules has been published, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum and a ministerial statement. A visa regime has been imposed on Trinidad and Tobago with immediate effect, I am pretty sure you can guess why. Details on that and many of the other...
Claiming asylum is an important human right backed by the United Nations Refugee Convention and recognised by countries around the world. In order to make this right a reality in practice, countries like the UK have set up systems by which people must apply for asylum. In this way, asylum...
The February podcast is here! We kick off with Sonia briefly summarising the recently published statistics for 2024. There was then a lot to cover on asylum with several case updates and of course the recent Home Office changes to the good character requirements. Barry was thrilled to be able...
This article explains how to make a successful change of conditions application where a person needs to lift the no recourse to public funds restriction (NRPF) from their grant of leave. This article is written for applicants as well as for the lawyers and advisors who may be assisting in...
Many UK immigration categories impose a requirement that the visa holder must not be outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period — that is, if the person wants to apply for indefinite leave to remain. The good news is that this rule doesn’t apply to...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! With no sign of any movement from the government on the ban on citizenship for those who have arrived in the UK without permission, despite further pressure, it looks like it will end up being lawyers who hopefully get this policy overturned. We have also started...
Companies like TrustedHousesitters have recently hit the news following a number of incidents whereby some of its international members tried to enter the UK as a visitor in order to take advantage of an agreed-upon housesitting arrangement but were instead denied entry into the country. With the rise of this...
The “no recourse to public funds” condition is imposed on grants of limited leave to enter or remain with the effect of prohibiting the person holding that leave from accessing certain defined public funds, set out at paragraph 6 of the immigration rules. A person who deliberately claims public funds despite such...
The Government Authorised Exchange category of the immigration rules is one of the least known of all the UK’s visa options. It can be found in Appendix Temporary Work – Government Authorised Exchange to the immigration rules. The temporary work routes offer visas for temporary workers. According to the original...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Second reading of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill took place last Monday and more briefings have been published, including from Refugee Council, ILPA, Work Rights Centre and Amnesty. The call for evidence for the committee stage of the Bill is now open. Committee stage starts on 27 February so best to...
Emotions can run high in any litigation. In a case arising from unlawful detention, like Mlundira v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 189 (KB), the stakes and emotions can be heightened. This case underlines how important it is to consider and respond to correspondence from the...
Sometimes a migrant here in the UK unlawfully will want to apply for immigration status. Lawyers and the Home Office often call this “regularising” their status, because the person becomes a “regular” migrant within the rules rather than an “irregular” one outside the rules. One of the ways to do...
The Scale-up visa is a flexible immigration route designed to propel high-growth businesses by allowing them to attract top talent to the UK. It was introduced in 2022 and was presented as a visa that will fill essential skills gaps, help UK businesses grow, and boost the UK’s economy. In...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The 2nd reading of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will take place later today and it looks like committee stage will finish no later than 20 March 2025. Useful resources I have seen published in the last week include this briefing from Focus on Labour Exploitation and...
There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is here) that have the potential to block a large number of refugees from naturalising as British citizens, effective immediately. This is described in the changes...
Sonia and Barry are back already to celebrate the end of January! There is a brief look back at 2024 and look forward to 2025 which of course now includes the new Bill (seriously what are we calling this thing for short? BSAIB just doesn’t work, as Barry ably demonstrates)....
We recently ran a very helpful webinar on family member applications to the EU Settlement Scheme presented by Chris Benn. Chris leads legal and policy work at Seraphus and is an expert in European citizen rights. During the Q&A portion of the webinar, we received so many great questions that...
Once the Home Secretary concludes that a refugee is a danger to national security she is entitled to revoke his refugee status. She does not have to go on to consider whether there are less intrusive measures that could be applied. The Home Secretary’s national security decision can only be...
Applications to the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, for those who hold leave under Appendix Ukraine Scheme that will expire soon, are open from 9am today. It is important to note that extensions of leave are not automatic, people will need to apply before their current leave expires or else they...
Job title: Legal Officer Organisation: Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) Duration: Funding secured for five years Location: Hybrid / London Reports to: Legal and Parliamentary Officer and Senior Legal Projects Manager Annual leave: 25 days per annum, plus bank holidays and the week between Christmas and New Year off Salary:...
In this article we look at what registration as an Immigration Advice Authority (or IAA, formerly the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner or “OISC”) Level 2 adviser really means and how to go about it. We talk you through the Immigration Advice Authority requirements for advancing from Level 1...
International students are worth billions to the UK economy in higher education fees and indirect expenditure, benefitting local communities financially as well as enriching them in non-economic terms. Being able to attract overseas students is crucial to the economic viability of many education providers, but only those with a sponsor...
A care home operator has successfully challenged the Home Office’s decision to refuse a defined certificate of sponsorship request on the grounds that the care home could not provide official contracts for guaranteed hours of work to show that the jobs were genuine. The High Court’s decision in Hartford Care...
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...
Once a charitable organisation has been granted a licence under the Charity Worker route, it will be able to begin sponsoring workers under this route. The work needs to be an eligible type of work and the applicant needs to meet various requirements in order to be eligible for sponsorship...
Appendix Statelessness replaced Part 14 of the immigration rules in January 2024. It provides a pathway for stateless people to obtain leave to remain in the UK. The application is free of charge and leads to settlement after five years. The Home Office guidance on statelessness “Permission to stay as...
