Past lack of Comprehensive Sickness Insurance is no longer an issue for EU nationals trying to get their British citizenship, revised Home Office policy says. As we discussed on the podcast only recently, certain EU citizens (principally those here as students or self-sufficient) have been penalised for not having private...
Those covered by Appendix FM are as follows: Partners of: Parents of: Children of: It is important to note that children of British or settled persons are not covered by Appendix FM unless there is also a parent applying under Appendix FM. Instead, practitioners must look at Part 8 of...
The other family members covered by Appendix FM are: Parent of a Child Bereaved partner Victim of domestic abuse Child of a sponsored partner Adult Dependent relatives Page contentsParent of a child in the UKRequirements common to five- and ten-year route applicationsAdditional requirements for five-year routeAdditional requirements for ten-year routeOther...
Appendix FM-Family Life as a Partner covers entry clearance, leave to remain and indefinite leave to remain. It must be read in conjunction with the sections entitled General, Exceptional Circumstances and Section EX. Partner applications can broadly be divided into two groups: While this wording is well-known to all immigration...
The provisions covering family life are mainly contained in two parts of the Immigration Rules: Appendix FM and Part 8. Part 8 pre-dates July 2012 – which is when Appendix FM came into force – and the two sets of provisions are structured differently. Part 8 covers children sponsored by...
On 1 July 1962, sixty years ago today, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 came into effect. It is hard to overstate the importance of this landmark legislation. Aliens were already subject to a separate, full system of immigration control under the Aliens Restriction Acts 1914 and 1919 and the Aliens...
The Home Office has published guidance on fee waivers for entry clearance applications (in other words, when it is possible to get a visa for free). This is important as the fees are set at a level that is prohibitive for many families. The waiver application form is here. The...
Owing a debt to the National Health Service is a ground for refusing applications for permission to enter or remain in the UK. Such debts arise because “overseas visitors” are charged for certain types of NHS treatment. The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015 No....
Families who can’t afford British citizenship for their children can now get it for free. A new “citizenship fee waiver for individuals under 18” policy was published today. It allows under-18s to apply to have the £1,012 fee on applications for registration as a British citizen waived. The policy applies...
The Home Office has published a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 17). It is largely focused on changes to the asylum system following the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the agreement with Rwanda to export refugees to that country. The changes come...
In C-349/20 NB and AB v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Court of Justice of the European Union has again addressed the question of when Palestinian refugees are entitled to refugee status under EU law. This is the fourth major judgment on this issue we have seen...
The government has announced a deal to export the UK’s responsibility to assess asylum claims and host refugees to Rwanda. Boris Johnson said in a speech that “anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1st, may now be relocated to Rwanda”. This...
A new law preventing migrants from using their residence permits to prove their right to rent or work in the UK is coming into force without robust parliamentary debate. From 6 April 2022, no migrant in the UK will be able to use their biometric residence permit or card as...
The Home Office is writing two special visa schemes for Ukrainians into the Immigration Rules and adding a third for people already here. Statement of changes HC 1220 codifies the existing Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme (described here) from today, 30 March 2022, and creates a new...
Under EU free movement law, British citizens who had been exercising “treaty rights” in the European Economic Area and then decided to move back to the UK could sponsor their family members to come with them. This allowed them to use the friendlier EU law rules on family migration, rather...
The concept of ‘unduly harsh’ has been the subject of extensive examination, meaning regular changes to the guidance. In its current format, the approach is described as follows: The expression ‘unduly harsh’ introduces a higher threshold than that of “reasonableness” under section 117B(6), taking account of the public interest in...
The second set of public interest considerations, set out at section 117(C), applies only in deportation cases involving “foreign criminals”. A foreign criminal is defined in section 117D(2) as a person who: (a) has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of at least 12 months, (b) has been convicted...
Section 117B deals with public interest considerations applicable in all cases. It sets out the considerations that must be weighed against an individual’s Article 8 rights when courts are assessing the impact of removing someone who is in the UK without permission. The section 117B public interest considerations are: Practice...
The number of asylum applications in the UK peaked in 2002 at over 100,000 and then fell away to less than one third of that level, remaining fairly stable between 2005 and 2020. The Syrian refugee crisis beginning in 2014 caused a slight rise in overall numbers and also added...
Is the Home Office under a duty to provide information establishing a child’s nationality? This is the question considered by the Inner House of the Court of Session in AS v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] CSIH 16. Unfortunately, the answer is no. The Home Office’s duty...
The Home Office has promised to give UK visas to Ukrainian surrogate mothers and their families, casting a lifeline to intended parents. Provision will also be made for babies born outside the UK to Ukrainian surrogate mothers, according to Home Secretary Priti Patel, in a letter to leading surrogacy lawyers....
Prior to the Nationality and Borders Act, it was generally unlawful for an asylum seeker to be removed from the United Kingdom while an asylum claim or asylum appeal was being pursued. This safeguard is removed by section 29 combined with Schedule 4 of the Act, which enable removal of...
When the Immigration Act 1971 came into force, most of the Windrush generation did not qualify for the right of abode. Instead, if they were present and settled in the UK on 1 January 1973, they would have acquired indefinite leave to remain in accordance with section 1(2). No records...
As background, British Overseas Territories Citizenship is one of the different forms of contemporary British nationality. It was one of the three main forms of status created by the British Nationality Act 1981 to replace Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies. It was originally called British Dependent Territories Citizenship but...
Eligibility for NHS treatment does count as Comprehensive Sickness Insurance, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled. The case is C‑247/20 VI v Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Page contentsBackground: non-working EU citizens needed health insuranceWhy did it take so long to decide that the NHS counts...
On 28 February 2022 the Home Secretary told the House of Commons that a “bespoke humanitarian route” was being introduced for those fleeing the unlawful invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The word refugee was notable in its absence from that and from the subsequent speech a day later. The original...
As well as skill level, entry to the Skilled Worker route is also restricted by a series of salary thresholds. These are set out in Appendix Skilled Worker and Appendix Skilled Occupations of the Immigration Rules. The thresholds are deceptively complex and require some investigation before a green light can be...
The Refugee Convention includes two key exclusion clauses which allow for a person to be returned (“refouled”) to their country of origin, notwithstanding the dangers they may face there. Here, the Convention differs markedly from the protection regime developed under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article...
Regular readers will remember the problems caused by Comprehensive Sickness Insurance, or CSI. Essentially, certain EU citizens in the UK pre-Brexit were expected to have private health insurance. If they didn’t, it can still cause them legal problems to this day, at least on paper. Baroness Ludford, speaking in the...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the government’s appeal against last year’s decision that the EU Settlement Scheme rules on Zambrano carers are unlawful. But the judgment in Akinsanya v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 37 leaves the situation for these carers — non-EU parents...
People having problems with their application to the EU Settlement Scheme or issues proving their status have one main point of contact with the Home Office: the EUSS helpline. The Home Office has now revealed that this valuable resource has been failing people, with only 44% of calls getting through...
Residence check on application Once the automated residence check has been carried out the applicant will see one of three possible preliminary results on-screen: 1. “You’ll be considered for settled status.” The automated check confirms the applicant had been living in the UK for a continuous five-year period. If this...
Administrative review Applicants can ask the Home Office to review its decision if the application has been refused outright or if pre-settled status is granted instead of settled status. This is only available for decisions made on eligibility grounds. Applicants may submit new evidence to the Home Office with an...
Introduction to immigration law ebook Dec 2020 An application to the EU Settlement Scheme can be refused or rejected. This could be on: An application for pre-settled or settled status may also be refused if the applicant has previously been refused entry to the UK under EEA Regulations, or where...
28-day written notices Home Office policy says that where EU citizens are encountered by an immigration officer – and if it appears that they fall within the scope of the EU Settlement Scheme – they should be issued with a written notice. The notice should give them an opportunity to...
When should family members apply? Family members are encouraged to apply at the same time as their EU citizen sponsor, because “evidence of the EU citizen having been granted status under the scheme will be sufficient evidence of the [family member’s] identity, nationality and continuous residence”. How should family members...
The eligible “close” family relationships that can be sponsored by an EU citizen in the UK are the same irrespective of which category the family member falls under. Extended family members can only fall under category 1 (Family Members) and are not included in the Appendix EU definition of category...
As with EU citizens themselves, eligible family members of EU citizens are entitled to: Where an eligible family member was already living in the UK by 31 December 2020, they were supposed to have applied to the EU Settlement Scheme for status before 30 June 2021. If they have not...
Applications to the EU Settlement Scheme can be made inside or outside the UK. Applying involves entering some personal details via a Home Office smartphone app and then filling in an online form. There is help available for people who are unable to use the app or need help using...
As seen throughout this course, the default setting of UK immigration law is that everyone who is not British or Irish needs permission to be in this country. For decades, EU citizens had permission because of European Union law. Following Brexit, EU law came to an end. Almost all EU...
