Search Results for: new immigration rules

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It was Refugee Week last week and so we updated and republished some of our explainers, including this one which takes an in depth look at the latest data on the asylum system. The backlog has essentially moved to the extremities of the asylum system,...

25th June 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Home Office introduced immigration concessions and special visa schemes in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These were the Ukraine family scheme, Ukraine extension scheme, and Homes for Ukraine scheme. The department’s “core plan” was to issue visas rather than formal refugee status to Ukrainian citizens,...

25th June 2024
BY Alex Piletska

Here is your May round up of Free Movement. In this episode Colin and Sonia look at the latest immigration, asylum and trafficking statistics, including discussion of the fee waiver backlog. They also cover the latest on “safe and legal” routes for those in Afghanistan and Gaza. Sonia nerds it...

14th June 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

In this episode Colin and Sonia look at the latest immigration, asylum and trafficking statistics, including discussion of the fee waiver backlog. They also cover the latest on “safe and legal” routes for those in Afghanistan and Gaza. Sonia nerds it up on archived Home Office guidance and we cover...

13th June 2024
BY Rachel Whickman

The High Court has held that, when judicially reviewing a decision of the Upper Tribunal refusing permission to appeal (known as a Cart judicial review), there is no oral permission hearing. This was the conclusion reached in Karim v Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) [2024] EWHC 1368 (Admin). The...

12th June 2024
BY Iain Halliday

The Health and Care Worker visa is for healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and adult social care workers, to come to the UK to do an eligible job usually with the NHS, an NHS supplier, or in adult social care. The Health and Care Worker visa is a...

11th June 2024
BY Rachel Whickman

Two claimants, the charity Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London “RAMFEL” and Ms Adjei, have succeeded in a judicial review where it was held that the Home Secretary’s failure to provide people on section 3C leave with digital evidence of their status was unlawful. The case is R...

11th June 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

With EU free movement fading into memory, the main visa route available for non British and Irish nationals wanting to work in the UK is now the Skilled Worker visa.  The Skilled Worker visa is a sponsorship system: a foreign worker cannot simply apply for this visa unaided. Applicants need...

6th June 2024
BY Joanna Hunt

Shortly after it received Royal Assent last year, the Illegal Migration Act 2023 was described as “utterly unworkable and extortionately expensive”, “deeply unethical” and “a traffickers’ charter”. Despite those comments by the shadow Immigration Minister, Labour has not committed to repealing the Illegal Migration Act. However I am hopefully not...

5th June 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The British National (Overseas) citizens immigration route opened on 31 January 2021. This article sets out the rules for the BNO visa scheme, including recent changes. The Home Office abbreviation is “BN(O)”, which we will use where it forms part of the official title of a route, but otherwise stick...

30th May 2024
BY John Vassiliou

The High Court has held that the decision to refuse to grant exceptional case funding for legal aid to a person applying to the Windrush compensation scheme was lawful. The case is R (Oji) v The Director of Legal Aid Casework [2024] EWHC 1281 (Admin). Background to the compensation scheme...

29th May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Home Office has published statistics for the period January to March 2024 showing a marked drop in the grant rate for asylum cases, tens of thousands of EU Settlement Scheme applications rejected as invalid, and a fee waiver backlog that seems to be rapidly spiralling out of control. My...

23rd May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

All successful applications for asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK result in the grant of five years leave to remain, on what is known as a “protection route”. People granted leave on a protection route are then eligible to apply for settlement on completion of those five years. Their...

23rd May 2024
BY Philippa Roffey

The Home Office has announced more changes incoming on pre-settled status: The Home Office will change the duration of pre-settled status extensions from 2 to 5 years. The Home Office will also remove the pre-settled status expiry date from the digital profiles shown to third parties in the online checking...

21st May 2024
BY Colin Yeo

The Upper Tribunal has found the guidance to be used those who cannot travel to enrol their biometrics because it is unsafe to be unlawful. The individual refusal decisions were also quashed. The linked cases are RM and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2024-LON-000082 and WM...

20th May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

There are various ‘Eligibility’ requirements that must be satisfied for a successful ADR application. Entry requirements If seeking to come to the UK as an ADR, entry clearance must be applied for and obtained before arrival. If the applicant has been living in a country listed in Appendix Tuberculosis for...

15th May 2024
BY Jasmine Quiller-Doust

On Monday the Home Office updated the guidance documents relating to removals to Rwanda and retroactively amended the Rwanda agreement to include the possibility of sending failed asylum seekers there. This was done via a letter from the British High Commissioner in Rwanda to Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign...

15th May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It looks like the government has lost in the High Court in Northern Ireland this morning (Ed: remember the newsletter goes out by email on Mondays – sign up below!), in a challenge to the Illegal Migration Act brought by the Northern Ireland...

14th May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Migration Advisory Committee has today published its “rapid review” of the Graduate route, concluding that the route is not being abused and should remain in place in its current form. The letter from the Chair states: We have not found evidence of widespread abuse on the Graduate route, where...

14th May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Appendix Long Residence of the immigration rules enables a person with 10 continuous and lawful years of residence in the UK to apply for indefinite leave to remain. It is also possible to apply for limited leave to remain in this route. But there are complications and qualifications. What kind...

9th May 2024
BY Alex Piletska

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The first hearing has been listed in the next round of the Rwanda litigation. On Friday, Mr Justice Chamberlain ordered a rolled up hearing to take place within the window of 4 to 7 June with a time estimate of one day. This is the challenge...

8th May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s report on the Afghan relocation and resettlement schemes reveals yet another undisclosed pause on cases, this one relating to grants of entry clearance for those who met the requirements of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). Between October 2022 and March...

3rd May 2024
BY Isaac Shaffer

The second part of a challenge to the family reunion rules that exclude child refugees from bringing their family to the UK has been dismissed by the High Court. The case is R (DM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees intervening) [2024]...

2nd May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

As I predicted earlier today, the Lord Chancellor has today laid The Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (Amendment) Rules 2024 before Parliament. Ominously, these rules are to come into force “immediately after the coming into force of section 2 (duty to make arrangements for removal) of the...

1st May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

In Al-Azad v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 407 the Court of Appeal has said that paragraph 322(1A) of the immigration rules (mandatory ground for refusal where false representations are used) applies to an application which has been varied by a later application in which...

1st May 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Successful applicants under Appendix VDA are granted ‘settlement’, otherwise known as ‘indefinite leave to remain’ (or ‘indefinite leave to enter’ in cases of transnational marriage abandonment). VDA applications are not considered ‘human rights claims’ and do not carry a right of appeal. Instead, the applicant only has a right to...

1st May 2024
BY Jasmine Quiller-Doust

I have set out below what the legal process is for sending a person to Rwanda following the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, which received Royal Assent on 25 April and came into force the same day. I have looked only at the law as it currently...

30th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

In what is a day of enormous shame for any right thinking person in this country, the UK’s treaty with Rwanda has today been ratified which means that the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration Act) 2024 which received Royal Assent today is now in force. On 22 January 2024...

25th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

As indicated in the recent consultation response, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has now published the new code of standards. It is a criminal offence to give immigration advice unless you are properly regulated and for those who are not practicing solicitors, barristers or Chartered Legal Executives, that usually...

25th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Presumably because everything is going so well with the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the Rwanda Bill, it appears that the government is setting its sights back on the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, in particular the provisions not yet in force around priority removal notices and accelerated detained appeals....

22nd April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The backlog of cases in the inadmissibility process was in the news again last week following senior Home Officials’ evidence session at the Public Accounts Committee on Monday. This article looks at legal arguments that can be made in relation to the Home Office’s delay in making admissibility decisions for...

22nd April 2024
BY Monika Glowacka

The Home Secretary has lost a case where it was argued that a refugee who held indefinite leave to remain in the UK should not be permitted to return to the UK based on his right to a private life. The refugee in question had lost his travel document while...

19th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! “Election vanity scam” (as coined by someone who seemingly works for the Home Office) is probably the most accurate description of the Rwanda plan at this point. As I have said before, best case scenario for the government surely has to be that any...

16th April 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

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

In other posts we have looked at the requirements to be satisfied by a spouse or partner who seek leave to enter or remain. Under Appendix FM, the sponsor can be a British citizen, a settled person, a refugee, or someone with humanitarian protection, limited leave under Appendix EU, Appendix...

12th April 2024
BY Gabriella Bettiga

Spouses and partners of British citizens or people settled in the UK can apply for a visa to join or remain with their loved ones. These applications are dealt with by the Home Office under the immigration rules. Specifically, the part of the rules that applicants need to navigate are...

12th April 2024
BY Gabriella Bettiga

If a European national receives a criminal conviction arising from conduct which took place before the Brexit cut-off date, how can they rely on those previous EU rules in an appeal against deportation? The question is important because of the very large difference in the protections afforded by the previous...

8th April 2024
BY Nick Nason

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

In recent months two cohorts of young people, those granted ‘Calais leave’ and those granted leave under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, have begun to reach the end of five years’ limited leave to remain. The immigration rules currently provide a route to either further limited leave or...

4th April 2024
BY Daniel Rourke

It looks like the next time we will see the Rwanda Bill is Monday 15 April, which the government is presumably fine with despite noises to the contrary given a) it isn’t going to stop people coming, b) Rwanda isn’t ready yet, and c) they don’t seem to have any...

26th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan
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