Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Last week the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee published a report looking at several regulations including the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2024, part of which is now in force. It appears that the regulations were laid at least in part because applicants...
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published a report on “An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation November 2023 – June 2024” highlighting the usual problems around lack of stakeholder engagement and data as well as concerns about the lack of Home Office checks on accommodation providers. The...
The UK immigration system as it applies to the creative sector is a complicated hodgepodge of different categories, each with their own requirements and restrictions, advantages and disadvantages. These include visitor-based routes, such as creative visitors, permit free festivals and permitted paid engagements, as well as the now ubiquitous sponsored...
The Court of Appeal failed to seal the applicant’s notice in a case, resulting in an almost two year delay. The applicant was asked to make the application again and request an extension of time. When he did so there was then incredibly another two year delay in the Court...
The Law Society is launching its latest round of reaccreditations for senior caseworkers and supervising senior caseworkers in immigration law. Here we take a look at what we know and do not know about the scheme and then turn to how we can help you at Free Movement. Before we...
The Supreme Court has held that express reference to the Home Secretary’s guidance on her duty under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 is not required in a decision letter in order to demonstrate that the duty has been complied with. The court also held that...
In a decision on an interim relief application in an age assessment judicial review, the Administrative Court has reiterated the requirements of the Civil Procedure Rules on expert evidence and in particular the need to make an application to rely on this as soon as possible. The case is R...
As the crackdown on sponsor licence compliance continues, in R (Tendercare Management Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2154 (Admin) the High Court has considered another case involving the revocation of a care home operator’s sponsor licence. In contrast to previous revocation cases we looked...
Hours: 2 years, full time (37.5 hours) (flexible working requests will be considered) Salary: £32,000 p.a. (dependent on experience) Responsible to: Supervising Solicitor Location: Asylum Aid Office (Old Street, London) / hybrid (minimum 2 days per week in the office) Benefits: 27 days holiday plus 4% matched pension contribution Closing...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The government continues to reference Migration Advisory Committee advice in response to questions about expanding the right to work for those waiting for an asylum decision. As I have pointed out before, the committee has recommended that the right to work is not limited to roles on...
On 7 October 2024 the Foreign Secretary made a statement to the House of Commons, explaining that the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius had reached agreement for the UK to agree that Mauritius has sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (the Chagos islands) and that Mauritius would...
Internal and cross-border climate and disaster displacement are not under-studied fields. An abundance of research spanning decades depicts a clear global map of the intersecting and multifaceted issues at play, and indeed, many solutions. However, the legal rights of those who have or will likely move are what hangs in...
In a well-expressed and clearly heartfelt article, Francis FitzGibbon KC explains over at the London Review of Books why he resigned as an immigration judge. It is full of gems and well worth your time. The process is theoretically adversarial, with each side making its own case competitively until the...
Following the article ‘EU Settlement Scheme: automatic extensions and potential curtailments’, published on 30 July 2024, we are now able to provide a bit more insight about current curtailment activity under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), gained from stakeholder engagement with the Home Office. Background The Home Office has the...
Spain has been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay a Nigerian woman €15,000 in damages as compensation for failures relating to the investigation of allegations that she was trafficked to Spain for forced prostitution. The case is T.V. v. Spain (application no. 22512/21) and although the...
Refugee Council has a new report out today, “Rescue, Recovery and Reform: Towards an effective asylum system”. The report covers all aspects of the asylum system and makes several sensible recommendations, however I wanted to highlight in particular the ongoing lack of clarity around newly recognised recognised refugees and eVisas....
The Court of Appeal answers this question in the negative in Secretary of State for the Home Department v George [2024] EWCA Civ 1192. The case also contains some procedurama* about points which can be raised on appeal not previously taken and considers the applicability of points said to be...
In a major speech on the rule of law, the Attorney General, Lord Hermer KC, has indicated he will shortly be replacing the guidance for government lawyers on litigation risk that Suella Braverman introduced during her time as Attorney General: …in the coming weeks I will issue an amended guidance...
The High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has dismissed a judicial review alleging a breach of article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights because of the delay in the applicant’s asylum claim. The case is JR247, Re Application for Judicial Review (Rev1) [2024] NIKB 72. Background The...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The lack of options for people to come to the UK in safety continues to make news. There was the story of the Ukrainian woman whose 11 and 15 year old children were refused permission to join here, with no right of appeal at first. Two...
Settlement or indefinite leave to remain is often the end goal for many immigration applicants. Settlement can often only be obtained after a certain number of years of continuous residence in the UK, meeting various immigration requirements, and paying thousands of pounds in various fees. But not all visa routes...
The new Employment Rights Bill has been published. It is a substantial document: it weighs in at 158 pages. There are several aspects of the Bill relevant to immigration issues. Before I go any further, the context to this legislation includes gross and widespread exploitation of migrant workers in sectors...
It was recently reported that the passport application for a British child was refused over “copyright infringement”. The child in question’s name was Loki Skywalker Mowbray and he was born on 4 May (also known as Star Wars Day for the uninitiated among you). You will be unsurprised to hear...
This post is about what happens to a migrant who is in the UK on a partner visa if their sponsor passes away. If their partner dies before the migrant becomes settled, the last thing on their mind will be their immigration status. However, as status as a partner is...
The European Court of Justice has handed down a case reminding EU member states that they can only designate whole countries, not parts of countries, as safe: The Court of Justice specifies the conditions for the designation by a Member State of third countries as safe countries of origin under...
Since July 2012 the immigration rules for adult dependent relatives have been, in practice, almost impossible to meet. Adult dependent relative visas have one of the highest refusal rates of all immigration routes. Between 2017 and 2020, 96% of applications were refused. But they don’t all fail. In the right circumstances supported...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! I am away this week, so if anything big has happened since Thursday, that’s why it isn’t in here. The latest tribunal statistics are out and it continues to be bad news for a government which would really like to stop hearing the words “asylum...
The European Court of Justice has handed down a judgment stating that the discriminatory measures adopted in respect of women by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan constitute acts of persecution: First, the Court answers that some of the measures in question must be classified alone as ‘acts of persecution’, because...
In this episode of the podcast Barry does everyone a big favour by taking us through the autumn statement of changes in detail. Sonia and Barry also have a bit of a call to arms on discretionary grants of indefinite leave to remain and tackling the ten year route. The...
The Upper Tribunal has given useful guidance on when such grants can be made to non-Afghan nationals as well as setting out a summary of the legal principles to be followed on the interpretation of policy. The case is R (Bam Bahadur Gurung) v Secretary of State for the Home...
The Home Office has published a new version (10.0) of its guidance “Withdrawing asylum claims“. The Home Office describes the changes as: Guidance updated: structure and language used across the guidance has been simplified; the process around the requirement to provide and maintain up to date contact details with the...
New figures published today show the asylum appeals backlog had risen to 33,227 cases at the end of June 2024, under the last government. In the period April to June 2024, the immigration tribunal received 9,318 asylum appeals and disposed of 3,598 asylum appeals. These figures look bad as they...
We have written this article to share knowledge on the importance of ensuring the confidentiality and safety of clients who make visa applications for entry clearance based on same sex relationships, and our experience of the steps that can be taken to achieve this. Being in a same sex relationship...
In April 2024, significant changes were made to the salary thresholds for the skilled worker visa route. The general salary threshold rose from £26,200 to £38,700, along with rises to the various salary concessions including for new entrants and PhD holders. There was also a raise to the ‘going rates’...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! There was big news on Friday as we heard that the Lord Chancellor has conceded the judicial review challenging inaction on legal aid fees for immigration and asylum work. Usefully, we have a fairly clear timetable for when action needs to be taken. The government has...
