In the reported case of Sawmynaden (Family visitors – considerations) [2012] UKUT 00161 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal outline a number of factors relevant to the assessment of “genuine visitor”. In Sawmynaden, the appellant had travelled to the UK on a number of occasions since 2001 in order to visit her...
A rare judgment on paragraph 317 of the Immigration Rules, the ‘other dependent relatives’ category, was handed down by the Court of Appeal last month and has so far escaped reporting here on Free Movement due to other commitments. The case is Mohamed v Secretary of State for the Home Department...
The Court of Appeal has in the case of Miah v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 261 rejected the idea of there being a free standing ‘near miss’ argument in immigration cases where the applicant falls just short of the requirements of the rules. As in...
As expected, the obscure but important Chapter 53 of the Enforcement Instructions and Guidance (‘Extenuating Circumstances’) has been amended following on from the scrapping of paragraph 395C of the Immigration Rules. The new text is basically in line with the amended rules and is set out below for reference. It shifts the...
In a slew of new documents published today the Government has heralded the end of quasi-automatic settlement for skilled foreign workers under Tier 2 of the Points Based System, the evisceration of the Overseas Domestic Worker scheme, some tinkering with the Tier 5 temporary worker routes and the creation of...
A plethora of immigration tweaks were announced yesterday, mainly of a technical nature. There is still no sign of the introduction of a minimum income level nor the ending of Tier 2 settlement applications. It is beginning to seem likely that these will be announced at short notice, probably to...
Looking at a few recent cases, there seems to be a trend emerging. In the face of over-complex legislation, and poorly-handled applications at the Home Office, the courts are finding alternative routes to success for worthy applicants. No rules are flouted, and no are laws disobeyed. But in response to laws...
The Government’s plan massively to increase the minimum income threshold required to sponsor family members to the UK came one step closer yesterday with the publication of a report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The full report can be accessed here. Analysis by Alan Travis of The Guardian can be...
UPDATE: correct link added for training notes Omotunde (best interests – Zambrano applied – Razgar) Nigeria [2011] UKUT 00247 (IAC) This case has already been mentioned on the blog but a closer look is warranted as it gives an idea of how the domestic courts are applying the principles in...
As well as formally lowering the spouse visa age back to 18 through a formal change to the Immigration Rules on 28 November 2011 in response to the Quila case, the UK Border Agency is enabling the review of cases where applications were refused solely on the basis of not...
UPDATE: see later post for information on applying for a review if your case has already been refused. The Government has announced today that the spouse visa age will be lowered again from 21 to 18. The change will take effect as of 28 November 2011. The Minister for Immigration,...
The Exceptional Talent route attracted a lot of attention and comment when it was announced way back in November 2010. Questions were starting to be asked about what had happened to it and whether arts and science organisations were really willing to be the determinants of who is a suitably...
The Government yesterday launched another consultation on restricting immigration, this time family immigration. The splash on the UKBA website is here, the Ministerial statement here, the consultation document here and the accompanying research paper, Family migration: evidence and analysis, here. The affected categories are fiancé(e)s, proposed civil partners, spouses, civil partners, unmarried or same-sex...
The legal luggage carousel of the tribunal’s reporting committee has deposited a large batch of new cases in the arrivals hall of BAILII. Some of these cases are interesting, others perhaps a little less so. The more interesting include a couple of cases on the availability of funds in Tier...
There have been a number of interesting announcements by UKBA today, which I will add to the blog once I’ve had time to digest and consider. Most of them surround child detention and what is now being termed the ‘family returns process’. The first I’ll cover is a discrete issue,...
An important case from late last year has so far escaped comment here on Free Movement but deserves special mention: MH (pending family proceedings – discretionary leave) Morocco [2010] UKUT 439 (IAC) (28 September 2010). In it, the Upper Tribunal confirmed the currency of the earlier Court of Appeal of...
Immigration Minister Damian Green has authorised discrimination by visa officers on the basis of nationality. This follows on from a finding last year by John Vine, Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency, that visa officers were discriminating against Pakistani visa applicants. See recent coverage here on the blog....
In his report late last year on the entry clearance operation based in Abu Dhabi, the ‘hub’ for processing claims from Pakistan and several Gulf states, the Chief Inspector of UKBA, John Vine, made a stark finding of racial discrimination by Entry Clearance Officers against Pakistani applicants for entry clearance:...
A doctor ‘is no longer considered an acceptable professional person’ by the Home Office. The quotation is taken directly from an email from a policy adviser in the UKBA Nationality Group. Doctors were quietly dropped from mention in the application form for British citizenship and removed from the UKBA list...
[UPDATED: to include link to case] I won a case in the Upper Tribunal the other day that I think is worth sharing. Despite, or perhaps because of, the wide(ish) effect of the findings it seems unlikely to be approved for reporting by the UT’s shadowy reporting committee (more on...
New Immigration Rules have just been laid in Statement of Changes CM 7944. The main change is that the English language requirement for spouses and partners has been introduced, as expected. It takes effect for new applications made on or after 29 November 2010. Those with applications in before that...
Practitioners have seen a considerable increase in the number of applications for entry clearance that have been refused on the general grounds for refusal. The reasons are often opaque at best. Some simply refer to the contents of a Document Verification Report (DVR) and do not disclose this report. Many...
Substantial rises are set for most immigration fees on 1 October 2010, on the basis of the laughable justification that UKBA ‘want to ensure that we can offer a good level of customer service’. They also openly state that the increases are to ‘mitigate against a reduction in income to...
The tribunal has allowed two appeals on the basis that Pankina does not only apply to the three month rule and that all an applicant need do is comply with the requirements of the Immigration Rules themselves. See FA and AA (PBS effect of Pankina) Nigeria [2010] UKUT 304 (IAC)...
UKBA has laid Statement of Changes CM7929 to give effect (or, at least, limited effect) to the judgment of the Supreme Court in ZO (Somalia) [2010] UKSC 36. This was the case in which the Court held that an asylum claim is still an asylum claim for the purposes of...
Following Pankina, UKBA laid Statement of Changes HC 382, different parts of which came into effect on 23 July and 12 August 2010. The main changes were to incorporate into the main Immigration Rules some provisions that had previously featured only in the policy guidance and which were declared unlawful...
I still use this blog as my own personal note book of developments I might well want to look up later. I’m currently updating and re-writing the HJT Immigration Manual (ready first week of September in time for the next round of accreditation, available now for a reduced price if...
Yet more good news, this time for children and their parents. In LD (Article 8 best interests of child) Zimbabwe [2010] UKUT 278 (IAC) the President of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal has found that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is highly...
Some tremendously good news for many refugees: in the new case of FH (Post-flight spouses) Iran [2010] UKUT 275 (IAC) the tribunal has found that Article 8 appeals by the spouses of refugees who married the refugee after the refugee left the country of origin should normally be allowed. Ever...
The Government has laid a new Statement of Changes (HC 382) that incorporates the parts of the Points Based System policy guidance ruled unlawful in the Pankina and English UK cases. This reinstitutes the three month £800 requirement and the minimum of level of English language qualification required by foreign...
I’ve been so busy I forgot to post a link to this recent piece on The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site. I have an excuse to mention that now because the Court of Appeal has considered and rejected an appeal against findings by Immigration Judge Woodcraft in a domestic violence...
Firstly, I am well aware that this blog is seriously behind with a lot of the developments that have taken place in the last fortnight. And a lot has happened. I’ve actually read more or less everything now (iPad + public transport to far flung courts = well-read but pretentious and...
In the case of MD (Jamaica) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 213 the Court of Appeal has dismissed two appeals against refusals under the long residence immigration rules. In both cases the immigrants had short gaps in their lawful residence and had...
The Lib Dems have tabled an objection to the latest Immigration Rules changes, covered earlier here on the blog. Under the ‘scrutiny-lite’ negative resolution procedure by which the rules become law there will therefore, unusually, be a debate in Parliament on the new rules. Although on past form probably not...
I’ve just come across an interesting little judgment on mandatory refusal cases. It is only a permission decision so it has limited precedent value, but it is worth highlighting. The case is SA (Pakistan) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 1510 and concerns the mandatory refusal grounds set out at Immigration...
After being trailed on breakfast TV, the new rules on students were eventually more formally announced last week. It seems the education sector is in for a double whammy. The Points Based System gets worse and worse and excludes more and more fee-paying international students while Mandelson is busy slashing...
