All Articles: key post

An adult who is not a British citizen can apply to become one. This process is known as naturalisation. People will normally be eligible to apply for naturalisation under section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 if they: are 18 or over are of “good character” meet the knowledge...

8th March 2018
BY Colin Yeo

Making an immigration application for clients is all in a day’s work, but working on your own wife’s visa is enough to reduce even an expert to tears, writes an anonymous Free Movement contributor. While courting my wife during a sabbatical abroad, I would worry about things like whether I...

23rd February 2018
BY Anon

The Brexit vote to leave the EU has caused huge anxiety amongst EU citizens and their family members living in the UK. The UK government continues to advise these citizens not to make applications for proof that they have the right to permanent residence under EU law. It is asking them...

6th February 2018
BY Colin Yeo

One of the fundamental principles of the rule of law is that the law “must be accessible and so far as possible intelligible, clear and predictable” (Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law, 2010). The reasons for this should be self evident. Just as it is impossible to play a sport fairly...

24th January 2018
BY colinyeo

To deprive a person of their citizenship on the grounds of their behaviour or opinion is to cast them out of society. It is a power of exile or banishment. In Roman law, the punishment of “proscription” was civic and literal death, unless the person went into exile. It would...

24th November 2017
BY colinyeo

Warning: contains spoilers. And information about the plot too. Let me say at the outset that Paddington 2 is a deeply unrealistic film. As a Paddington fan and father of two young children I had no problem suspending my disbelief to allow for a talking bear. I was, for the...

13th November 2017
BY colinyeo

Since July 2012 the immigration rules for adult dependent relatives have been, in practice, almost impossible to meet. Applicants need to demonstrate that they require a level of long-term personal care that they are unable to get in their home country, either due to cost or availability. This makes it...

8th November 2017
BY Colin Yeo

Where a European national commits a crime in the UK and is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, they will often be subject to deportation proceedings. The protections afforded to them (and to British nationals who commit crime in European countries) are contained within a European Directive (2004/38/EC of 29...

23rd August 2017
BY nicknason

On 20 July 2017 the Home Office published changes to the Immigration Rules intended to give effect to findings made by the Supreme Court in MM (Lebanon) & Others v Secretary for the Home Department [2017] UKSC 10 on the Minimum Income Requirement. The new rules come into effect on...

10th August 2017
BY chrisdesira

In tribute to beloved author Michael Bond (1926-2017), who died yesterday, I am republishing this blog post reviewing the film Paddington, based on the character created by Bond. The blog post was originally published on 1 December 2014 and versions of it appeared in the New Statesman and Financial Times. Law...

29th June 2017
BY Colin Yeo

“Why don’t asylum seekers stop before they get here?” I have been asked this question many times. There are lots of safe countries on the way, so the argument goes. Why wait until they arrive in the UK to make their claim? They’re not going to get killed in France,...

20th June 2017
BY nicknason

“Two visas had been rejected … I was wrenched by a heavy feeling of humiliation…trying to prove that I’m a “normal person” like any Englishman, that I’m not aspiring to swap my career in Egypt as a cartoonist [and] scriptwriter … for British social welfare, that I really want to...

6th March 2017
BY Colin Yeo

Page contentsSummaryWho is affected?What is the effect?What new powers has the Home Office acquired?Investigation of right of residenceEnforced removalWhere do rights of residence of EU citizens in the UK come from?1. Treaties2. Directives and Regulations made by the EU3. Domestic laws of the United KingdomWhat is the “right of residence”?What...

27th February 2017
BY colinyeo

A new set of requirements for overstayers who apply for leave to enter or remain in the UK was introduced late last year. In short, the 28 day grace period for overstayers was abolished and replaced with a very limited 14 day limit, but only where a “good reason” was also...

6th February 2017
BY colinyeo

To acquire EU rights of residence and ultimately permanent residence, a person usually has to engage in certain activities: employment, self employment, study or being self sufficient. There are other criteria as well, but these are the four key ways that a person qualifies. The activities have to be “genuine...

13th October 2016
BY Colin Yeo

The British Nationality Act 1981 requires a successful applicant for British citizenship to show, amongst other things, that he or she is free from immigration restrictions. Technically, the requirement is set out in paragraph 2(c) of Schedule 1 to the British Nationality Act 1981, which requires an applicant to show:...

10th October 2016
BY Colin Yeo

Fees for judicial review applications hare risen yet again from today, Monday 25 July 2016. A new fees order was quietly laid last Friday: The Civil Proceedings, First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Employment Tribunals Fees (Amendment) Order 2016. The fees going up are for the permission stage and they rise by 10%. Other fees remain as...

25th July 2016
BY Colin Yeo

“I’ll never forget that day” We tend to believe that the more important an experience, the more likely it is that it will be ‘engraved’ on the brain. In the asylum system, this is maintained by decision makers who maintain the belief that a genuine victim of trauma will be...

21st June 2016
BY CSEL

“Cockroaches” according to Katie Hopkins. A “swarm” according to our likeminded Prime Minister, David Cameron, and The Daily Mail (again). An “army” according to the popular press, who seem to think we should literally send troops into France (without asking the French, we can assume) to hold the thin red...

31st July 2015
BY Colin Yeo

The question of when family and private life exists in a legal sense is an increasingly important one in immigration law as it effectively determines whether a person has a right of appeal against refusal on an immigration application. The Court of Appeal addresses this issue in the case of...

3rd July 2015
BY colinyeo

It is very widely believed that the Human Rights Act stops the UK from deporting foreign criminals whence they came. To a limited extent, there is some truth in this. Some appeals against deportation decisions do succeed on human rights grounds. Not many, though, and none succeed because of the...

26th May 2015
BY Colin Yeo

The word “hopeless” appears five times in the determination of R (on the application of Rashid) v Secretary of State for the Home Department IJR [2015] UKUT 190 (IAC). While the judge remains fairly cool she was clearly irritated with Counsel. Much of the case is devoted to salvaging some...

23rd April 2015
BY Colin Yeo

This piece started life as a practice note for welfare benefits cases but the same principles are transferrable to the immigration jurisdiction so we thought it would be helpful to share it here on Free Movement as well. If permission to appeal against a decision of a First-tier Tribunal in...

16th February 2015
BY Desmond Rutledge

The Home Office often makes mistakes when exercising its immigration powers. The high appeal success rates bear testimony to this: as many as 50% of some categories of appeal are allowed. However, there are only some limited circumstances where it is possible to extract compensation from the Home Office by...

18th November 2014
BY Colin Yeo

I thought it was high time for a general advice post, as it’s been a while since the last one. This one is about fresh claims for asylum. A failed asylum seeker can apply for asylum again; this is referred to as a ‘fresh claim’. By ‘asylum’, I’m referring here...

20th May 2009
BY Free Movement
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