We now have the Court of Appeal’s written decision in R (CTK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ 1264. This was the case where the High Court granted interim relief preventing the removal of an Eritrean man to France, prompting a change in the modern...
The Home Secretary must carry out a review of the policy on refugee family reunion for child refugees under the now closed Appendix Family Reunion (Sponsors with Protection) in line with her duty under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, having failed to do so previously....
The Migration Advisory Committee has published its stage 1 report on the temporary shortage list (for anyone who needs a reminder of which list is which – we have an explainer here). The letter from the Chair explains that in today’s report the committee has made recommendations for the design...
This briefing examines the powers, remit and impact of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. On Tuesday, John Tuckett was officially appointed as the new Independent Chief Inspector. The previous Inspector was David Bolt, and before that David Neal and John Vine. This briefing examines the institution rather...
September brought us a new Home Secretary who immediately made some inaccurate comments about “last minute” legal challenges to removal and the modern slavery identification system, so Sonia looked at those in this month’s podcast. Sonia also covered the final act of the previous Home Secretary, which was the closure...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The Prime Minister has referred to people recognised by the UK government as facing a real risk of persecution in their home country as having obtained a “golden ticket”. The government has made clear that it will not restore refugee family reunion rights...
Today John Tuckett has officially been appointed as the new Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, leaving a vacancy for his most recent post as the Immigration Services Commissioner. Apparently his replacement in that role will be announced shortly. The announcement says: Mr Tuckett joins from his previous position...
While the basic concept of the right of abode is relatively simple to explain, the real questions are often who has it and why — which can very complicated to answer. We’ve put together this explainer to address those questions. If you spot something missing or incorrect in this post,...
The UK’s immigration landscape is undergoing a significant shift at the moment and one way this is clearly evident is in the realm of sponsor licence enforcement. For immigration practitioners, the latest statistics released by the Home Office for the year ending June 2025 offer both a warning and a...
A gay man from India has successfully challenged a decision by the Home Secretary to certify his human rights claim, meaning that he was unable to appeal the refusal. He will now be able to appeal the refusal of his human rights claim to the tribunal. This is a Scottish...
The Home Secretary has won a deportation appeal in the Court of Appeal, overturning a 70 year old woman’s successful appeal against a refusal to revoke her 23 year old deportation order. Success was only on a narrow point though and the matter has been returned to the same tribunal...
In the short but landmark judgment of R (Hamid) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWHC 3070 (Admin), the High Court affirmed that it has the power to oversee the conduct of lawyers in immigration cases. Judges have regularly used the disciplinary process that has evolved out...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Over the weekend, four people died on their way to the UK to seek safety – a man, two women and a child. The UK government has apparently put up signs around Calais warning that anyone crossing the Channel to the UK will be at risk...
Where multiple decisions have been made in a case, each attracting the right of appeal, care must be taken to ensure that the correct procedural steps are taken, otherwise the tribunal may lack jurisdiction. This position has been set out in a decision of the Upper Tribunal in allowing an...
The Home Secretary has claimed (as have many of the last several of them) that the modern slavery identification process is “being misused” and has used this as a reason to carry out an “urgent review” of modern slavery laws. Assertions of misuse are incorrect. In reality, the opposite is...
In Kaya v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] UKSIAC SV/01/2024 the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) upheld the Home Office’s decision refusing to issue a visit visa to a Turkish national on the basis that his presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good....
The Upper Tribunal has concluded that a person in the UK on a Health Care Worker visa but encountered working at a restaurant was not undertaking supplementary employment and so his leave was lawfully cancelled. The case is R (Hridoy) v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2024-LON-002819. The...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! I had expected to start last week’s newsletter with the news that the first removals to France had taken place, forgetting that – as the BBC rather memorably put it last week “that the Home Office regularly snatches defeat from the jaws of...
Last week the Home Secretary expressed outrage at “vexatious, last minute claims” made by people seeking to prevent their removal to France. She is hardly the first Home Secretary to do so. These statements do not reflect the reality of the process, which has been designed by the Home Office...
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Appendix Family Reunion (Sponsors with Protection) was closed to new applications on 4 September 2025. This does not mean that refugees can no longer bring their family members to the UK, but it does make it much more difficult. Below I take a look at some of the options and...
A child born abroad to British citizen parents who were themselves born abroad is not automatically British at birth. While this might be no shock to immigration lawyers, occasionally the story of a family finding out their child is not British in these circumstances will make headlines. One such example...
The modern slavery statutory guidance has been amended yesterday, following a grant of interim relief temporarily halting one man’s removal to France this week. Background The Home Office’s attempts to return people to France under the new treaty this week can at best be described as “shambolic”. This was entirely...
The Upper Tribunal has allowed a judicial review brought by a Palestinian man after a nightmare scenario where the Home Office withdrew the refusal of his asylum claim the day before his appeal hearing, indicating that refugee status would be granted, only to later to resile from that position following...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Last week saw further tragedy in the Channel with two separate incidents resulting in deaths. On Tuesday a woman died and a day later three people, including two children, died in an attempt to reach the UK. It is worth remembering that unaccompanied children are excluded from the new UK-France agreement. They cannot...
In a newly reported Hamid decision of the Upper Tribunal, a barrister has been referred to the Bar Standards Board for investigation following his use of a false citation generated by ChatGPT. The case is MS v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Professional Conduct: AI Generated Documents) Bangladesh...
The government has proposed changes to the early removal scheme for foreign national offenders in what is possibly the most significant overhaul to the deportation process since the changes made in the wake of the foreign prisoner ‘scandal’ in 2006. It comes hot on the heels of the expansion of the...
Immigration law is constantly changing and the Home Office updates its guidance documents accordingly. Sometimes you will need to look at an older version of the guidance that applied at a certain time but it is no longer on GOV.UK as it has been replaced with the new version. When...
The international sportsperson route was introduced in 2021 for elite and internationally established sportspeople and sports coaches to enter the UK. It replaced the previous system which involved applying under the now abolished Appendix T5 (Temporary Worker) Creative or Sporting Worker and Appendix T2 Sportsperson routes. The immigration rules for...
This is a new role. The Head of Casework will be the second most senior member of the Legal Team, working collaboratively with the Legal Director. They combine high-quality immigration representation with departmental management responsibilities, including supervision of legal staff, safeguarding, compliance, and billing. Under the oversight and direction of...
The Home Office can impose a mandatory refusal period, also known as a re-entry ban, on people who have previously breached immigration law or used deception in their application for leave. Refusal periods can last one year, two years, five years or ten years. Generally speaking, and except for some...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Personally I feel that Grant Shapps’ record as the best Home Secretary we have had in the past 15+ years remains intact. What a legacy though – in her last week in the job, Yvette Cooper closed the refugee family reunion route. A...
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is at committee stage in the House of Lords. The Bill as first introduced has several government amendments made as it completes its passage through Parliament, and so I have detailed those below. I look only at those put forward by the government...
Last weekend’s reshuffle saw Yvette Cooper replaced as Home Secretary by Shabana Mahmood, who was previously the Lord Chancellor. In addition, Angela Eagle, previously the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum, and Seema Malhotra, previously the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship, have both been moved...
Let’s face it, August was a rough one and hopefully most of you managed to escape it for a summer holiday at some point, in which case you definitely need Sonia and Barry to help catch you up! The UK announced its new arrangements to return people arriving across the...
