In a surprising but very welcome development, the Government has reversed the 500% increase in fees for immigration appeals which took effect on 10 October 2016. Fees will instead be charged at the old rates and those who have paid the higher fees in the last few weeks will have...
Recently, after being introduced to someone, I mentioned that I work on statelessness policy. When faced with the confused look I am growing to recognise when I tell people about my work, I began to explain: some people don’t have citizenship of any country. He (thinking hipster-type ‘citizens of the...
There has been a massive batch of new guidance and forms issued today. At the time of writing these were the updates so far (updated 25/11/16): Application to extend stay in the UK as a partner: form FLR(M) Form UK Visas and Immigration Updated: 25 November 2016 UK ancestry Guidance...
In the cases of Hesham Ali [2016] UKSC 60 and Makhlouf [2016] UKSC 59 the Supreme Court has, finally, given guidance the correct approach to the determination of appeals against deportation decisions. Both the appeals were dismissed and the Home Office prevailed; but that is not the whole story and we...
There is a new Practice Statement on what tribunal caseworkers (i.e. employed lawyers) can do instead of judges in the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber. Some of the functions are definitely ones I would consider to be judicial rather than administrative. I am not sure what has changed since...
Astonishing conduct by a judge: In summary, the Judge (a) engaged in a private conversation with the Appellant’s representative (b) in the absence of the other party’s representative (c) in the precincts of the court room (d) partly out of sight and earshot of the Appellant and his spouse (e)...
There is a major redesign coming soon to Free Movement. You can take a sneak peak at the new design here. It is not finished yet but we are getting close. There are also changes coming to pricing, membership structure and the way the website works to try and improve access...
Written by Eleanor BONNER & Beate DASARATHY Following on from the Proving Torture conference in October last year which Free Movement wrote about at the time, Freedom from Torture has released a new report, ‘Proving Torture: Demanding the Impossible,’ which highlights UKVI’s significant failings when it comes to considering medical...
At the beginning of this month the Home Office brought into force new guidance on the suspension of removal directions for pending judicial reviews. There are two crucial changes to the policy: (1) At present, when a judicial review is brought within 3 months of a previous judicial review or...
Really interesting from Migration Observatory on trends in immigration criminal and civil penalty enforcement. It came out a few weeks ago but it has taken me until now to look at it properly (there’s a LOT going on at the moment!). From the key points summary: From 1999 to 2016,...
The Supreme Court has handed down the long awaited judgments in Makhlouf v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] UKSC 59 on the impact of deportation on affected children and Hesham Ali v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] UKSC 60 on the weight to be given to...
What do you get for your money when you pay for an oral over a paper hearing in the immigration tribunal? Since the introduction of much higher appeal fees in October 2016, the price difference is now between £490 for an “on the papers” decision and £80o for a proper oral...
The tribunal has returned to the issue of when might children in the EU seeking entry to the UK under the Dublin Regulation be ordered to be admitted on an urgent basis. The order was made to admit the children in this case and the tribunal sets out guidance on the...
The Home Office has made public its internal guidance for officials on the process and criteria for admitting children to the UK who were living in the Calais camp. The obligation to admit the children comes from section 67 of the recently passed Immigration Act 2016, a section otherwise known...
Quick note on something I spotted the other day while looking through tribunal statistics: waiting times and success rate for EEA appeals. According to the latest quarterly tribunal statistics, for April to June 2016, the latest EEA appeal waiting time (i.e. if an application is refused and an appeal is lodged) was...
Page contentsAfter a hard BREXIT: British citizens and residence in the EUIntroductionVisitors – an EU ESTA systemStudents and researchersFamily ReunificationFamily reunification with a national of the host EU stateFamily reunification with a national of another EU state living in the host Member StateFamily reunification with a third country national or...
The Chambers and Partners listings for 2017 were released last week and Garden Court Chambers has retained its position as the only top ranked London set of chambers for immigration law. The write up is very flattering: The foremost set leading the way at the London Immigration Bar, Garden Court Chambers houses...
A new free best practice guide to statelessness applications for leave to remain has been published by ILPA and Liverpool Law Clinic. You can get it here. It equips lawyers with the tools they need to offer high quality legal representation and to press for the best possible implementation of...
Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules HC667 was laid yesterday, 3 November 2016. The document weighs in at 90 pages but many of the changes are to language rather than effect. The more significant changes are to Tier 2 skilled workers, for whom the minimum salary level is increased,...
New Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 were laid today, coming into force mainly from 1 February 2017. The new version is mainly a consolidating exercise — the 2006 regulations has been amended and reamended over and over again — but there are also some significant changes slipped in. These...
The Government has today lost a major case in the High Court on the issue of whether a Parliamentary vote is required before the Government issues notice under Article 50 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to the EU that the UK is leaving. If the...
The end of immigration appeals from within the UK is nigh: section 63 of the Immigration Act 2016 is being brought into force from 1 December 2016 by the Immigration Act 2016 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/1037SI 2016/1037). The change introduces a power for the Home...
New(ish) tribunal case on burden and standard in refugee exclusion cases. The official headnote: In every case involving exclusion of protection under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention, the onus of proof is on the Secretary of State, a detailed and individualised examination of the facts is required, there must...
Welcome to the August 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This episode I start with the issue of when an EU national can apply for naturalisation, cover several Court of Appeal then High Court cases and then move on to talk about a few Home Office policy issues....
In HD (Trafficked women) Nigeria CG [2016] UKUT 00454 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal considered the position of victims of trafficking returning to Nigeria. Under the previous country guidance case, PO (trafficked women) Nigeria [2009] UKAIT 00046, in order to demonstrate a real risk of persecution on return to Nigeria, a...
Updated Home Office policy on reviewing cases when appeals are lodged: UK Visas and Immigration guidance for how it considers the grounds for appeal and supporting documents of an application. Call me a cynic, but I have never ever seen any evidence that ECOs or the Home Office seriously reconsider...
The Upper Tribunal in this case considers its powers to set aside its own decisions. The official headnote: The decision of the Court of Appeal in Patel [2015] EWCA Civ 1175 entails the view that the Upper Tribunal’s powers to set aside its own decisions are limited to those in rules 43 and...
The Supreme Court has decided that the historic failure of British nationality law to confer automatic citizenship on a child born out of wedlock was discriminatory, it has continuing consequences which breached a person’s human rights in a discriminatory way and that denying such a person British citizenship now is...
New CPD rules are being introduced for solicitors and barristers in England and Wales and OISC advisers across the UK. The new rules are broadly similar in nature but start at different times, so it is important to know which rules apply when. At the end of the blog post...
The Government is raising immigration and asylum tribunal fees by an unprecedented amount, in the face of almost universal opposition. Help us ensure that not only the rich are able to challenge incorrect Government decisions, by contributing to this urgent legal action. You can donate here: Challenge to the five-fold increase...
The judgment is in French only, unfortunately, but an English language press release is available. The summary reads as follows: In today’s Chamber judgment in the case of B.A.C. v. Greece (application no. 11981/15) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article...
The European Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA has replaced the framework previously set out in the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, itself supplemented by the Protocol of 18 December 1997, to provide the framework within which a request may be made to another Member State for the...
Article 4(1) of the Qualification Directive does not impose a shared duty of cooperation on the Member State to substantiate an applicant’s nationality. Article 4(2) refers to documentation (including documentation regarding nationality(ies)) “at the applicant’s disposal” – which must include documentation which is not in the applicant’s present possession but...
(1) As held in Deliallisi (British citizen: deprivation appeal: scope) [2013] UKUT 439 (IAC), in an appeal under section 40A of the British Nationality Act 1981 the Tribunal is required to determine the reasonably foreseeable consequences of deprivation. (2) Whilst the Tribunal considering a section 40A appeal cannot pre-judge the outcome of...
The Upper Tribunal again finds that Dublin returns to Malta can go ahead: (i) There have been significant developments in Malta during recent years. While there may be imperfections in the Maltese asylum decision making processes, these are not sufficient to preclude returns under the Dublin Regulation and, in particular, do...
The Upper Tribunal finds that an English speaking student faked the ETS English language test using a proxy. The official headnote: (i) The question of whether a person engaged in fraud in procuring a TOEIC English language proficiency qualification will invariably be intrinsically fact sensitive. (ii) Per curiam: where the voice data generated...
The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, has published five new inspection reports. The most interesting is on the “hostile environment”, specifically the powers to deny driving licences and bank accounts to migrants unlawfully resident in the UK. The report reveals that the Interventions and Sanctions Directorate (“ISD”)...
