It is ten years since I launched Free Movement membership. In that decade, I’ve strived to offer exceptional resources at great value. I’ve increased the cost just once, in 2022. Two years later, it is time for another increase. The new prices will take effect for all renewed subscriptions and...
The Free Movement website will be down over the weekend while it is updated. When it comes back up, hopefully on Sunday, it will look subtly different. We are updating the software behind the website for the first time since 2016. We’re not planning any major changes to the design,...
We are looking to recruit more specialist freelance contributors to Free Movement. If you can write fluently, you are interested in being read by a wide audience and you are fascinated by immigration law and practice then have a think about joining our small team of contributors. Free Movement is a platform...
We had slightly over 1,100 responses to our 2023 Free Movement reader survey. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. We really appreciate it. Every single response has been read and considered. As we did last time, we’ve tried to summarise as well as analyse what...
Who are you? What do you want? To find out, we are running another reader survey. Long-time followers of Free Movement may remember that we’ve done this several times in the past. More specifically, in 2013, 2016 (online and email), 2018 and 2020. We’ve taken action on the back of...
The so-called summer is upon us. The final rush of judicial jottings to precede their holidays has abated. The silly season rush of confected immigration stories has begun. The weather is terrible. Time has slowed, particularly for those of us with children off school. I’m recently back from my annual...
Some big news at Free Movement. Two bits of big news, in fact. New Editor Firstly, I am delighted to announce that Sonia Lenegan is joining Free Movement as the new Editor in August. She will be replacing me, although I’ll still be lurking in the background and contributing from...
Every year I try to take stock and look ahead to the coming year. Last year I picked out delays in the asylum system, historically low figures for the removal of failed asylum seekers, low levels of asylum support and small boat crossings as major issues. Two of these have been...
Imagine a scene. Prime Minister Liz Truss finds herself reading Free Movement blog tomorrow, sees the terrible harm her and her predecessors have been causing to documented and undocumented non-British citizens and decides to get rid of Britain’s borders. All of them. Those at port as well as those operating...
There is a lot going on in immigration law at the moment and we are looking to recruit more specialist contributors to Free Movement. If you can write fluently, you are interested in being read by a wide audience and you are fascinated by immigration law and practice then have a think about joining...
“Theresa May exercised her free movement rights with a trip to Florence on Friday…” So began CJ’s first blog post for Free Movement, published on 26 September 2017. Nearly five full years later — a period sufficient to see off three Home Secretaries — CJ is moving on to a...
We are recruiting for a new Deputy Editor (Training). The previous post-holder has had to step down for personal reasons unconnected to the job, unfortunately. The job is to commission and edit new courses and keep our existing training materials up to date, including our range of ebooks. It is...
Over on family law blog Pink Tape, barrister Lucy Reed published what I thought was a really good blog post with suggestions on how to put together a decent training plan for Continuing Professional Development purposes. As she says, the training requirements for solicitors and barristers are now significantly deregulated,...
It hasn’t exactly been one of the all time greats, has it? Nevertheless, every year I attempt to stand back from the constant updates and news, reflect on what really happened in immigration law during the year and try to look ahead to the coming rotation around our sun. If...
Over 1,100 people took the Free Movement reader survey this year. I’d like to thank everyone who did so. The positive feedback was enormously encouraging — I read every comment — and the less positive feedback was the whole point of the exercise, so if anything even more valuable. This...
Business continues as normal at Free Movement. Our product is exclusively an online one, we are used to working remotely and we have contingency plans in place if a staff member is ill or needs to care for family members. We will continue to bring you immigration news, comment and...
Since 2016 there has been no minimum CPD training hours requirement and training can be undertaken by any training provider or even by informal methods including self study. The rules for solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers are all broadly similar and were all changed at around the same time. The...
Page contentsWindrushDeaths at seaEU citizens rightsImmigration lawHere on Free MovementFuture migration Windrush The defining event of 2018 in the world of immigration law was without doubt the exposure of what has become known as the Windrush scandal. The way the scandal was eventually picked up by all news outlets caught...
My sincere thanks to the hundreds of readers who filled in the Free Movement reader survey this year. The feedback was more positive than I dared hope for, and the suggestions for improvements wonderful. Those interested can peruse the results for themselves. This post, running a severe risk of bragging,...
The year 2017 was not one that much troubled the goats, at least those hircine heroes whose hirsute hides historicise immigration legislation; 2017 will see no major Act of Parliament written in vellum which directly affects immigration law, unlike the years 2014 and 2016. Instead, 2017 turned out to be...
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Conor James McKinney as Deputy Editor for Free Movement. CJ, as he prefers to be known, joins Free Movement with a strong background in legal journalism and communication. He has written on legal affairs for the Times, the i, the Evening Standard...
Closing date: 31 July 2017 5pm The Free Movement website has gone from strength to strength over the last 12 months. Readership has increased massively, to an average of over 300,000 page views per month. Ebook sales are going well and membership has gone up by 20% to 1,200 active...
The Free Movement blog has turned ten; the first blog post was published on 7 March 2007. In the last ten years the blog has received 9,572,432 page views (and counting…). It has been quite a ride, driven by the thirst for up to date, clear and well sourced information on immigration and...
I am looking to recruit a part time self employed research assistant or assistants to help with research and writing for Free Movement. Some work would be background research and likely to be uncredited. Some work would be in the form of drafts of content for the site and would...
2016 has not been a good year for free movement the concept. Non coincidentally, it has been a busy year on Free Movement the website. The response of migrants and their families to harsh rules that would break them apart is not simply to abandon their hopes and abandon the...
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...
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 Free Movement online course on the Immigration Act 2016 is now available. Based on the text of the popular ebook, the course is enhanced with 32 minutes of key points videos and clear signposting of which sections of the Act are currently in force and which are not. There is...
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner is making substantial changes to its CPD scheme with immediate effect. You can read about the changes on the OISC website. To help those affected, Free Movement is running a special offer of a 50% discount for the first year of Free Movement...
The First-tier Tribunal has allowed the Home Office appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision that training slides used to inform Home Office Presenting Officers on the 2014 legislative reforms to human rights law should be released. Some additional limited information will be published but the Home Office’s internal instructions to...
The Free Movement blog has turned nine; the first blog post was published on 7 March 2007. In the last nine years the blog has received over 6.3 million page views. The single most popular blog post was about Paddington Bear (109,429) but in a depressing sign of the times...
Page contentsHere on Free MovementImmigration law in 2015Immigration Act 2014Detained Fast TrackThe SupremesBig pictureLooking ahead to 2016The numbers gameNew asylum planHostile environment Here on Free Movement Here on Free Movement the year 2015 was the blog’s biggest so far, with 1,600,000 page views from 660,000 visitors. The total number of page views...
The annual round of introspection, self-congratulation, envy and feigned indifference that is the publication of the Chambers and Partners lawyer rankings has arrived again. The immigration team at Garden Court has done very well once more, both collectively and with many individuals receiving individual rankings as well. You can read the...
