All Articles: EU Free Movement

The momentous decision to begin Brexit in March 2017 was announced the previous October, when Theresa May made her first speech as Prime Minister to the Conservative Party conference. For all the impressions of chaos in between — including the sound and fury of the Miller litigation, in which the...

29th March 2018
BY CJ McKinney

On 19 March the European Union and the UK published the impressively named Draft Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community. In other words, a draft Brexit divorce agreement. This blog post will focus...

26th March 2018
BY colinyeo

Campaigners seeking to confirm whether the UK’s Article 50 notification triggering Brexit can be unilaterally revoked are one step closer to getting a decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Yesterday the Inner House of the Court of Session granted permission to proceed in Wightman and others v...

21st March 2018
BY iainh

The European Commission has published a draft legal text for a Brexit “Withdrawal Agreement”. It includes the all-important issue of citizens’ rights for EU nationals already living in the UK or arriving here before Brexit is finalised. This draft is not a final treaty or necessarily the version that EU...

28th February 2018
BY CJ McKinney

Seasoned Brexit watchers will be familiar by now with the trope that there is a “need for a level playing field”. Coined by the EU out of concern that the UK may turn itself into a tax haven, the phrase has now been appropriated by Brexiteers in the government. Cabinet...

21st February 2018
BY joannahunt

The UK government’s policy paper on EU citizens’ rights in the UK after Brexit, released in June 2017, offered reassurances about “safeguarding” rights, while leaving substantial question marks hanging — in particular about what kind of residence would be required to qualify for the new category of “settled status”. After...

19th February 2018
BY charlotteobrien

The case of SM (Algeria) v Entry Clearance Officer [2018] UKSC 9 mainly revolved around the question of whether a child adopted abroad, where the adoption is not recognised by an EU member state, could be considered a “family member” under the EEA Regulations 2006. The Supreme Court has referred the case to...

15th February 2018
BY nathgbikpi

Around 1.3 million British citizens are currently settled in other EU member states, but do not have citizenship of those countries. Just like EU citizens living in the UK, they can do this by relying on free movement rights granted by the EU. Speaking precisely, Article 20 of the Treaty...

8th February 2018
BY paulerdunast

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

In R (RSM (A Child)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 18 the Court of Appeal considered the ambit of Article 17 of the Dublin III regulation, the so-called “discretionary clause”, and found it to be narrow indeed. The challenge RSM, an unaccompanied child in...

26th January 2018
BY Alison Harvey

When a self-employed EU citizen falls on hard times in another member state and stops working, do they retain their status as a worker? Since 2010, English courts have said they do not. In a case with wide implications for residence and social security rights, the Court of Justice of...

22nd December 2017
BY Thomas Beamont

The High Court decided today that the Home Office’s policy of detaining and deporting rough sleepers from EU countries is unlawful. The case is R (Gureckis) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 3298 (Admin), a judicial review challenge by three EEA nationals to their removal under the Immigration (European...

14th December 2017
BY Nicholas Webb

In May this year, referring to the case of C-133/15 Chavez-Vilchez and Others v Netherlands, Colin wrote that the Court of Justice of the European Union has significantly extended Zambrano rights beyond those so far recognised by the Home Office and UK courts. The case undoubtedly represented a positive move — but the extent to which...

14th December 2017
BY Nath Gbikpi

In R (Decker) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor [2017] EWCA Civ 1752, the Court of Appeal found that the Secretary of State must show her workings. She, and the immigration tribunals, must explicitly apply relevant tests set out in the EEA Regulations when making decisions. It is...

14th December 2017
BY Nath Gbikpi

Some EU citizens now living in the UK will find themselves committing criminal offences after Brexit. That much is certain. How many people exactly will become unlawfully resident is probably impossible to calculate, and here at Free Movement we do not have the resources to do so, but the number...

13th December 2017
BY Colin Yeo

LO v SSWP (IS) [2017] UKUT 440 (AAC) involved the overlap between EU law, family law and welfare benefits, focusing particularly on the role of proportionality. All this is academic to LO, who just wanted her income support. Despite compelling personal circumstances, there was no basis on which the tribunal could...

4th December 2017
BY Anjana Daniel

Where there is a “difference in views” between two European Union member states about which is required to pay a benefit to a claimant, EU law requires the state in which the claimant resides to make interim payments until the dispute is resolved. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v...

29th November 2017
BY John Vassiliou

In R (HC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2017] UKSC 73 the Supreme Court decided that Zambrano carers are not eligible for non-contributory benefits which have a “right to reside” test. The benefits affected by the decision are income support, child benefit, child tax credits, and housing and homelessness assistance....

17th November 2017
BY Paul Erdunast

The author is running the 2018 London Marathon for the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees and invites readers to consider supporting this organisation via the sponsorship page. Deposed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is due back in Belgian court on 4 December over the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by the Spanish authorities....

17th November 2017
BY Alex Tinsley

The Court of Justice of the European Union has found in the case of C-165/16 Lounes that EU citizens who move to the UK and later naturalise as British retain their free movement rights under EU law even though they have become British. The court has held that the UK has wrongly been...

14th November 2017
BY Colin Yeo

The Home Office has updated its guidance on Surinder Singh cases, with “clarifications” on the requirements of the eponymous route. As our in-depth post on this topic explains, the Surinder Singh route is a potential means for British citizens to rely on family-friendly EU free movement laws — rather than...

13th November 2017
BY Nick Nason

The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal against deportation of a man with permanent residence in Kamki v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 1715. Mr Kamki had been seeking to prevent his removal to Cameroon following imprisonment for rape. UK residence and criminal conviction A...

10th November 2017
BY Clare Duffy

In a decision of 7 November 2017, the Court of Appeal unanimously found, yet again, that the extension of the Worker Registration Scheme from 1 May 2009 to 30 April 2011 was unlawful and incompatible with EU law. The case is Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Gubeladze [2017] EWCA Civ 1751. The […]

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9th November 2017
BY Nath Gbikpi

In Sala (EFMs: Right of Appeal : Albania) [2016] UKUT 411 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal held that there was no right of appeal against a decision by the Home Office to refuse a residence card to the extended family member of an EEA citizen. The Court of Appeal declared on 13 October 2017...

9th November 2017
BY RajivSharma

The government has put a little flesh on its promise that EU citizens living in the UK will be able to apply for settled status in a way that is “new”, “streamlined” and “low cost”. A “technical note” – not all that technical, and only four and a half pages...

7th November 2017
BY CJ McKinney

Newcomers to the UK, whether they have immigration status or not, face formidable obstacles in accessing services such as housing or social security. This is a look at some common scenarios and how foreign nationals and their advisers deal with them. They are based on real client cases. Page contentsScenario...

30th October 2017
BY John Murphy

Today saw the release of the Advocate General’s Opinion in the Court of Justice of the European Union joined cases of C-316/16 B v Land Baden-Württemberg and C-424/16 Secretary of State for the Home Department v Franco Vomero. The issue in these cases concerns the entitlement of European citizens to the ‘enhanced’ level of...

24th October 2017
BY nicknason

As I travel to Brussels today, I know that many people will be looking to us – the leaders of the 28 nations in the European Union – to demonstrate we are putting people first. I have a firm grasp of the technical detail. I have been clear throughout this process...

19th October 2017
BY cjmckinney

Eight months and a warning from the Information Commissioner later, the Home Office has finally replied to my Freedom of Information request on waiting times for EU residence documents. The figures only go to the end of 2016 and it seems likely that waiting times have increased yet further since...

18th October 2017
BY colinyeo

In AMS v SSWP (PC) (final decision) [2017] UKUT 381 (AAC), Upper Tribunal Judge Ward dismissed a Dutch widow’s appeal against the refusal of her claim for state pension credit on the basis that she had no right to reside in the UK. Although a disappointing result for Mrs AMS, the...

17th October 2017
BY nathgbikpi

What can immigration lawyers do when immigration law is uncertain? This was not, admittedly, the advertised theme of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association annual seminar on free movement, which took place on 4 October. But the enervating effects of unpredictability and ambiguity in immigration law and policy ran through most...

12th October 2017
BY cjmckinney

Ovidiu-Mihaita Petrea emigrated from Romania to Greece, ready to build a new life there. However, he made a big mistake: he committed robbery and was sentenced by a Greek criminal court in 2011. The case is C-184/16 Ovidiu-Mihăiţă Petrea v Ypourgos Esoterikon kai Dioikitikis Anasygrotisis. Page contentsExclusion order and returnCJEU decisionWhat does this...

5th October 2017
BY paulerdunast

The claimant in SSWP v NZ (ESA) [2017] UKUT 0360 (AAC) is a Polish national who worked in a chip shop. On 4 September 2017, the Upper Tribunal released a third interim decision in the case, relating to a very specific issue: had the UK derogated from Article 17 of Directive 2004/38 by the Accession...

3rd October 2017
BY nathgbikpi

The Home Office has broken the law by failing to publish the waiting times faced by EU citizens trying to get residence documents. The Information Commissioner ruled that Amber Rudd’s department is in breach of the Freedom of Information Act, having sat on the request for seven months and counting....

2nd October 2017
BY cjmckinney

The fourth round of Brexit negotiations are over, with some signs of progress on the future status of EU citizens living in the UK. At the end of August, the EU-UK joint comparison of negotiating positions on citizens’ rights showed some 30 issues highlighted in red, indicating no agreement. This has...

28th September 2017
BY cjmckinney

In the very recent case of Arranz (EEA Regulations – deportation – test) [2017] UKUT 294 (IAC) President McCloskey set out the correct approach to EU law deportations. The official headnote instructs us: (i) The burden of proving that a person represents a genuine, present and sufficiently threat affecting one...

28th September 2017
BY colinyeo

Theresa May exercised her free movement rights with a trip to Florence on Friday to deliver a much-anticipated speech on Brexit. Conciliatory in tone and significant on the question of the ‘divorce bill’, the Prime Minister’s comments also touched on the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and on the...

26th September 2017
BY cjmckinney

The recently leaked government immigration proposals indicate that European nationals who commit crime in the UK will be subject to the same automatic deportation rules as non-European nationals after Brexit. The UK Borders Act 2007 imposes a legal duty on the Home Office to bring deportation proceedings against any foreign...

13th September 2017
BY nicknason

Forget “hard Brexit” and “soft Brexit”. The leaked proposals for a post-Brexit immigration system suggest the pedal is already to the metal for full Thelma & Louise Brexit. The Brexit to-do list is the length of a constantly unravelling ball of string. One of the many items on that list...

6th September 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
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