Far too late to be of use to anyone, the Upper Tribunal has held that the controversial commencement of section 85A did not affect appeals that had already been lodged. The case is Shahzad (s. 85A: commencement) Pakistan [2012] UKUT 81 (IAC). It was heard by a panel including the Deputy...
In the second Court of Appeal judgment from last week in which Zane Malik was Counsel for the Appellant, that of Lamichhane v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 260, the same bench has given another judgment that many migrants will find unhelpful. Essentially, the Court holds...
Lord Justice Ward is at it again: This is another of those frustrating appeals which characterise – and, some may even think, disfigure – certain aspects of the work in the immigration field. Here we have one of those whirligig cases where an asylum seeker goes up and down on...
The Upper Tribunal haven’t hung around in turning their attention to the recent case of Sapkota v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 1320, which was only reported here on the blog three weeks ago. They have also reviewed the authorities leading up to Sapkota and have...
The Court of Appeal last week handed down a very interesting judgment on the need for ‘proper argument’ in Country Guidance cases, the obligation on the tribunal itself to seek to secure that proper argument and how far the tribunal determination process can morph from an adversarial to an inquisitorial one. The...
As previously highlighted on this blog, fees are to be introduced for immigration appeals. The date has now been set for this to begin: for notices of decision dated 19 December 2011 or later. Strangely, as far as I can see, you won’t find anything about this on the Immigration...
Invalid immigration applications cause serious difficulties. The problem is that the UK Border Agency advises people not to make applications until shortly before their existing leave is due to expire. However, it often takes the Border Agency days or weeks to look at the application, by which time the person’s...
An interesting case on the use of electronic means (telephone, video link, Skype, Morse, that sort of thing) has been determined in North Shields. As the tribunal comes close to saying, it is serendipitous that it should be here where this issue would arise again, after the notorious case of...
The recent Court of Appeal decision in SH (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 1284 repays reading for the way it reiterates the centrality of procedural fairness, especially in asylum cases. At the heart of the case is a challenge to an Immigration Judge’s refusal...
The Upper Tribunal has reported a decision on the effect of the new section 85A of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002: Alam (s 85A – commencement – Article 8) Bangladesh [2011] UKUT 00424 (IAC). The official headnote reads as follows: (1) Where it applies, s. 85A of the...
After what felt like something of a hiatus early in the year, the tribunal has been churning out new reported cases in recent months as if there was no tomorrow. As far as I know no-one has suggested scrapping the Immigration and Asylum Chamber YET, although it is surely only...
Mark Symes has posted an article over at the HJT Immigration Blog on a new case from the Court of Appeal on the ‘second appeal criteria’. The case is PR (Sri Lanka) & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 988. These criteria are the legal...
Last week, while I was away, the Supreme Court held that the Upper Tribunal can be judicially reviewed, and in much wider circumstances than envisaged previously by the High Court and the Court of Appeal. For England and Wales the case is Cart and MR (Pakistan) [2011] UKSC 28 and...
Not much to report on this one, just that I tried a Freedom of Information request on the criteria for deciding Legacy cases and get a non-answer back in return. The request was refused to begin with but that decision was overturned on appeal. The information gleaned is already more...
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that fees will be charged for lodging appeals in the immigration tribunal from October 2011. There is no summary and the important details are spread out all over the place, meaning the document requires careful and close reading to comprehend. Frankly, it is not...
I’ve just seen the first half decent cross examination by a Presenting Officer that I can remember in a long time. This is partly because Presenting Officers are an endangered and rarely encountered species these days, but largely because they are generally allowed to get away with questions that are...
I’ve been working on new training notes and having fun (noooooo!) deleting all of the references to the unlamented Asylum and Immigration Tribunal for the next edition of the HJT Immigration Manual. I thought I would share some of the fruits of my labours with you all. I’ll be delivering...
No time for proper posting right now, too much to do. Although I do have some long train journeys looming ahead of me… I heard today in court that the reason why second stage reconsideration cases are being brought forward is because after 15 February 2010 when the Asylum and...
Following on from my earlier alerter post, I’ve now had time to properly read and start digesting the Supreme Court judgment in BA (Nigeria) v SSHD [2009] UKSC 7. It is certainly good news in terms of streamlining and ensuring that there is proper protection available to those who make...
There has been a noticeable trend recently for the Home Office to refuse applications but not to take enforcement action. Several lawyers have commented on this elsewhere, I’ve just come across a couple of cases and so has a colleague in chambers. Where a person’s leave has already expired, if...
This post is definitely one for other immigration lawyers. Anyone else will be left thinking ‘diddums!’ There is an ugly rumour abroad that immigration judges at Taylor House doing the CMR list are going to start sending two cases a day to be heard at Yarl’s Wood detention centre near...
A number of people seem to have come across this site while looking for information about the increased immigration fees, about which I have already written a post. I thought it would be instructive to post up the old immigration fees, the new ones and the percentage increase. As you...
The fees for immigration applications made from both inside the UK (often referred to by immigration lawyers as ‘in country’ applications) and outside the UK at visa posts (referred to as ‘out of country’ applications) are going up very significantly on 2 April 2007. In country application fees were only introduced...
