Human beings crossing the English Channel are making headlines again. The number of people who reach the UK via this extremely difficult, dangerous but lawful route is minuscule, and the total number claiming international protection here insignifican ...

What a moment for the Home Office to update its guidance on the new immigration system to reiterate: There will not be an immigration route specifically for those who do not meet the skills or salary threshold for the skilled worker route. Basically, ...

The EU Settlement Scheme statistics for February 2020 are out. They show 300 refusals. We’re told by the Home Office that the increase is mainly due to refusals for eligibility, not over criminality. The two core reasons, the Home Office says, for t ...

I’ve been working on Appendix EU from the very beginning, and it still boggles my mind with its complexity. We can admire the Home Office for creating a practical application process (the EU Settlement Scheme) that most people will be able to use wi ...

The government continues to keep us immigration lawyers on our toes, and everyone else completely flummoxed, with yet another statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. Thankfully, many of these changes are welcome as they plug gaps in the EU Sett ...

Another statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 170) was laid on 24 October 2019. The changes relate to Appendix EU of the Rules and their functioning in a no-deal Brexit scenario. This is somewhat surprising given recent events. Jacob Rees- ...

An EU citizen, or their spouse or civil partner, is entitled to have his or her dependent parent continue to live with them or join them in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme. This has always been the case since the scheme began. But one particular ...

Yesterday afternoon the government dropped statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 2631. This is a formal change to the Immigration Rules and there is a lot to it: the full version weighs in at 102 pages. We’ll deal with other changes in a ...

Following Priti Patel’s recent comments about the immediate end of free movement following a no-deal Brexit, the Home Office sent an email reassuring EU citizens that they will continue to be eligible to remain in the UK so long as they apply fo ...

Confusion abounds after Dominic Cummings sources close to Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Telegraph and Independent over the weekend that free movement of EU citizens would end the day after a no-deal exit on 31 October 2019. While at first glance ...

Over 900,000 people have applied for EU settled status so far. By the end of June 2019, the Home Office had processed 806,000 applications, granting full settled status in 65% of cases and pre-settled status in 35% of cases. The department says that n ...

The UK government has confirmed what was suspected (and what the Home Office has hinted at in private talks): in the event of a no-deal Brexit, free movement will end on 29 March 2019. EU citizens arriving after this date face a new temporary system. ...

An EU citizen with indefinite leave to remain in this country has taken the drastic step to leave the UK because of Brexit. You might have seen the story on Twitter, where it went viral. 24/ So my mum has taken the decision to return to the country of ...

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, ...

The Supreme Court in the case of the Lord Advocate (representing the Taiwanese Judicial Authorities) (Appellant) v Dean (Respondent) (Scotland) [2017] UKSC 44 considered the first occasion on which Taiwan has sought to extradite a British national. ...

On 20 July 2017 the Home Office published changes to the Immigration Rules intended to give effect to findings made by the Supreme Court in MM (Lebanon) & Others v the Secretary for the Home Department [2017] UKSC 10 on the Minimum Income Requirem ...

The Home Office today published a new collection of guidance documents used by the UK Visas and Immigration service when deciding applications for British nationality. These seem to have replaced the Nationality Instructions with, it seems, no guidan ...

In March 2017 the Home Office announced a new policy of reviewing whether all refugees require protection at the end of a 5 year initial period of Refugee Status. This policy is effective for all existing and future applications for Indefinite Leave t ...

Now that the election manifestos have been officially published we have an indication what Labour and Conservative have planned for EU nationals living in Britain. While the Labour manifesto confirmed a pledge to immediately guarantee existing rights ...

The question about what rights are enjoyed by an EU citizen who naturalises as a British citizen becoming a dual citizen is critically important in the context of Brexit. We previously gave some context on why the UK denies dual citizens’ rights und ...

The case of GE v. SSWP (ESA) [2017] UKUT 145 (ACC) sets out how the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (since replaced with the 2016 version), are in some areas, more generous than EU law itself by concluding that an initial right o ...

Most Home Office application forms are accompanied with guidance explaining how to make a valid application, and the EEA(PR) application form is no different. While the EEA(PR) form was last updated in March 2016 the guidance accompanying that form ...

If the case of Tarakhel was considered another body blow to the Dublin system, the recent Court of Appeal case of NA (Sudan) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 1060 has picked up the Dublin system up off the ropes for ano ...