Getting permission to remain in the UK as an adult dependent relative: not likely
Since the introduction of highly restrictive rules for adult dependent relatives there have been numerous stories, all desperately sad, of parents trying and failing to join or remain with their children in the UK. Mobeen v Secretary of State for the ...
16th June 2021Lawyers warned not to include brand new arguments in Cart judicial reviews
Always a stickler for procedure, President Lane has again warned lawyers to not judicially review decisions of the Upper Tribunal refusing permission to appeal on grounds that were not before the Upper Tribunal in the first place. The case is Osefiso ...
25th May 2021Helpful decision on Upper Tribunal appeals
A bit of a shock to get a case that helps immigration lawyers but no complaints here! EH (PTA: limited grounds; Cart JR) Bangladesh [2021] UKUT 117 (IAC) confirms that a grant of permission to appeal by the Upper Tribunal, even on limited grounds, can ...
21st May 2021Appeal judges grapple with gaps in lawful residence
In the messy case of Akter v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 704 the Court of Appeal considered that a second decision letter which generated a right of appeal might have continued the appellant’s lawful residence when ...
19th May 2021Windrush family priced out of UK win human rights challenge
In this edition of “have I got immigration news for you”, we look at the case of Mahabir v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1177 (Admin), in which the High Court found that the Home Office had caused a “colossal interferenc ...
11th May 2021Stripping someone of refugee status doesn’t mean they can be deported
The European Court of Human Rights in K.I. v France (application no. 5560/19) has re-affirmed that refugee status is declaratory and revocation of a person’s refugee status under French and EU law does not prevent that person from continuing to be a ...
21st April 2021System for investigating deaths in immigration detention declared unlawful
In R (Lawal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (death in detention, SoS’s duties) [2021] UKUT 114 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has decided that the Home Office’s policies on the death of immigration detainees are contrary to its proced ...
15th April 2021Witness to state murder gets second chance to argue for asylum
In CM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] CSIH 15, the Inner House overturned previous findings that a person who witnessed a state murder in their home country was not in danger because they had not (and would not) report the matter t ...
9th March 2021Waiting times for visa applications made in the UK
In typical Home Office fashion, years after it should have been issued, we now have some generic guidance on visa decision waiting times for applications inside the UK. Until now, we only ever had waiting times for applications outside the UK. The sta ...
24th February 2021Indefinite leave to remain can be revoked, but not cancelled
We get it: immigration law is tricky. Even so, C1 v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 242 (Admin) is on another level and is probably best summarised by this GIF: Math Calculate GIF from Math GIFs The gist of the decision is that ...
15th February 2021Government unlawfully denied refugee status to Egyptian dissident on national security grounds
In the latest round of the legal saga involving Egyptian dissident Yasser Al-Siri, the Court of Appeal has ruled that the Home Office acted unlawfully in only granting him restricted leave to remain after an earlier First-tier Tribunal decision that h ...
9th February 2021Indian man detained for 13 months under immigration powers loses bid for release
The High Court has upheld the continued detention of an Indian national in a Category B prison on the basis of a high risk of absconding and serious criminal convictions, despite detention already lasting well over a year. The case is Singh v Secretar ...
3rd February 2021Appeal judges reject challenge to domestic abuse policy
In FA (Sudan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 59, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that someone applying to stay in the UK under the domestic abuse rules must have had permission to remain as a partner. This appeal was a ...
1st February 2021Country guidance changes affect pending decisions if not already sent out to the parties
Pending asylum appeals in Scotland can be affected by changes to country guidance right up to the point when they are sent out to the parties to the case, even if the judge has already signed off on his or decision, according to the Upper Tribunal in ...
22nd December 2020UK breached European convention in deporting man without proper human rights assessment
It’s rare to get a slobber-knocker of a case from the European Court of Human Rights like Unuane v The United Kingdom (application no. 80343/17). The court unanimously found that the UK’s supposedly Article 8 compliant deportation rules don’t pr ...
25th November 2020Appeal judges clash over false document rules
When is a “false document” not a “false” document? In LLD v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] NICA 38, the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland held that a document cannot itself be dishonest. Dishonesty requires ...
25th November 2020Man assured he wasn’t being deported is, in fact, being deported
When a client argues “but the Home Office told me…”, things usually go downhill pretty quickly. If it wasn’t in writing, it didn’t happen! Emiantor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 1461 is a classic example of ...
17th November 2020Changes to Student and Short-term Student routes from 1 December 2020
The Immigration Rules covering student visas were substantially revised in early September 2020, with the changes coming into force on 5 October. As Nath has noted, this means that the student routes were not as affected as other categories by the maj ...
10th November 2020Strasbourg reiterates importance of access to justice in national security deportation cases
Imagine being accused of a crime. Now imagine you’re not told what that crime is. Then imagine a whole trial taking place without you being told what you’ve done and without you seeing any documents to prove it. Every time the top-secret evidence ...
22nd October 2020Judge orders asylum seeker with baby rehoused, describes government attitude as “chilling”
Immigration lawyers develop thick skins. It’s easy to see why – a quick scan of the political landscape tells you what we have to deal with day in, day out! Nevertheless, there are some still cases where the Home Office’s arguments are so outrag ...
19th October 2020Inner House ducks test case on judicial review time limits
In Odubajo v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] CSIH 57, it was hoped that the Inner House of the Court of Session would provide some much-needed guidance on the vexed issue of when the three-month clock starts ticking to lodge applicat ...
15th September 2020No Home Office duty of care to migrants hit by delays confirming leave to remain
The case of Advocate General for Scotland v Adiukwu [2020] CSIH 47 answers the question of whether the Home Office has a private law duty to grant a person discretionary leave to remain and issue them with a letter to allow them to take up employment ...
21st August 2020Human rights court approves deportation of man who arrived aged four
In Pormes v The Netherlands (application no. 25402/14), the European Court of Human Rights has approved the deportation of a man who had lived in the Netherlands between the ages of four and 29, on the basis of multiple convictions for indecent assaul ...
11th August 2020You can’t just decide to not obey the law, immigration officials informed
On 4 August 2020, the Home Office issued new guidance to its civil servants on how to respond to immigration appeals that the department has lost. The 18-page document can be found here (pdf download). For the most part, the guidance is welcome. Anyon ...
7th August 2020When are costs in a Cart type judicial review decided?
The case of JH (Palestinian Territories) v Upper Tribunal [2020] EWCA Civ 919 builds on the principle that the Home Office can be found liable for expenses in Cart/Eba type judicial review cases. The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the issue of co ...
31st July 2020Court of Appeal allows deportation appeal of alleged crime boss, doesn’t say why
In A v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 858, in a rare feat, the Court of Appeal has allowed an appellant’s appeal against deportation but doesn’t tell us why. The background of the case is that in 2015, the Home Office ...
14th July 2020Appealing a refusal of permission for judicial review in Scotland
Scottish litigation would not be the same unless we had fancy words for everything. “Judge”? – too plain. We have “Lord Ordinary”. “Appeal”? Pah! We have the “reclaiming motion”. “Court of Appeal ...
30th June 2020Extended family members can’t have any breaks in dependency on EU sponsor
Reading judgments from the Upper Tribunal on the EEA Regulations often feels like going back in time. A lot of the recent case law has clarified points of law in favour of migrants but almost all have come far too late to be useful. The latest case of ...
16th June 2020Strasbourg approves deportation of Dutch-born man from the Netherlands
Chucking people out of a country they were born in is hard. It usually takes something pretty dramatic or pretty terrible — or both, as in the case of Azerkane v The Netherlands (application no. 3138/16). The facts Mr Azerkane was born in the Ne ...
9th June 2020“Slip rule” can be used to allow an appeal dismissed by accident
“Devani” in my native language of Punjabi/Urdu roughly translates as “crazy” or “mad”. An apt name for the case of Devani [2020] EWCA Civ 612, because it’s never promising when a judgment starts by saying “this appeal has a complic ...
14th May 2020Luxembourg set to undermine Home Office position on clan protection in Somalia
A quick note on this Advocate General’s Opinion fresh from Luxembourg on the Qualification Directive. The case is C‑255/19 Secretary of State for the Home Department v OA. The Qualification Directive sets out the criteria for determining asylum cl ...
12th May 2020No need to be a “qualified person” to use the Surinder Singh route
Tribunals that decide whether someone is entitled to benefits often have to grapple with our nightmarish immigration law. HK v SSWP (PC) [2020] UKUT 73 (AAC) is one such case from the Administrative Appeals Chamber. It effectively confirms that a Brit ...
4th May 2020Fellow worshippers can’t give “expert evidence” on religious conversion, tribunal holds
Two important (but completely different) points arise from the Upper Tribunal’s decision in MH (review; slip rule; church witnesses) Iran [2020] UKUT 125 (IAC), one concerning religious conversion cases and the other concerning clerical errors in a ...
24th April 2020Dutch man wins deportation appeal after judge messes up legal test
The Court of Appeal’s judgment in Hussein v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 156 is another reminder of the multiple layers of protection from deportation which EU citizens enjoy. In particular, it focuses on the importance ...
18th February 2020Devaseelan rules apply to Detained Fast Track judgments
The Detained Fast Track appeal system was found to be inherently unfair in Lord Chancellor v Detention Action [2015] EWCA Civ 840. But the impact of this bombshell decision was, over time, mitigated by two factors. Firstly, those who had appeals dism ...
28th January 2020Court of Session clarifies time limits for judicial review challenges in Scotland
In Odubajo v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] CSOH 2, the Court of Session has ruled that the three-month time limit for raising judicial review proceedings starts on the date of the decision, even though the person affected may not h ...
14th January 2020Duty to court means citing authorities against you, immigration lawyers told
The Upper Tribunal clearly has a tough time getting into the holiday spirit. Ejiogu (Cart cases) [2019] UKUT 395 (IAC), reported just before Christmas, is the equivalent of a judicial smack on the hand. It is another reminder of the importance of wha ...
6th January 2020Court of Appeal revisits human rights in immigration appeals
Following on from the Court of Appeal’s recent human rights “cheatsheet” in GM (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, we now have a gem of a sequel that is Lal v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1925. ...
13th November 2019Refugees’ dependants can be sent packing if country of origin circumstances have changed
A grant of refugee status usually involves acceptance that a particular set of circumstances exist which would make it unlawful for a person to be returned to their country of origin. But circumstances change, and this can have a knock-on effect on wh ...
17th October 2019Lack of accommodation does not prevent claim for unlawful detention
In DM (Tanzania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 2351 (Admin), the High Court ruled that the lack of accommodation for foreign national offenders cannot be a defence in a claim for unlawful detention. The case involved DM’s ...
12th September 2019