All Articles: Tier 1
Government provides (not much) further detail on the UK’s new points-based immigration system
Immigration lawyers up and down the land leapt out of bed this Monday morning, eager to glut out on the promised detail of the UK’s new points-based immigration system. How disappointed we all are. The snappily titled UK’s Points-Based Imm ...
13th July 2020Government advised not to bother with points based gimmick for migrants with job offers
The government should think twice about re-introducing a points based immigration system after Brexit, and lower the minimum salary necessary to get a work visa, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has recommended. In a report published today, the ...
28th January 2020Briefing: the Tier 1 (Investor) route
The Tier 1 (Investor) visa allows foreign citizens to get permission to live in the UK in return for an investment of £2 million in the British economy. The investment can be in shares or bonds issued by UK companies. Around 12,000 people have come t ...
19th December 2019The clock is ticking for £1m investors
A right of residence in the UK can be purchased with a six-figure investment. Until a few years ago, the amount required was £1m. While new investment visas can no longer be obtained at that price — the minimum investment has doubled — ex ...
4th November 2019Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 2631: changes to work visa routes
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published yesterday, 9 September 2019. This post will cover changes to work and student visa routes, while a separate post deals with changes to the EU Settlement Scheme and other changes br ...
10th September 2019Comment: Boris’s science visa promises ring hollow
Boris Johnson announced seemingly sweeping changes to the UK immigration system for scientists on 8 August 2019. Behind the usual rhetoric about attracting the “brightest and the best”, the reality is a lot less dramatic and potentially a ...
13th August 2019Visa options for overseas entrepreneurs setting up a UK business
The Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa route was closed in March 2019. At the same time, two new immigration routes — Innovator and Start-up — came into being. But entry to either scheme rests on the notoriously difficult task of getting an endors ...
25th June 2019Indian entrepreneur faces being kicked out of UK over payroll paperwork
Hot on the heels of the decision in Sajjad comes another mind-bending Home Office decision on Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa extensions, this time relating to job creation. In R (Khajuria) v SSHD [2019] EWHC 1226, an Indian entrepreneur had created the ...
22nd May 2019How to invest: Court of Appeal gives important guidance to entrepreneurs
One of the requirements for Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) migrants extending their visas in the UK is to show they have invested £200,000 that they previously showed was available for investment in their initial applications. The important case of R (Sajjad) ...
24th April 2019Helpful decision on evidential flexibility nevertheless demonstrates failure of Points Based System
Almost as soon as a court has provided substantive guidance on a particular area of immigration law, the law seems to change. So it is in R (Islam) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 500. The Court of Appeal in this case take ...
1st April 2019New statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 1919
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published today, 7 March 2019. It is 294 pages long and covers a lot of ground. The main changes are to Tier 1 entrepreneur and investment visas, and to the EU Settlement Scheme. This requir ...
8th March 2019Failure to submit specified documents fatal to Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) application
The Court of Appeal has reluctantly but unanimously agreed with the Home Office’s decision to refuse a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) application for further leave to remain based on a factual issue of specified documents not being submitted. It rejected arg ...
15th January 2019Home Office confirms chaotic U-turn on suspension of Tier 1 (Investor) visas
The Home Office has rowed back last week’s announcement that the Tier 1 (Investor) route was suspended with near-immediate effect. It was widely reported last Thursday that the route would be closed to new applications from midnight the next day ...
11th December 2018Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visas to be scrapped in Points Based System shake-up
We expected a full statement of changes to the Immigration Rules to be laid before Parliament yesterday but instead we got a statement about the statement. The immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, gave us a sneak preview of a range of tweaks to the r ...
7th December 2018How easy is it to buy British citizenship?
To go along with the private jet and luxury yacht, the current ‘must-have’ for a discerning multi-millionaire seems to be a range of international passports. The phenomenon of citizenship by investment has emerged over the last few decades and de ...
31st October 2018Ambiguous changes to entrepreneur visas show why the Immigration Rules need simplifying
As regular readers of this blog will be aware, the Home Office’s latest statement of changes to the Immigration Rules comes into force tomorrow (Friday 6 July 2018). Nath has summarised the various changes being introduced in a previous post. Althou ...
5th July 2018New statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC1154
On Friday 15 June, a new statement of changes was laid. Rather atypically, many of the changes are welcome news! All changes will come into force on 6 July 2018, although some only apply to applications made after that date. As always, practitioners a ...
18th June 2018Home Secretary announces new “start-up” visa
With London Tech Week upon us, Sajid Javid today announced the introduction of a new “start-up” visa route for entrepreneurs looking to set up businesses in the UK. According to one part of the announcement, it will replace the Tier 1 (Gra ...
13th June 2018Tax discrepancies and paragraph 322(5) refusals: what are they and how to challenge them
Back in January, we wrote about the case of Dr Syed Kazmi, a foreign doctor due to be removed from the UK because of a “HMRC tax issue” disqualifying him from settlement. Since then, many more refusals of settlement applications by highly ...
30th May 2018Running a business may amount to private life for the purposes of Article 8
On 1 March the Court of Appeal looked at Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the context of a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) appeal. Although the appeal was dismissed, the court confirmed that running a business may amount to private life ...
12th March 2018Why doctors are being kicked out in the middle of an NHS crisis
In the midst of an “NHS crisis”, with two in three hospitals said to have a shortage of doctors, immigration laws appear to be making the situation worse. Last week iNews reported that dozens of medics with offers to work in the NHS had their vi ...
24th January 2018Court of Appeal: visa conditions do not count unless notified in writing
Today’s decision in Anwar v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 2134 confirms that if the Home Office wishes to impose visa conditions, it must give people written notice of those conditions. If the Home Office fails to d ...
15th December 2017Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) visas doubled to 2,000 per year
The Home Secretary recently announced that the number of people who can be accepted under the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) immigration route would double, from 1,000 to 2,000 each year. The exceptional talent visa regime does exactly what it says on t ...
22nd November 2017Upper Tribunal tackles “genuine entrepreneur” test
Nadeem Anjum applied for a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa in early 2015. It was refused. The Entry Clearance Officer took the view, following an interview with Mr Anjum, that he was not a “genuine entrepreneur”. Since rights of appeal against ...
24th October 2017Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visas: is Britain open for business?
Businesses large and small are the backbone of our economies, and enterprise is the engine of our prosperity. That is why Britain is – and will always be – open for business: open to investment in our companies, infrastructure, universities and en ...
17th May 2017Evidential flexibility policy is additional to the provisions of the Immigration Rules
In yet another case highlighting the absurdly hostile, bureaucratic and inflexible nature of the UK’s Points Based System the Court of Appeal has held that a Tier 1 Entrepreneur might benefit from a policy on evidential flexibility that was R ...
11th May 2016Is the UK Government selling British passports?
A few snippets from a recent debate in the House of Lords. An amendment to the current Immigration Bill currently wending its way through Parliament was tabled which would close the Tier 1 Investor route. This type of visa is obtained by making an inv ...
24th February 2016Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC535: analysis
Major changes to the Immigration Rules affecting refugees, Tiers 1, 2 and 5, EEA nationals sponsoring family members under the Immigration Rules, visitors, applications for Administrative Review and knowledge of language and life tests are being intro ...
11th November 2015New report suggests Tier 1 Investor route used for large scale money laundering
A new report by Transparency International, Gold rush: Investment visas and corrupt capital flows into the UK, suggests that substantial amounts of corrupt wealth stolen from China and Russia are “highly likely” to have been laundered in ...
22nd October 2015High Court finds Tier 1 Entrepreneur landline requirement irrational
The High Court has found part of the Tier 1 Entrepreneur rules to be irrational in the case of R (on the application of Sabir & Ors) & Anor v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 264 (Admin). Despite succeeding ...
23rd March 2015Genuineness test for entrepreneurs and new evidence on appeal
The case of Ahmed and Another (PBS: admissible evidence) [2014] UKUT 365 (IAC) concerns the ‘genuineness’ test that was introduced for entrepreneur applications as the final death knell for the original concept of the Points ...
12th August 2014