All Articles: Tribunal

When I was a young lad, there was a rule in our house that a girlfriend could only come to stay if the relationship was a “serious” one. During one particularly heated exchange regarding the enforcement of this rule, I recall a tedious and lengthy discussion about the meaning of...

20th March 2020
BY Nick Nason

Where policy guidance says that indefinite leave to remain (ILR) should “normally” be granted after six years of Discretionary Leave, can the Home Office ever depart from this policy? The Upper Tribunal judgment in R (Ellis) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (discretionary leave policy; supplementary reasons) [2020]...

20th March 2020
BY Alex Piletska

The Upper Tribunal has dismissed a judicial review of the restricted leave policy. This policy governs the grant of leave to remain in the UK to people who the Home Office wishes to remove but cannot because it would breach the European Convention on Human Rights. The restricted leave policy...

3rd March 2020
BY Alex Schymyck

KF et ors (entry clearance, relatives of refugees) Syria [2019] UKUT 413 (IAC) concerns an 18-year-old Syrian refugee sponsor, whose mother, father and younger siblings applied for family reunion with him. The key principles identified by the tribunal do not emerge particularly clearly from the headnote, so it is worth...

3rd March 2020
BY Alison Harvey

The case of SD (British citizen children – entry clearance) Sri Lanka [2020] UKUT 43 (IAC) shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following developments around Appendix FM and the rules relating to the rights of family members of British citizens to move to the UK. That does not, though,...

24th February 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

MSU (S.104(4b) notices) Bangladesh [2019] UKUT 412 (IAC) considers section 104 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (as heavily amended), which says that an appeal shall be treated as abandoned if the appellant is granted leave to enter or remain. For many appellants section 104 won’t be a...

31st January 2020
BY Darren Stevenson

Following another paragraph 322(5) case, where an applicant was refused indefinite leave to remain on the basis of dishonesty for disclosing different income to HMRC as opposed to the Home Office, the Upper Tribunal has issued guidance on evidence from accountants purporting to take the blame for those tax discrepancies....

27th January 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

The headnote of Rana (s. 85A; Educational Loans Scheme) Bangladesh [2019] UKUT 396 (IAC) deals with two matters: 1. There was nothing in s 85A of the 2002 Act preventing the Secretary of State from adducing evidence. 2. The requirement to show that a loan was “part of an Academic...

21st January 2020
BY Darren Stevenson

AXB (Art 3 health: obligations; suicide) Jamaica [2019] UKUT 397 (IAC) is the latest in a series of cases which have tried to transpose the decision of Paposhvili v Belgium (application no. 41738/10) into domestic law. Paposhvili was an unusual case in which the applicant had died before the European Court...

16th January 2020
BY Alex Schymyck

In SB (vulnerable adult: credibility) Ghana [2019] UKUT 398 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has provided a steer on how immigration judges should approach evidence given by vulnerable adults, in addition to that provided in the Joint Presidential Guidance Note No 2 of 2010. The key point is that adverse credibility...

9th January 2020
BY Alex Schymyck

On 20 December 2019, the Upper Tribunal issued a new country guidance case on Iraq. This new case, SMO, KSP & IM (Article 15(c); identity documents) Iraq CG [2019] UKUT 400 (IAC), replaces all existing country guidance, including AA (Article 15(c)) Iraq CG [2015] UKUT 544 (IAC); BA (Returns to...

8th January 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

Can an appeal be both finally determined and pending at the same time? This conundrum, akin to Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment involving a cat in a box with a lethal substance, was tackled by the Upper Tribunal in Niaz (NIAA 2002 s. 104: pending appeal) [2019] UKUT 399 (IAC)....

7th January 2020
BY Iain Halliday

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 what the tribunal describes as the “duty of candidness”,...

6th January 2020
BY Bilaal Shabbir

The Upper Tribunal has shot down a scheme under which people looking for a Tier 1 (Investor) visa would borrow money from one company and invest in a closely related company. In a judicial review against the Home Office for refusing the Tier 1 (Investor) applications of two Chinese citizens...

19th December 2019
BY CJ McKinney

On a warm summer’s day in late July, five sets of appellant lawyers found themselves in Court 4 of the Upper Tribunal in Field House, huddled together on what could only be characterised as “the naughty step”.  Unaware at the start of the day the rationale for the hearings before...

9th December 2019
BY S Chelvan

An asylum appeal by an Eritrean woman, initially rejected by an immigration judge, has been overturned by the Upper Tribunal after it emerged the court interpreter embarked on a political rant to the woman’s barrister at the bus stop outside court afterwards. The case is TS (interpreters) Eritrea [2019] UKUT...

29th November 2019
BY Colin Yeo

There’s been a lot written on this blog recently about overstaying. Why do we keep banging on about it, you may ask? Because even a short period of technical overstaying, even if entirely innocent and endorsed by the Home Office, can cause problems for future applications.  This was demonstrated recently...

28th November 2019
BY Iain Halliday

“Be careful what you wish for!”, could be the headline for the case of Ahmed (rule 18; PTA; Family Court materials) Pakistan [2019] UKUT 357 (IAC). Haseeb Ahmed, a Pakistani citizen, was initially refused an application for leave to remain by the Secretary of State. He won his appeal at...

26th November 2019
BY Nath Gbikpi

Most people born in Northern Ireland have or are entitled to dual citizenship, British and Irish. Generally people apply for the passport of the country which they identify with — nationalists for Irish passports, unionists for British — and are never troubled by the legal fact that they may technically...

25th November 2019
BY CJ McKinney

The Upper Tribunal has provided guidance on how First-tier Tribunal judges should approach attempts by the Home Office to revoke refugee status from Somalian nationals. SB (refugee revocation; IDP camps) Somalia [2019] UKUT 358 (IAC) confirms that it is, in principle, possible to revoke refugee status because internal relocation is...

21st November 2019
BY Alex Schymyck

The Upper Tribunal judgment in MS (British citizenship; EEA appeals) Belgium [2019] UKUT 356 (IAC) confirms that certain EU citizen children in the UK can be considered lawfully resident for the purposes of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, even if they (or their EU citizen parents...

19th November 2019
BY Ben Amunwa

The Upper Tribunal has ruled that human rights appeals may be allowed on the ground that the Secretary of State has unlawfully failed to acknowledge that the appellant is a victim of trafficking. DC (Trafficking, Protection/Human Rights appeals : Albania) [2019] UKUT 351 (IAC) provides little guidance on how tribunals...

15th November 2019
BY Alex Schymyck

The Upper Tribunal has finally, some six years after the test was introduced into domestic regulations, taken a good, hard look at the “centre of life” test applied by the Home Office to Surinder Singh cases. For background on the Surinder Singh route see our explainer post here: The Surinder Singh...

20th September 2019
BY Colin Yeo

In MS (appealable decisions; PTA requirements; anonymity : Belgium) [2019] UKUT 216 (IAC), President Lane and Upper Tribunal Judges Gill and Finch provide important guidance on jurisdiction in EEA deportation and Article 8 appeals and the correct procedure for raising “cross appeals” in the Upper Tribunal. I represented the claimant...

12th July 2019
BY Ben Amunwa

In 2016 the Home Office embarked on an attempt to homogenise the application processes for immigration applications made under EU law and those made under UK law. The Upper Tribunal has confirmed in Rehman (EEA Regulations 2016 – specified evidence) [2019] UKUT 195 (IAC) that there are limits to how...

11th July 2019
BY Iain Halliday

In immigration law, deadlines are important. They also frequently cause confusion. Bhavsar (late application for PTA: procedure) [2019] UKUT 196 (IAC) is an example of the complications that missing a deadline can cause. In Bhavsar the Upper Tribunal decided that, where an application for permission to appeal is submitted to...

28th June 2019
BY Iain Halliday

Banger (EEA: EFM – Right of Appeal) [2019] UKUT 194 (IAC) has finally reached the end of the road. This is the case that went up to the Court of Justice of the European Union on, essentially, two issues: Does the Surinder Singh route apply to durable parters? and Are...

24th June 2019
BY Colin Yeo

When someone pursuing an appeal in the immigration tribunal decides that they no longer want the appeal to go ahead, who gets to decide when the appeal comes to an end? The person themselves, the tribunal, or the Home Office? In July 2017, Mr Justice McCloskey, President of the Upper...

17th April 2019
BY Iain Halliday

The immigration tribunal has, once again, grappled with the public interest considerations which must be taken into account in all private and family life appeals against a migrant’s removal from the UK. It is now clear that, even where a child’s departure from the UK is unlikely to take place,...

15th April 2019
BY Iain Halliday

The Upper Tribunal has referred an immigration adviser to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), accusing him of running judicial review cases without a licence and failing to properly check expert reports. The case is R (Hoxha & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (representatives:...

15th April 2019
BY CJ McKinney

The President of the Upper Tribunal’s decision in OA and others (human rights; ‘new matter’; s.120) Nigeria [2019] UKUT 65 (IAC) has added another layer of complexity to an already biased and convoluted system. Readers are probably au fait with when the Secretary of State’s consent is required for an...

4th March 2019
BY Bilaal Shabbir

The upshot of the Upper Tribunal’s decision in AK and IK (S.85 NIAA 2002 – new matters) Turkey [2019] UKUT 67 (IAC) is that a person who relies upon a different category of the Immigration Rules to succeed under Article 8 at their appeal or in a section 120 statement,...

27th February 2019
BY Bilaal Shabbir

The Upper Tribunal has held that the non-EU partner of an EU citizen cannot start accruing time towards permanent residence status until they have a residence card, pointing out the well established distinction between family members and extended family members in EU free movement law. In short: a person married...

26th February 2019
BY Iain Halliday

In a newly reported judgment the Upper Tribunal has quashed the Secretary of State’s decision to refuse a request from the Greek government to take charge of the asylum claims of a mother and her three children so they could reunite with the father, who lives in the UK. The...

21st February 2019
BY Alex Schymyck

Credit where it’s due. In numerous claims and fresh claims for asylum for well over half a decade now, the firm of Barnes Harrild & Dyer has been presenting the Secretary of State for the Home Department with various reports by Professor Emile Joffé giving his expert opinion about the...

14th February 2019
BY Rudolph Spurling

Reading the case of R (Prathipati) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (discretion – exceptional circumstances) [2018] UKUT 427 (IAC), it is impossible not to feel deep admiration for Ms Prathipati. The 28-year-old Indian citizen appeared without a lawyer before Mr Justice Kerr in her application for judicial...

21st December 2018
BY Darren Stevenson

The Upper Tribunal has held in the case of LS (Article 45 TFEU – derivative rights) [2018] UKUT 426 (IAC) that the family member of a cross border worker within the EU — one who lives in one EU country but works regularly in another — can derive a right of residence from Article 45 TFEU...

18th December 2018
BY Colin Yeo

In R (FB and NR) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] UKUT 428 (IAC), the appellants challenged the legality of the Home Secretary’s removals policy (traditionally known as Chapter 60 of his Enforcement Guidance and Instructions, now titled Judicial reviews and injunctions). Specifically, the challenge tackled the policy of...

14th December 2018
BY Husein Meghji

In Oksuzoglu (EEA appeal – “new matter”) [2018] UKUT 00385 (IAC), the appellant was a Ukrainian national and the sponsor was a British national. They had spent some seven months in Cyprus and on their return to the UK, the appellant applied for a residence card invoking the Surinder Singh...

29th November 2018
BY Bilaal Shabbir

In R (Khan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Dishonesty, tax return, paragraph 322(5)) [2018] UKUT 384 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has issued guidance to the Home Office on how to properly decide applications from Tier 1 (General) applicants which raise issues of dishonesty under paragraph 322(5) of the...

26th November 2018
BY John Vassiliou
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