News

31.01.2022 - ILR can be cancelled while holder is outside the UK

The Home Secretary does have the legal power to cancel someone’s indefinite leave to remain after all, the Court of Appeal has held. 

The decision in R (C1) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Rev1) [2022] EWCA Civ 30 reverses the tentative conclusion of Mr Justice Jay last year.

There is very little information about the anonymous appellant; the case seems to be national security related. 

As per the case details, C1 had indefinite leave to remain in the UK. He left the country in 2018 and went to Iran. While he was abroad, the Home Secretary personally ordered his ILR to be cancell...

27.01.2022 - Stripping people of British citizenship without telling them is definitely illegal

The UK government’s attempt to strip a British-Pakistani woman of her citizenship without telling her was unlawful, a Court of Appeal has confirmed.

The case is R (D4) (Notice of Deprivation of Citizenship) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 33.

The woman known only as “D4” was born in the UK in 1967 and has always been a British as well as a Pakistani citizen. She is “assessed to have travelled to Syria to align with the proscribed terrorist organisation Islamic State” and has been detained at Camp Roj for the last three years.

On 27 December 2019, the government mad...

26.01.2022 - Marriages of convenience

It is always difficult to navigate between the different definitions of “sham marriage” and “marriage of convenience”.

The Upper Tribunal has now returned to this topic in the recent decision of Saeed (Deception – knowledge – marriage of convenience) [2022] UKUT 18 (IAC).

The facts 

Mr Saeed, a Pakistani citizen, entered the UK as a student in 2008. He held leave until 2014, when the Home Office made a decision to remove him under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 because of an allegedly fraudulent English language test certificate. He challenged that decision by way of judicia...

25.01.2022 - Social care workers can get Skilled Worker visas from 15 February 2022

Employers (but not private households) will be able to sponsor care assistants, home carers, nursing home support workers and similar so long as they pay at least £20,480 and £10.10 an hour. They must also include a criminal record certificate.

By way of background: lots of the people who do the vital, unglamorous day-to-day work of looking after elderly and disabled people are from abroad. Pre-pandemic, 16% of the adult social care workforce were foreign nationals, while almost 40% of care home nurses trained abroad.

Medical professionals and senior care workers already qualify for what is br...

24.01.2022 - British citizenship can be taken away if criminal offending not disclosed

The Upper Tribunal has affirmed the continuing obligation to disclose material facts in applications for naturalisation as a British citizen, including facts which arise after submitting the application. The case is Walile (deprivation: self-incrimination: anonymity) [2022] UKUT 17 (IAC).

Offence committed while citizenship application pending

The facts in this case were particularly unpleasant. Mr Walile applied for naturalisation in January 2010. In March 2010, he raped a child. Shortly afterwards, he left the UK, returning on 3 May. He was issued a certificate of naturalisation the followin...

20.01.2022 - Changes to right to work checks from 6 April 2022

Employers who want to avoid the possibility of a fine for hiring an unauthorised migrant are well advised to carry out right to work checks. 

Such checks are not mandatory, but where companies do carry them out, the Home Office advises that “all potential employees, including British citizens” be checked to avoid discrimination. As a result, inspections of passports or other ID is built into the hiring processes of firms across the land.

At present, there are three possible ways of carrying out these checks:

  • Online right to work checks, where the employer looks the person up in a Home Off...

11.01.2022 - EU citizens fighting deportation keep full residence rights

The Home Office has conceded that EU citizens being lined up for deportation retain full residence rights in the meantime. This is so long as they have applied to stay in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme and are protected by the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

The case involved a 19-year-old Portuguese citizen who has lived in the UK all his life but received a four-year prison sentence in 2018. He applied to the Settlement Scheme before the 30 June 2021 deadline and was refused; an appeal is pending.

The Home Office initially said that, if released on licence, he would be unable to work or ...

06.01.2022 - Tax self-assessment: HMRC waives fines again for late filings

Fines will be waived for anyone who submits their self-assessment tax return up to a month after the normal deadline of 31 January.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said fines would not be enforced for anyone who files by 28 February.

The move has been met with surprise. Typically, not meeting the deadline results in an automatic £100 penalty.

HMRC said Covid had put added pressure on individuals and tax advisers to complete online submissions.

The tax agency said 6.5 million customers had already filed their tax returns for the 2020-21 financial year, just over half of the 12.2 million required ...

22.12.2021 - No EU citizenship, no extended family members and the Brexit impacts

In Sabina Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1878 the Court of Appeal considered whether an extended family member, hoping to stay in the UK with their EEA citizen sponsor, can do so when the sponsor only acquired that citizenship after the extended family member entered the UK.

The answer is no, they can’t.

Direct and extended family members

Direct family members of European Economic Area nationals – such as spouses and children under the age of 21 – had an automatic right to enter and reside in the UK under EU free movement law. More distant family members – r...

21.12.2021 - Covid: Rishi Sunak announces £1bn fund for businesses

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has set out a £1bn fund to help businesses hit by the rise in Covid cases, including the leisure and hospitality sector.

Hospitality businesses like pubs and restaurants will be able to apply for cash grants of up to £6,000 per premises.

The government would also help some firms with the cost of sick pay for Covid-related absences, Mr Sunak said.

And he announced an extra £30m to help theatres and museums.

Many hospitality and leisure firms have been hit by a collapse in bookings and reduced footfall due to people's fears over the spread of the Omicron variant.

Mr Sunak ...

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