News

17.06.2020 - Immigration Health Surcharge refunds for NHS and social care workers

When the government announced on 21 May 2020 that NHS and social care workers would be made exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge, some immigration lawyers pointed out that a political announcement is one thing, legal implementation quite another. They reminded us that “history has shown that the pressure needs to be applied even more once the grand gesture has been made”. To take one recent example, an immigration concession for people from Northern Ireland was promised in January 2020 but the actual amendments to the Immigration Rules making it happen will not come into force until la...

15.06.2020 - Extended family members can’t have any breaks in dependency on EU citizen 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 Chowdhury (Extended family members: dependency) [2020] UKUT 188 (IAC) gives us the worst of both worlds. It comes to us years later than it should have and has the scope to dramatically restrict the ability of extended family members to qualify for EU settled status. In this case, the Upper Tribunal has confirmed that extended family members need...

14.06.2020 - Do coronavirus visa extensions properly, MPs urge

“The Home Office must clarify the legal basis for the offers of visa extensions”, says the Home Affairs committee of MPs in a coronavirus report published today.

The committee points out that there is considerable uncertainty about whether the department has the legal power to offer coronavirus visa extensions in the way it has done and calls for a statutory instrument to put the matter beyond doubt. Legal experts gave evidence to the inquiry and suggested that what looks like a visa extension could, in legal terms, be only a policy decision not to punish overstaying when caused by the pandemi...

14.06.2020 - Coronavirus: more than a million left out of income support, say MPs

The Treasury should act to help more than a million people who have fallen through the cracks in the government’s Covid-19 income support schemes, according to a report by an influential group of MPs.

The MPs called on Sunak to address the gaps in his coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) and self-employment income support scheme (SEISS).

The MPs said they recognised that Sunak’s costly financial support packages had been welcome to many of those unable to work due to the lockdown of the economy, but found that “rolling out financial support at pace and scale has inevitably resulted in some ...

14.06.2020 - Application from outside the UK: The validity period of the vignette visa sticker is extended to 90 days

Although not all UK visa application centres located outside the UK are fully open yet, and they are only gradually re-opening, however, the following rule comes into force from today and will be in effect until the end of this year.

If your 30 day visa to travel to the UK for work, study or to join family has expired, or is about to expire, you can request a replacement visa with revised validity dates free of charge until the end of this year.

To make a request, contact the Coronavirus Immigration Help Centre by email [email protected] in English language. You’ll need to include your nam...

11.06.2020 - Britain's GDP falls 20.4% in April as economy is paralysed by lockdown.

Britain’s economy shrank by a record 20.4% in April as the first full month of the coronavirus lockdown triggered an economic crash three times greater than the 2008 financial crisis.

Revealing the scale of the downturn, the official figures for gross domestic product (GDP) from the Office for National Statistics showed no area of the economy was left unscathed as the government imposed tight controls on business and social life to limit the spread of the disease.

The decline was the largest since comparable monthly records began in 1997 and was more than triple the previous record fall of 5.8...

11.06.2020 - Coronavirus and the UK immigration system (as of 12 June 2020)

Immigration tribunal hearings

 First-tier Tribunal

Back on 21 March, President of the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) Michael Clements wrote to the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association to say that hearings are to go remote:

From Wednesday, 25th March onwards, there will be no face to face hearings listed in any centre. Applications for bail and emergency work will continue to be given priority but, save in exceptional circumstance, applications and hearings will be conducted remotely.

The President also issued Practice Statement Note No 1 2020: Arrangements during the ...

08.06.2020 - UK households face £6bn debts because of Covid-19, says charity/ Almost £38 million support package for debt advice providers helping people affected by Coronavirus.

British households are expected to rack up debts worth a combined £6bn because of the coronavirus crisis, as millions of people fall behind on credit card payments, council tax and utility bills.

Sounding the alarm as the economic fallout from the health emergency mounts, the StepChange debt advice charity said 4.6m households risked building up dangerous levels of debt because of the pandemic.

The charity warned that debts racked up during the crisis would stifle the country’s economic recovery and that debt advisory services would be deluged once the reality of people’s situations began to h...

08.06.2020 - Coronavirus and the UK immigration system (as of 09 June 2020)

If you are applying to enter the UK or remain on the basis of family or private life

There are temporary concessions in place if you’re unable to meet the requirements of the family Immigration Rules to enter or remain in the UK due to coronavirus.

If you are unable to travel back to the UK due to coronavirus travel restrictions and your leave has expired, a short break in continuous residence will be overlooked. You are expected to make your next application as soon as possible.

Fiancés, fiancées or proposed civil partners

If you’re here with 6 months’ leave as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed c...

07.06.2020 - Coronavirus and the UK immigration system (as of 08 June 2020)

Immigration status of NHS workers

The Home Office guidance page was updated on 8 June 2020 to add some details about family members. It clarifies that family members of NHS workers who already have indefinite leave to remain cannot avail of this scheme. There is also a section saying that people who have already applied for an extension can withdraw it and get a refund, relying on the free one-year extension instead, although not if they’ve got as far as submitting their fingerprints and photo.

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