News

19.03.2020 - Bank of England cuts interest rates to all-time low of 0.1% due to coronavirus.

The Bank of England has cut interest rates to an all-time low of 0.1% in a further emergency measure to try and limit the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A week ago, the Bank of England cut in rates to 0.25% to help businesses and individuals cope with the economic damage caused by the coronavirus.

The decision to reduce the base interest rate again is an additional emergency measure designed to reduce the economic challenges presented by the coronavirus Covid-19.

It will also buy an additional £200bn of UK government and corporate bonds with an effort to lower the cost of borrowi...

18.03.2020 - Family life: substance over form

Uddin v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 338 is an important case in which the outgoing Senior President of Tribunals provides the judges who serve in his Immigration and Asylum Chamber with very strong guidance on mixed credibility findings and the assessment of family life.

Placed in foster care in the UK

Mr Uddin is a citizen of Bangladesh who was abandoned in London in 2013, aged 13. He was placed with foster carers by the local authority. The Home Office refused him asylum but granted leave to remain on the basis of his age. 

He then applied to extend his leave o...

16.03.2020 - Long waits for visa documents may give rise to compensation

The Home Office may have to pay compensation in the case of major blunders, the Court of Appeal has said in a significant new ruling, Hasson v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 329.

Challenging an impressive new low by the Home Office, Mr Hasson sought compensation after being left waiting 25 months for a biometric residence permit (BRP) confirming his right to live and work in the UK.

On 20 May 2016, the Home Office sent the Mauritian citizen a letter confirming he had been granted leave to remain in the UK until 20 November 2018, promising his BRP would be sent withi...

13.03.2020 - Genuine chance of being engaged test for retaining EU worker status found unlawful

EU citizens do not have to prove that they have a “genuine chance of being engaged” in order to retain worker status under European Union law, the Upper Tribunal has held. The case is KH v Bury MBC and SSWP [2020] UKUT 50 (AAC).

Martin Williams of the Child Poverty Action Group brought the case on behalf of KH, a Polish citizen. KH needed to prove that she retained the status of worker after being unemployed for over six months, in order to keep her housing benefit. Standing in her way were the EEA Regulations, which provide (in both the 2006 and 2016 versions) that someone in this position mu...

13.03.2020 - New statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (2020)

The government continues to keep us up-to-date with yet another statement of changes to the Immigration Rules.

All the changes appear to take effect on 6 April 2020.

 Surinder Singh cases

The amendments confirm that, to use this route, the UK citizen needs to be resident abroad and exercising free movement rights before the end of the transition period. This is the quite specific time of 23:00 GMT on 31 December 2020. The previous version of the rules was not particularly clear on this.

The upshot is that people availing of the Surinder Singh route can return to the UK any time before on 29 Ma...

12.03.2020 - Immigration Health Surcharge rising to £624 in October 2020

The Immigration Health Surcharge is to increase from £400 to £624 in October 2020, the government has announced.

The rise was confirmed during the Budget, which Chancellor Rishi Sunak presented to Parliament today. An accompanying policy costings document states: 

This measure increases the Immigration Health Surcharge from the current level of £400 per year to £624 per year for each surcharge liable non-EEA temporary migrant (including dependants). The measure also increases the discounted rate for students, their dependents and those on the Youth Mobility Scheme from £300 to £470. The surcha...

11.03.2020 - Key points from budget 2020

Chancellor Rishi Sunak on 11 March 2020 delivered a new 2020 Budget to Parliament.

Please find below our summary of the key points of chancellor’s speech.

Coronavirus

  • The government is doing everything to keep country and people healthy and financially secured
  • Fiscal stimulus totalling £30bn, including welfare and business support, sick-pay changes and local assistance, including £7bn for businesses and families and £5bn for the NHS
  • The chancellor says he believes this is larger than any other country at present

Welfare

  • £1bn of additional funding, including a £500m local aut...

11.03.2020 - Bank of England urgently cuts interest rate to 0.25% due to coronavirus.

On Wednesday 11 March 2020 The Bank of England has slashed the main interest rate by 0.5 points from 0.75% to 0.25%, which is for the first time since August 2016. This decision is explained by the need to support the country's economy, which suffers from restrictive measures during the outbreak of coronavirus infection COVID-19.

‘Following the spread of Covid-19, risky asset and commodity prices have fallen sharply, and government bond yields reached all-time lows, consistent with a marked deterioration in risk appetite and in the outlooks for global and UK growth. Indicators of financial mar...

10.03.2020 - Home Office abandons “centre of life” test in Surinder Singh cases

The Home Office has updated its guidance on Surinder Singh cases to remove all reference to a “centre of life” test. This follows the case of ZA (Reg 9. EEA Regs; abuse of rights) Afghanistan [2019] UKUT 281 (IAC) in which the Upper Tribunal found that the test was made-up nonsense and incompatible with EU law.

Surinder Singh is an immigration route that allows British citizens who have moved to another EU country to return with non-European family members, bypassing the strict rules on UK family visas that apply to people who have not exercised free movement rights. The Home Office has always...

09.03.2020 - EU citizens are protected by EU law, High Court reminds government

The High Court has held that the Home Office trying to apply its “deport first, appeal later” policy to EU citizens is incompatible with European Union law. The case is Hafeez v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor [2020] EWHC 437 (Admin).

So what’s changed?

This will be a helpful decision for EU citizens facing deportation from the UK and those representing them. It makes it clear that EU law applies to all stages of the deportation process.

The Home Office can still certify cases and deport EU nationals before their appeals have concluded. However it needs to apply EU law when d...

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