News

28.03.2019 - Home Office opens seven new centres for dealing with complex immigration cases

The Home Office has announced that there are currently seven service and support centres opened for customers with particularly complex immigration matters. Appointments are booked free of charge. Experienced UKVI staff will be able to assist applicants in the following immigration categories:

- Family route

- Dependent family members

-  Family reunion visas

- Applying as statelessness person

- Fee waiver or exemption applicants

- Victims of domestic violence

- Further submission after unsuccessful asylum claim

- Those who only need to enrol biometric information.

Service centres are located i...

28.03.2019 - HMRC no longer provides information to the Federal Tax Service of Russia about British assets of Russian citizens

The UK authorities decided not to share CRS (Common Reporting Standard) tax data with Russia. The automatic exchange of tax information between countries has been stopped since 2019. Russia joined the international agreement of auto exchange of tax information in September 2018. The decision of the UK to stop the exchange means that the Russian Federal Tax Service will not receive information for 2018. Previously, the Federal Tax Service was receiving data about assets of Russian citizens, including cash flow for the year, investment income, earnings from the sale of shares, interest on deposi...

27.03.2019 - Rules for counting 14 days limit for administrative review application

The Court of Appeal in the case of R (Hasan) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 389 confirmed that the countdown of 14 days during which the applicant can file an administrative review begins even if the applicant has not physically received a decision letter. The applicant, Mr. Hassan, provided the Home office the address of the university as the correspondence and the decision letter was sent there. At that time, Mr. Hassan resided on a different address. In accordance with the rules in force at the time of the decision, the refusal letter was considered received o...

27.03.2019 - The court suspends Home office removal policy

On 14 March 2019, the High Court suspended the removal policy of the Home Office. This decision means that the system of providing “removal windows” to migrants, during which they can be expelled from the UK without warning, will be temporarily halted.

Under this system, the applicants are provided with a window of three months during which the Home office can send him/her out of the country. At the same time, the immigrant does not know the exact removal date.

In the light of this court injunction, 69 people who were supposed to receive removal windows will not be expelled from the country wi...

14.03.2019 - Spring Statement 2019

Chancellor Philip Hammond on 13 March 2019 presented at the House of Commons new Spring Budget. In the light of the problems with the signing of the Brexit deal, the new budget did not reveal significant changes.

Let’s have a closer look on the most important points of chancellor’s speech.

Economic growth

The economic growth in 2019 will be 1.2%. This number is lower compared to the autumn statement, which showed 1.6%. The expected annual forecast will be 1.4% in 2020, 1.6% in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The deficit of GDP in 2018-2019  will be 1.1%, which is 3 billion pounds less than predicted in t...

08.03.2019 - New fees for visa applications

On 7 March 2019 the Home Office published new visa fees for both in-country and outside of the UK submission. The new fees will apply to applications submitted on or after 29 March 2019 (with few minor exceptions). In general, visa fees have not changed apart from a small increase in prices for visit visas. Also there is an increase in fees for additional services related to expedited processing such as «Super priority» and «Priority» for both in-country and out-of-the country applications.

07.03.2019 - Statement of changes to the UK Immigration Rules dated 7 March 2019. Scrapping Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa

Home office published the latest statement of changes to the UK Immigration Rules, laid to the Parliament on the 7th of March 2019. Most of the changes will take effect from 29 March 2019, but the cut-off date is yet to be confirmed.

Changes to TIER 1 (Investor) category

• Investors will need to provide proof of the source for any investment funds over the past two years as oppose to 90 days which is the current requirement before the submission.

• British banks must confirm that they have carried out all necessary checks before opening an investment account.

• The government excluded investme...

04.03.2019 - “Right to Rent” scheme violates Human Rights Law

The High Court ruled that the government’s “Right to Rent” scheme violates Human Rights law. The hearing took place on 1 March 2019. This program obliges landlords to check the immigration status of tenants before signing the tenancy contracts, as well as conducting regular checks throughout entire lease and its extension.

The “Right to Rent” policy was introduced in 2016 by Theresa May as a part of a plan to create ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants under the 2014 Immigration Act. Under this policy all landlords should conduct checks of the immigration status of the potential tenant...

01.03.2019 - Office of National Statistics (ONS) recorded a rise in migration level from countries outside the European Union

According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the level of net migration to the UK from countries outside the EU has reached its highest level in the last 15 years. From September 2017 to September 2018, 261 000 more non-EU people moved to the United Kingdom rather then left. This is the highest figure since 2004. Net migration from EU countries continues to fall and has halved reaching the level of 2009 – 57 000 people.

The ONS report states that in general, from September 2017 to September 2018, 627 000 people moved to the UK, 345 000 people left the UK. Thus, the total net migration...

27.02.2019 - Calculating qualifying period to obtain permanent residence for extended family members of EU citizens

The High Tribunal in the case of  Kunwar (EFM – calculating periods of residence) [2019] UKUT 63 (IAC) ruled that a non-European partner who is in a durable relationship with an  EU citizen but not married to him/her cannot start counting five years residency for purposes of permanent leave in absence of residence card. The five years clock runs after the applicant is granted the Residence Permit card. This situation significantly differs from the one where partners are married. They have an automatic right for residence, while relying on the length of the relationship with their sponsor from ...

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