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20.09.2018 - The European Union Court of Justice upheld Secretary of States position regarding the requirement of registration under Work Registration Scheme

Between 2004 and 2011, citizens from the so-called A8 countries (Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia) were able to exercise their free movement rights in the EU territories including Great Britain, but they had to undergo a simple registration procedure with Home Office under the Work Registration Scheme, in order to be legally employed in the UK. The registration process was straightforward and included filling out the form and sending it to the Home Office.

In case C-618/16 Prefeta v UK, the applicant was a citizen of Poland. He moved to the UK ...

18.09.2018 - Deportation rights of EU citizens

In the recent decision of the case of Goralczyk v the Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] CSIH 60, the Inner House of Court of Sessions, confirmed that there are different procedures and grounds for the deportation of EU citizens compared to other migrants.

Mr. Goralchik received a deportation order after he was charged with drink driving as well as with two cases of drug offenses. During this time Mr. Goralchik was living in the United Kingdom for nine years. He was in a relationship with an EU citizen and had two children, who were born in Britain. Moreover the report of crimin...

18.09.2018 - New “Calais” Leave to settle in the UK

After the clearance of Calais camp in France in 2016, the British government decided to move 769 children to its territory in order to protect them from higher risk of violence, abuse and human trafficking. 549 children were reunited with their relatives who already lived in the UK. Nevertheless, some of them did not fall under current Immigration Regulations, and government decided to introduce a new visa category, created specifically for the children of the Calais refugee camp. Such visa will allow the applicant to work, study, have access to public funds and healthcare system and qualify t...

11.09.2018 - Migration Advisory Committee recommends not to introduce a cap on the numbers of the foreign students coming to the UK

An independent immigration advisor of the government, the Migration Advisory Committee published the report on international student visitors in the UK. The study was commissioned by the Home Office in August 2017. According to the report, overseas students should not be removed from migration target. However, it was also advised not to introduce a cap on the numbers of the foreign students coming to the UK.

According to the statistics, there are 750,000 international students coming to the UK every year. This number includes all variety of students from undergraduate and postgraduate degrees,...

10.09.2018 - Russians in the UK face another review of investor visas

After Theresa May announced the results of the investigation into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, relations between Russia and Britain became more tense. Police investigation found that two Russian GRU agents, assigned by senior level officials of the Russian government, are responsible for the Salisbury attack.

Soon after the report was published, a source close to the Home Office confirmed that all Tier 1 Investor visas issued before 5th of April 2015 will be subject to review. In total, 3000 investor visas were issued between 2008 and 2015, with 700 given to Russian citizens. Thi...

05.09.2018 - Home Office announced the relaunch of immigration scheme for farm workers after Brexit

The UK Government will create 2,500 jobs for migrants from the countries outside the European Union as a part of immigration scheme to support farming industry. Migrants will be able to obtain visas as seasonal workers for up to six months. The program will be launched in spring of 2019 and will last until December 2020 to prevent labour shortages during peak production periods.

The ministers also warned that the program will be suspended if there are cases of violation of immigration rules, and migrants would remain in the country illegally after their visas expire.

The relaunch of the scheme...

03.09.2018 - Home Office loses about 75% of appeals

According to recent reports, the Home Office loses nearly three-quarters of the appeals filed against the decision of the Upper Tribunal. Due to this fact, it is unclear whether it is reasonable to start expensive, lengthy and time consuming court process with such a low success rate.

For example, between April 2017 and March 2018, the Court of Appeal heard 11,974 cases of the UK asylum refusals, of which the Home Office lost 4,332. Of those decisions, Home Office appealed 1 235 further in the Upper Tribunal and lost 900 cases (73%).

If the applicant receives the initial refusal from the Home ...

30.08.2018 - The British immigration rules doubled in length

According to the latest reports, Home Office introduced more than 5,700 changes in the UK Immigration Rules since 2010. Around 1,300 amendments were introduced in 2012, when Teresa May was the Home Secretary and introduced "hostile environment" policy for illegal immigrants.

In some cases, Home office made changes to the rule a week after its publication. One of the documents published in 2014 contained 22 changes, and three days later it was replaced with an updated version, where there were already 250 amendments. The total number of changes made to the Immigration rules since 2010 is almost...

29.08.2018 - Latest statistics on the UK migration

According to the latest report of the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the overall net migration has slightly raised in the last 12 months reaching 270,000 compared to 242,000 last year. Net migration is the difference between the number of immigrants coming to live in the UK and the number of emigrants leaving the country. At the same time, net migration to the UK from the EU countries has reached a six-year minimum and dropped to 87,000 people as per March 2018 statistics, which means that the rise in the overall net migration can be explained by the growing number of immigrants from non...

23.08.2018 - Rights of non EU citizens applying for Retained Right of Residency after the divorce or death of their EU spouse

In the event of divorce of non EU partner from EU citizen or death of the EU partner, the non EU citizen can continue to reside in the UK under the Retained Right of Residency. Until recently one of the main eligibility criteria to obtain such visa was to prove the employment (exercise of treaty rights) in the UK.

In its latest decision, the case of Gauswami India [2018] UKUT 275 (IAC),  the Upper Tier Tribunal ruled out that in the event of divorce of non EU national with EU partner or his death, non EU citizens, can not only show his employment in the UK but also rely on his job seeker statu...

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