The Asylum and Immigration Chamber of the Upper Tribunal has issued two new determinations which show that the Court of Appeal's judgment in Pankina goes much further than the UKBA seems to have grasped.
Having lost the decisive case on the lawfulness of the Points Based System the Secretary of State for the Home Department has decided not to pursue an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. Instead the Immigration Rules have been amended so that the criteria which led to the challenges in Pankina and English UK have been transferred from the Policy Guidance into the Rules themselves.
The post-election speculation has finally ended with the government’s announced “four strand policy” starting to take shape.
The Court of Appeal's judgment in Pankina & others v Secretary of State for the Home Department may have holed the UKBA's points based system below the waterline
In one of its recently issued determinations the Upper Tribunal's Immigration and Asylum Chamber seems to have begun freely to express its frustration at what it sees as the idiosyncrasies of the points-based system.
In R (on the application of HSMP Forum (UK) LTD) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWHC 711 (Admin) (6 April 2009) the HSMP Forum has repeated its success of almost exactly one year ago.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has announced that from 6 April 2009 staff at its public enquiry offices will accept applications for leave to remain in the UK with respect to certain categories.
From 31 March 2009 anyone wishing to enter the United Kingdom to study will have to apply under Tier 4 of the Points Based System (PBS)
On 22 February 2009 the United Kingdom Border Agency's (the "UKBA") website announced dramatic changes to the regime under which migrants can come to the UK to work.
The UK Government has announced that Tiers 2 and 5 of the new Australian styled points based system (PBS) will commence on 27th November 2008. These Tiers cover skilled and temporary workers wishing to come to the United Kingdom to work.