Settlement

On the 29 February 2008 the UK Border Agency opened the Register of Licensed Sponsors to employers wishing to issue Certificates of Sponsorship to migrants.

Certificates of Sponsorship will replace the current work permit system in its entirety when Tier 2 of the Points Based System goes live. The Agency currently anticipates that this will be in Autumn 2008. Employers who do not appear on the register will not be able to sponsor migrant workers.

In a judgment handed down on 8 April 2008 Sir George Newman granted the HSMP Forum’s application for a declaration that the Secretary of State had unlawfully applied the changed provisions of the Highly Skilled Migrant Scheme to people who had entered the United Kingdom under the previous requirements of the scheme.  The judge found that due to the terms of the guidance provided to the applicants when they entered the UK under the HSMP they had legitimately expected that their applications to extend their stay in the UK would be considered under the same criteria which had applied when they had been granted leave to enter.  His crucial conclusion was:

In the most recent measure announced with respect to its Points Based System the UK Border Agency has announced that people currently in the United Kingdom in specific immigration categories which will be deleted as the Points Based System is implemented may complete their leave to remain under the existing terms of that leave.   If they apply successfully to extend their leave in their existing categories they will be granted enough further leave to remain to entitle them to apply for settlement in the UK at the expiry of that  further leave to remain.  

Last week the Secretary of State, via her representative Lord Bassam of Brighton in the House of Lords, made an important concession regarding the scope of the general grounds for refusal contained in the recent statement of changes in the immigration rules, HC 321.  

Back in June of last year we reported the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s determination in AM (3rd party support not permitted R281 (v)) Ethiopia [2007] UKAIT 00058.  In that case the Tribunal -  chaired by its current president - found that people applying for entry clearance under rule 281 of the Immigration Rules had to show that they could maintain themselves from their own means – and that the wording of the rule prohibited them from relying on funds received from other people (known as “third parties”).  In December we reported the Court of Appeal’s judgment in MW (Liberia) v Secretary of State [2007] EWCA Civ 1376, in which the Court of Appeal upheld the Tribunal’s determination dismissing the appeal of a child against the refusal of her application to join her mother in UK – finding that children applying to come to the UK could only rely upon funds for their maintenance which were provided by their parents.  

As part of the BIA (the Border and Immigration Agency)’s delivery of its Borders, Immigration and Identify Action Plan which was launched in December of 2006 - on 6 March 2008 the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration Liam Byrne issued the government’s policy statement Introducing compulsory identity cards for foreign nationals.  The document sets out the government’s plans to require all foreign nationals to possess identity cards.  It pledges that by 2014/15 90% of foreign nationals will have identity cards.

Two recent decisions - GK (Long residence –immigration history) Lebanon [2008] UKAIT 00011 (18-2-2008) in the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and Belkacem Aissaoui v Secretary of State [2008] EWCA Civ 37 (7-2-2008)  provide valuable guidance as to the proper interpretation of the immigration rules relating to the grant of indefinite leave to remain in the UK on the basis of somebody’s long residence here. 

On 6 February 2008 the government published the latest statement of changes in the immigration rules.  As expected the rules establish the new regime under which Tier one – the highly skilled tier of the points based system - will be implemented.  The regime commences on 29 February 2008, when any highly skilled foreign national who is currently working in the United Kingdom will have to apply under the new rules for an extension of their stay.  From 1 April 2008 highly skilled people in India wishing to enter the UK in that category will have to apply to enter the UK under the provisions of the new rules. By the summer the rules will apply to all highly skilled applicants for entry anywhere in the world.