Visa Services

Paths to citizenship - the new draft Immigration and Citizenship Bill

The government yesterday published a draft version of its immigration and citizenship Bill. Back in February we reported the government’s Green Paper Path to Citizenship. The consultation period announced then closed at the end of May. The Bill’s consultation period now begins. If the timetable announced in February is met the Bill will commence its passage through parliament at the end of this year.

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Policy announced to implement HSMP Forum judgment

The UK Borders Agency (the “UKBA”) yesterday published a new policy in the light of the HSMP Forum’s successful application for judicial review of the changes to the qualifying criteria for extensions of leave to remain under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (“HSMP”).

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Students can change courses after arrival in the UK

Updated by Gherson on Friday 4 July 2008. All Articles | Featured Articles | Students | Settlement | Visa Services

In GO v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWCA Civ 747 the Court of Appeal has overturned the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s interpretation of the immigration rules concerning students’ obligations regularly to attend and to make satisfactory progress on their “courses of study”

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New Tier one rules include concession of 13 May 2008

Under the statement of changes in the immigration rules (HC 607) announced on Monday and which is effective from 30 June 2008, the UKBA has implemented the whole of Tier one of the points based system.

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Entry clearance guidance changed once more - is discretion coming back?

Updated by Gherson on Monday 9 June 2008. All Articles | Featured Articles | Working for UK Employers | Settlement | Visa Services

In February of this year the government announced a statement of changes (HC321) in the immigration rules to implement “Tier one” of the new points based system. In the same statement of changes severe penalties were announced for those who had breached the UK’s immigration laws in the past, and by which they would be banned from re-entering the UK for a period of up to ten years from when they broke the immigration laws. As we have reported on this site at length – these re-entry bans sparked a chorus of condemnation by interested parties and members of parliament. The campaign has led the government to make two major concessions, substantially limiting the scope of the rule changes.

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Tier 1: professional bodies - not UKNARIC - to judge value of qualifications obtained overseas

Back in May of 2007 on this site we reported that the Border and Immigration Agency (the previous title of what is now the UK Borders Agency or the UKBA) was refusing applications by Iraqi, Nepalese, Sudanese and Filipino doctors (among others) for leave to enter or to remain in the UK under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. The United Kingdom National Academic Recognition Information Centre (UKNARIC) was appointed by the BIA to decide whether qualifications (including doctors’ undergraduate degrees in medicine) awarded by universities in the applicants' own countries were equivalent to the UK standard. It was assessing the doctors’ qualifications as not being “equivalent”.

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Re-entry bans - government announces further major concession

The history of the Border and Immigration Agency’s, (recently renamed the “UK Borders Agency” or UKBA) implementation of its points based system via the immigration rules is bizarre to say the least. HC 321 was laid before Parliament on 6 February of this year. In this "statement of changes in the immigration rules" the government - without any prior warning or consultation - introduced rules which were immediately characterised as “re-entry bans”.

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Child Visitors - Requirement to name all those who may travel with a child. Failure to do so may result in child being refused entry to the UK.

Updated by Gherson on Tuesday 6 May 2008. All Articles | Featured Articles | Family Immigration | Visa Services

On 12 February 2006 the Border and Immigration Agency (now the UK Border Agency) introduced a new requirement into the Immigration Rules relating to child visitors. (Paragraph 46A of the Immigration Rules).

The Rule requires in relation to visa nationals that if a child applies for an Entry Clearance (a visa) as an accompanied child, they must specify which parent or guardian will travel with them. As a consequence, the Home Office may interpret this as meaning that on each entry to the UK the child must be accompanied by the parent or guardian specified on their Entry Clearance. The child could be refused entry to the UK if they are not travelling with the person specified.

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Employers and Sponsor Licensing - severe consequences of refusal / revocation

On 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.

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No appeal by government from HSMP success in Administrative Court

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:

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