New Guide for the end of 2016!

Click the link below and open the pdf guide to immigration changes made in November and December 2016.

 

There are even further immigration changes expected in 2017 and in particular with the coming into force fully in February 2017 of the 2016 EEA Regulations, both immigration practitioners and lay applicants are expected to be fairly au fait with the changes so as to be able to prepare applications with a fair chance of success.

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A Guide to the November and December 2016 changes

Irremovability And Beating the Effect of the Remove Now, Appeal Later Provisions

deportedSome claimants may prove irremovable from the UK for various reasons.  The question then becomes, whether  in light of  the recent extension of the  Section 94B certification power to non- deportation cases,  it is possible to utilise Home Office policy itself to argue that  the certification procedure is not appropriate in a given case.

 

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Supreme Court seeks to simplify issues on validity of applications and Section 3C leave

supreme_court_crest_official-svgThe newly notified  Supreme Court decision, Mirza & Ors, R (on the applications of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] UKSC 63, at first brush appears as a  short and  easy read, however is quite  loaded with  legislation,  rules and caselaw that makes  very dry and  uninteresting  reading.

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Valid Passport with the Home Office? Zimbabweans with no claims still very much removable from the UK

Cases such as Babbage, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 148 and  JM (Zimbabwe), R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 1773 are often understood  by  some to mean that any Zimbabwean national detained under UK immigration powers is  irremovable.  This is not correct. The  Home Office have incrementally been detaining Zimbabwean failed asylum seekers  upon reporting and some  are  indeed being  removed forcibly to Zimbabwe.

 

The question that becomes relevant  for  Zimbabwe nationals  who have no claims or appeals pending is  this: have the Home Office retained the person’s valid and current passport at some point?  If so, without a legal basis of  being in the UK, the chances of  resisting removal to Zimbabwe are very much  significantly reduced.

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Tip of the Day: Undocumented Parents Having A British Citizen Child In The UK

Home Office Policy Guidance, IDI, Appendix FM Section 1.0b Family Life (as a Partner or Parent) and Private Life: 10-Year Routes, August 2015, currently summarises at Paragraph  3.5:

 

The 10–year parent route provides a basis on which leave to remain can be granted to a parent who has responsibility for or access to their child following the breakdown of their relationship with the child’s other parent.

 

This route is for single parents who:

  • have sole parental responsibility for their child; or

  • are the parent with whom the child normally lives, rather than the child’s other parent (who is British or settled); or

  • do not live with the child (who instead lives with a British or settled parent or carer), but they have direct access in person to the child, as agreed with the parent or carer with whom the child normally lives, or as ordered by a court in the UK.

The parent route is therefore not for couples with a child together who are in a genuine and subsisting relationship. An applicant can only apply for the parent route if they are not eligible to apply for the partner route.

 

So what can parents with an irregular immigration status do where they have a child born in the UK who is a British citizen?

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