Free Movement

To be allowed into the UK as a visitor, border officials must be satisfied that you are a “genuine visitor”. One warning sign is “frequent and successive visits”, which may indicate that you are making the UK your “main home”. What there isn’t is a hard and fast rule that a visitor can’t be in the UK for more than six months in total in any 12-month...

Welcome to episode 77 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we cover a number of positive court decisions on Article 3, no recourse to public funds and immigration fees. We then mention the main coronavirus updates before turning to a few bits and pieces from EU law and some important asylum updates. British nationality law and policy also gets a mention, as do some changes t...

Welcome to episode 76 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with an important case concerning the hostile environment and the latest hardline deportation decisions. We then discuss immigration detention, including a case on the impact of coronavirus, before covering benefits, removals of migrants with children, immigration tribunal procedure and some mild controversy...

Welcome to episode 75 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we are covering March and there’s a lot to go over. We’ve got some EU law material, some fairly involved appeals law stuff on when a human rights claim generates a right or appeal or not, we’ll cover a few human rights issues around family life and settlement, briefly touch on some protection claims...

Welcome to episode 74 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’ve got a couple of Supreme Court decisions to cover then a carousel of other cases on detention, the rights of British children to live with their parents in the UK, asylum, EU law, human rights, citizenship and the future of the immigration system. We start, though, by talking a little about what the corona...

Welcome to episode 73 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with asylum, in particular the new Iraq country guidance decision, before turning to the rebranded Global Talent visa and the latest on Brexit. There are a couple of disappointing cases on immigration detention to cover, followed by an Article 3 update and the usual procedural pointers. If you would like to...

Welcome to episode 72 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with the excellent result on child citizenship fees and the Supreme Court’s clarification of the legal test in Zambrano cases. There are also interesting cases on investment visas, unlawful detention and deportation law to cover, as well some developments in asylum law. If you would like to claim CPD p...

Welcome to episode 71 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we explain the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision in Hemmati as well as recent developments in asylum and trafficking. The DeSouza case on the Good Friday Agreement has been reported by the Upper Tribunal, along with a bunch of procedural cases. Finally, we look at the latest in deportation law from the Cour...

Welcome to episode 70 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we lead on some case law on asylum before turning to the latest changes to the EU Settlement Scheme (yes, they’ve replaced Appendix EU all over again). We then discuss new Home Office guidance on deception, an interesting European Court of Human Rights judgment and the position with historic convictions in fres...

Welcome to episode 69 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This is a bumper Brexit issue: we’ll be covering the government’s policy on ending free movement for EU citizens, in addition to a healthy crop of cases on EU immigration law while we’ve still got it. There are also some changes to the Immigration Rules on the Points Based System and asylum. We end on how not...

Welcome to episode 68 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We’re continuing our review of the summer, with developments to mention in areas as diverse as asylum, litigation costs, citizenship deprivation and human trafficking. We’ll also discuss new visas for scientists and entrepreneurs. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this p...

Welcome to episode 67 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. As you may have noticed, we’ve been on a rather extended holiday, so we’re going to use this and the next episode to catch you up on what’s gone on in immigration law over the summer. There are a fair few cases to discuss, especially on detention, deportation and asylum. We then have good news to mention on EU...

The way that I tell clients to treat this kind of evidence gathering process is… don’t treat it as an evidence gathering process. It may sound a little corny, but treat it as a celebration of your relationship so far. You’re telling a story to someone of how you met, what you’ve done together, where you’ve been. Imagine that you were explaining the relationship to you...

Welcome to episode 66 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. CJ has just been on a podcasting course and you may notice a few differences this month, including some intro music. This month we start in the Supreme Court with its decision on the Worker Registration Scheme. We then tackle some recent controversies over long residence and passport eGates before running through the latest cas...

Welcome to the May 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This was a mercifully quiet month in immigration law, for a change, but there’s still a few decisions from the Court of Appeal to be aware of — particularly on asylum and trafficking — as well as an important process change for Zambrano applicants. There’s a useful judgment on damages for unlaw...

The Home Office processed around 166,000 applications for British citizenship last year. Most are granted, but some are refused. The most common reason for refusal is failing the ‘good character’ test . Almost 4,000 bids for citizenship were rejected on this ground last year. That makes up 40% of all refusals, or 2% of all decided applications (successful or unsuccessful). The requirem...

Welcome to the April 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a big Court of Appeal decision on “paragraph 322(5)” tax cases and the state of play on the new business visas. There’s just one asylum judgment to review, but several on deportation and detention. We’ll then look at some immigration appeals law and some non-Brexit EU...

The EU Settlement Scheme is well underway, with 600,000 European citizens and their families having now applied to stay in the UK after Brexit. The scheme appears to have lived up to its billing insofar as the Home Office is looking to grant people settled status rather than refuse it. Officially, there have been zero refusals in the 188,000 cases decided by mid-April 2019. It does seem wildly unl...

Welcome to the March 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a couple of High Court victories by NGOs before turning to some significant developments in business immigration. There’s also been some movement in asylum law which we’ll review before looking at some new cases concerning appeal rights and children. We finish on developments in...

Welcome to the February 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a quick discussion of deprivation of citizenship in the context of the Shamima Begum case before tackling some of the case law on asylum (in particular Sri Lanka for some reason). Then to legal aid, where there’s good news for practitioners seeking to backdate a certificate but the...

Welcome to the delayed January 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We start the round-up with some mixed news on appeal rights before getting into the latest on Brexit and the Settlement Scheme for EU citizens living in the UK. There is some significant new guidance on good character in the context of British citizenship applications to chew over and then some business im...

Welcome to the December 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. It’s a bumper issue, with a host of immigration announcements just before Christmas to cover, including two sets of changes to the Immigration Rules, a white paper, an Immigration Bill and announcements on EU citizens’ rights. We run through the main policy and procedural changes for lawyers to be awa...

Welcome to the November 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we again take it from the top with the Supreme Court’s latest attempt to cut through the complexity of our immigration law before turning to a major High Court decision on trafficking. November also saw the Home Office roll out a new in-country application system, so we’ll discuss what we k...

Welcome to the October 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We posted 40 articles on the blog last month, but are realistically limited in a podcast to discussing the most important ten or so. A Supreme Court judgment obviously qualifies, so we start with that one on how the best interests of children factor into removal decisions before turning to another case involving c...

Welcome to the September 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We tried something a bit different this month. CJ and I ran the podcast together in a more conversational style. To keep the length reasonable we’ve focussed in on fewer subjects but covered them in a bit more depth. Let us know if you think it is better or worse in comments, please! We’ll try again...