The UK’s emergency evacuation of Afghan civilians ends today, ahead of the 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan. Where does that leave Afghans hoping to escape the Taliban for safety in Britain? That’s the subject of this episode, in which I’m joined by two lawyers with extensive experience in this area: Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis Solicitors and Sarah Pinder of Goldsmith Chambers. We discuss the two existing resettlement programmes for Afghans with ties to the...
Aug 27, 2021•24 min
Welcome to episode 91 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we begin with a Supreme Court decision on deportation and some developments on immigration judicial reviews. We then move to business immigration, where a new type of visa has just been announced, and then off in the other direction completely to cover asylum and refugee issues. We end with a couple of court decisions on deception and long residence. Note that we are not covering the Immigration Bill published in J...
Aug 13, 2021•29 min
The Nationality and Borders Bill 2021 looks set to sail through Parliament, passing its second reading stage in the House of Commons this week by 101 votes . The headline provisions of the Bill are by now well known — indeed, notorious — so we’re not going to spend this episode rehearsing the various ways in which it tries to make life more difficult for asylum seekers. Instead, we’ve picked out some of the less high-profile elements that have received less scrutiny to date. Colin himself joins ...
Jul 23, 2021•23 min
Welcome to episode 90 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We’re covering June 2021, which feels a little unreal given the Nationality and Borders Bill had landed shortly before we were due to record. But life goes on, and we’ve got a few points about the EU Settlement Scheme to cover; a couple of cases on family immigration and one on long residence; several asylum issues; a couple of deportation cases to touch on; and a couple of cases in which the Court of Appeal schools the immig...
Jul 09, 2021•28 min
Brexit begins on 1 July. From that date, “hostile environment” checks apply to EU citizens in earnest. It will no longer be possible to satisfy an immigration status check — for benefits, employment or a tenancy — by flashing an EU passport. Instead, as Home Office guidance puts it, EU nationals “will be required to provide evidence of lawful immigration status in the UK, in the same way as other foreign nationals”. For those living in the UK before the end of 2020, evidence of lawful immigratio...
Jun 25, 2021•25 min
Welcome to episode 89 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month is a bit of a bumper episode, so we may hurry through some updates to keep it a manageable length, but you can read more about each item at the links below. We start with a couple of rather concerning court cases involving massive Home Office delays before turning to immigration policy. We’re then off to the Upper Tribunal to discuss a series of new decisions on family migration and the conduct of immigration appea...
Jun 11, 2021•27 min
Last year over 10,000 people were identified as possible victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, around two thirds of whom were foreign nationals from places like Albania, Sudan and Vietnam. That’s just a drop in the ocean, given that an estimated 100,000 victims are out there at any one time. Nevertheless, the existence of a support system for victims can provide exploited migrants with important rights — so naturally the government is keen to reduce the number of people helped by it. I...
May 28, 2021•20 min
Welcome to episode 88 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’ve got quite a few different subjects to cover, including some detention issues, the EU Settlement Scheme — for which the deadline is now rapidly approaching — and British nationality law. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find al...
May 14, 2021•22 min
Do you know your PG (Jamaica) from your HA (Iraq)? Our coverage of deportation decisions over the past few years has felt non-stop, with the courts pumping out judgments sending the law in different directions. In particular, the legal test for when deportation will be “unduly harsh” on family members left behind has been subject to intense, and often contradictory, judicial analysis. Thankfully, things have now settled down a bit, so it’s a good time to take stock of where we’re at with the “un...
Apr 23, 2021•16 min
Welcome to episode 87 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’re covering two main sets of reform proposals, the New Plan for Immigration and changes to judicial review. We’ve also got a bunch of new Immigration Rules to mention, a handful of interesting cases and a proposed new code of conduct for Presenting Officers, the officials who represent the Home Office in immigration appeals. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this pod...
Apr 09, 2021•29 min
The statute book is crammed with criminal offences relating to borders and immigration control, from entering the UK illegally to renting property to an unauthorised migrant. Most are rarely prosecuted, with an average of 625 prosecutions a year between 2017 and 2019. But many convictions are high-profile, with a steady stream of people being jailed for “assisting unlawful immigration” by piloting small boats across the Channel. The Home Office also announced this week proposals to increase the ...
Mar 26, 2021•21 min
Welcome to episode 86 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. There were quite a lot of significant court judgments this month, so the episode is almost entirely case law. We start with the Supreme Court decision in the Shamima Begum case (where else) and the Court of Appeal judgment on child registration fees. We then proceed through other cases on immigration detention, human rights, asylum and deportation, and finally a couple of judgments on highly technical but important general im...
Mar 12, 2021•38 min
Part 9 of the Immigration Rules consists of a long list of reasons why someone can be refused permission to enter or stay in the UK. These are known as the “general grounds for refusal”. Part 9 was recently overhauled, with the Home Office simultaneously making cosmetic and substantive changes to the general grounds. On the cosmetic side, the existing rules have been rewritten and restructured. (The word “general’ no longer appears in the title to Part 9, for one thing, so my terminology is alre...
Feb 26, 2021•23 min
Welcome to episode 85 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast (not in fact episode 84 as we incorrectly say in the intro). We again start with developments in asylum law before going to business immigration and the Hong Kong BNO visa which is now open for applications. There is also an interesting tribunal decision on long residence to go over and we end with a quick discussion of the hostile environment, giving me a chance to subtly plug my new academic article on the subject. If you wo...
Feb 12, 2021•28 min
In 2019, Roger Daltrey of The Who swore at a reporter who asked him about Brexit. “What’s it got to do with the rock business?”, the veteran singer scoffed. “As if we didn’t tour in Europe before the ******* EU”. The end of free movement for workers has a fair bit to do with the ******* EU. British artists are upset that the Brexit trade deal contained no meaningful replacement, leaving them to comb through European work permit laws country-by-country to work out where a visa is required. An ope...
Jan 22, 2021•19 min
Welcome to episode 84 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We’re going over what happened in December 2020, which feels a bit like it was asylum month: we’ve got some very important changes to the Immigration Rules on claiming asylum and safe third countries; an interesting case on military service and refugee status; a big case on asylum accommodation delays; a report on the UK statelessness procedure; not one but two cases on the treatment of trafficking victims; and a slightly odd...
Jan 08, 2021•29 min
Welcome to episode 83 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. It’s a case law heavy episode, with lots of judgments from the immigration tribunal, Court of Appeal and even the European Court of Human Rights to chew on. We also talk about a potentially important new policy on deporting people who arrived in the UK as young children, legal preparations for Brexit and of course the new Immigration Act. For discussion of recent changes to economic migration routes under the Points Based Imm...
Dec 11, 2020•31 min
You don’t have to be British to work here, but it helps. Citizens of the 54 Commonwealth countries can serve in the British Army and other branches of the armed forces, and are eligible to settle in the UK after discharge if they have served for at least four years. But settlement isn’t automatic, and over the years too many have ended up without the immigration status they were promised. While the situation has improved in recent years, the sheer cost of indefinite leave to remain — £2,389, or ...
Nov 27, 2020•20 min
Welcome to episode 82 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we mostly focus on a host of changes to the Immigration Rules introduced in October and mainly coming into force in December. There are also some big cases on long residence, removal windows, deportation law and fairness in sponsored worker cases, and we’re also going to talk about EU citizens and naturalisation. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up h...
Nov 13, 2020•35 min
Lawyers have spent much of this year fighting off controversial changes to legal aid for immigration appeals. In May, the government brought in adjusted legal aid arrangements for cases lodged under a new online appeal system — arrangements that spelled doom for an already under-pressure sector. I spoke to Sonia Lenegan from the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association about the legal action that defeated those proposals, the system that’s been put in place instead, and how things are looking ...
Oct 23, 2020•19 min
Welcome to episode 81 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we kick off with a big ruling on deportation law before turning to some draft laws affecting EU citizens in the UK. The visa rules for students changed on 5 October, so we discuss those tweaks before moving to economic migration and the elusive Immigration Health Surcharge rise. We finish with some judgments on asylum and immigration detention. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and list...
Oct 09, 2020•30 min
“Don’t panic!” is Tom Brett Young’s message to his education sector clients. Revised student visa rules kick in next month, replacing the Tier 4 routes beloved of known to immigration lawyers since 2009. Thankfully, the VWV partner reckons it’s more evolution than revolution, with the system of student sponsorship remaining broadly familiar. Although with students from EU countries now needing visas, schools and unis have quite enough upheaval to contend with as it is. In this podcast, Tom and I...
Sep 25, 2020•26 min
Welcome to episode 80 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with the EU Settlement Scheme before turning to a couple of cases at the intersection of immigration law and family law. With the slow down in the court system, there wasn’t a whole lot of case law this month, so we take a detour via domestic abuse and sponsor licensing before getting back to the courts with a few cases on procedure and compensation for delay. To round off, there’s a couple of positive dev...
Sep 11, 2020•25 min
Commercial surrogacy — paying someone else to carry and give birth to your child — is banned in the UK, but available overseas. That allows couples and individuals who would otherwise be unable to have children to experience the miracle of life with the aid of a third party. It’s a fraught process, and getting the resulting baby a visa may not be at the forefront of the intended parents’ minds. It may, however, be necessary. A child born to a surrogate abroad will not be automatically entitled t...
Aug 28, 2020•23 min
Welcome to episode 79 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’re starting with a few asylum decisions, then talk a little about the Shamima Begum case and go over the latest on coronavirus immigration changes. We look at the Hong Kong BNO visa, mention a couple of things about immigration detention and access to benefits, and end with some rather disparate tribunal and procedural cases. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this po...
Aug 14, 2020•23 min
The representative of an overseas business visa wasn’t mentioned once in the government’s blueprint for a new immigration system , but that doesn’t mean it’s going anywhere. Or at least we hope not; as Joanna Hunt tells me in this podcast, stranger things have happened in immigration law. We mostly proceed on the assumption this route has life in it yet and that, as an immigration lawyer, you need to know about it. Jo explains what the representative of an overseas business visa is, why it’s som...
Jul 24, 2020•23 min
Welcome to episode 78 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with some general discussion about the immigration system and my new book, Welcome to Britain, move on to cover a couple of deportation cases and then look at some material on appeals, asylum, family immigration and EU law. We end with a reminder on refunds for the Immigration Health Surcharge for NHS and social care workers. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to t...
Jul 10, 2020•30 min
In this bumper bonus episode, Free Movement editor Colin Yeo is interviewed by Satbir Singh, chief executive of the migrants’ rights charity JCWI. The subject of the interview is of course Colin’s book, published on 29 June 2020. Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System explains the workings and non-workings of the immigration system to the general public. You can read a detailed overview of the contents here . To mark publication day, Satbir kindly agreed to host a lockdown-appr...
Jul 03, 2020•1 hr 1 min
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 period. Home Office guidance says: There is no specified maximum period which an individual can spend in the UK in any period such as ‘6 months in 1...
Jun 26, 2020•19 min
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 to the Immigration Rules that came into force on 4 June. If you would like to claim CPD points for re...
Jun 08, 2020•30 min
