There has been a spate of big cases in the last few days. I’ll deal first with what is probably the most legally significant, ZH (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1060. In ZH the Court of Appeal have confirmed for anyone that did...
It’s taken a while, and attendance on a training course, but I feel better equipped to comment on Metock and the tribunal’s two responses thus far, in the cases HB and SM. HB does indeed accept the ruling in Metock, which is in essence that a right to reside as a...
Further to my last post on this subject, it turns out that my surprise was entirely justified, as a different and more senior panel of the tribunal has decided, basically, that Metock changes nothing and it should be business as usual. The case is SM (Metock; extended family members) Sri Lanka...
It should not be a shock that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal have in a case called HB (Algeria) just accepted the European Court of Justice decision in Metock. UK courts and tribunals are required to accept the ECJ’s judgments on the interpretation and meaning of European Community law, after all....
The Home Affairs Committee of MPs today published its report on whether or not the Home Office has the capacity to deliver effective immigration services once the UK leaves the European Union next March. No, is the short answer. Not a lot of love from @CommonsHomeAffs Valentine's Day report on...
This post is reblogged from Professor Steve Peer’s excellent and comprehensive post on the immigration aspects of UK’s renegotiation proposals. What follows is the section of that blog post on family members. Head over to the original for more information on benefits, the “emergency brake” and criminality and free movement...
There are several different types of EU residence document. The general rule is that an EU national or family member does not need to apply for and possess a residence document in order to be lawfully able to enter and reside in the UK. However, there are times when it...
The Home Office has published specific guidance on Surinder Singh applications: Free movement rights: family members of British citizens. Some additional training slides for officials were released to the author under a Freedom of Information request. There is also old guidance previously issued by the Home Office to its staff...
In the case of Akrich Case C-109/01 the Court of Justice of the European Union considered a Surinder Singh situation where the third country national had committed a number of criminal offences and had breached UK immigration law. In fact, Mr Akrich had been deported twice; deportation is more serious...
UPDATE: Permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal seems to have been granted: Sales LJ grants permission to appeal from UT's recent decision in Bilal Ahmed) (EEA/s 10 appeal rights: effect) IJR: http://t.co/fbQLhZpxZq — Zane Malik QC (@ZaneMalikQC) October 9, 2015 On 24 July 2015 the Upper Tribunal handed...
Free movement law historically and conceptually depended on two elements: facilitating movement across borders and facilitating economic or protected activity of some sort, such as work, self employment or studies. Previous cases such as Baumbast, Chen and Metock started the evolution away from these principles. Zambrano represented more of a revolution, achieved by basing the...
EEA residence cases Chen [2004] EUECJ C-200/02 – right of residence for parent of self sufficient EEA child in education Metock [2008] EUECJ C-127/08 – prior lawful residence in another EEA state not required to be a family member Ibrahim [2010] EUECJ C-310/08 – children and primary carer of EEA national can claim right of...
The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case of Zambrano (C-34/09) may mark the watershed between the history of European Community free movement law and the future of unconditional European Union citizenship rights. Free movement law historically and conceptually depended on two elements: facilitating...
The Upper Tribunal has finally referred the vexed question of the rights of ‘other family members’ (or ‘extended family members’ in the domestic EEA regulations) to the European Court of Justice. The reference was made by Mr Justice Blake, the President of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. The questions are...
There have been several quite distraught sounding commenters on my previous piece on the outcome of the Quila case, which is understandably causing confusion. I thought it might be useful to set out what I understand to be the current legal position. The Secretary of State is appealing the Court of...
I thought I’d start putting together a list of the myriad ways in which the Home Office wastes money (mainly public funds, also private sometimes) in the small world of immigration. It makes my blood boil that legal aid is being brutally slashed in immigration and across the whole area of...
The Home Office do like to shift the goal posts. Sometimes this is because they lost another legal case and want to get around it, sometimes it appears to be for no reason at all and sometimes, just sometimes, it seems to be for clearly explained and understandable policy reasons....
But lacks the energy to write anything intelligent. Par for the course, some might claim. I have however been deleting the many comments I now unfortunately receive asking for legal advice. Inevitable, I suppose. Instead of informed, witty, incisive commentary I shall content myself with some random alerts: Metock guidance is finally...
UKBA have announced a limited concession to the rise in the visa age to 21 for spouses and partners. The concession is simply that the rule will not be applied to spouses and partners seeking entry to accompany or join immigrants in the temporary visa categories, such as students or...
An interesting judgment has just come out in which the High Court has held to be unlawful the policy of a blanket denial of right to work for those caught in the Legacy backlog. It is called Tekle v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWHC 3064 (Admin). This...
