wesleygryk

Update on Home Office decision timings

26th May 2022 By wesleygryk

Since February 2022, allegedly caused by the Home Office focussing on its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Home Office has been extending immigration application processing times.

Below are some key changes to note:

Entry clearance

In mid-March, the Home Office suspended the priority service on work, study, and family routes.

The priority service is still available for some visitor visa applications depending on where the applicant is applying from. You can check the services available at the visa centre you are applying from here: https://www.gov.uk/find-a-visa-application-centre.

Family visa applications

The Home Office announced on 11 May that the decision waiting times would no longer be up to 12 weeks, but 24 weeks.

Work visa applications

The published waiting time has not changed from 3 weeks on gov.uk. However, the website does warn ‘UKVI is prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications. Applications for work visas may take longer to process.’

Visitor and transit visas

The waiting time has gone from three weeks to six weeks.

In country applications

Most in country application timings are, so far, not as delayed as out of country applications.

Significant exceptions to this are applications made on the ten-year private and family life routes and asylum/protection claims, both of which have been suffering significant delays even before the Ukraine crisis.

On gov.uk it states that there are currently no standard processing times for applications submitted as a partner, parent or on the basis of private life. The average waiting time for these times of applications is currently 11 months. The super priority service, which means you get a decision by the end of the next working day after your biometrics appointment, is still available for these applications.

For a full list of the applications in country eligible for priority or super priority services, see here: https://www.gov.uk/faster-decision-visa-settlement/eligible-visas-when-applying-inside-the-uk.

Asylum

The gov.uk website states that you will ‘usually get a decision on your application within 6 months’. However, the Refugee Council found in July 2021 that the average wait time for an initial decision is 1 to 3 years. The Home Office’s own published data shows a huge decline in the number of asylum applications decided within 6 months since 2014. There are also currently long waits to register asylum claims.

If you require immigration advice in relation to the above, we would be happy to help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

Care Workers to become eligible for Health and Care Worker Visas

7th January 2022 By wesleygryk

On 24 December 2021, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that certain categories of care workers would be added to the Shortage Occupation List, and therefore become eligible to apply for a 12-month health and care worker visa as of early 2022.

The announcement comes after the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), an independent public body which advises the government on migration issues, highlighted in its annual report that it was becoming more difficult for care providers to recruit and retain workers. One of the reasons for this is that, after, Brexit care workers can no longer be recruited as before from the European Economic Area. In that same report, the MAC recommended that the UK government make care workers and home carers immediately eligible for the health and care worker visa, as well as adding these occupations to the Shortage Occupation List, a list of occupations where the UK government believes employers are facing a shortage of labour.

A health and care worker visa allows medical professionals to come and work in the UK in a job with the NHS, an NHS supplier or in adult social care. At the moment, only senior care workers can apply for a health and care worker visa. The government’s announcement, however, means that care assistants, care workers, carers, home care assistants, home carers and support workers (nursing home) will soon become eligible to apply for this visa. Adding these occupations to the Shortage Occupation List means that employers can sponsor care workers at a minimum salary of £20,480 per year, which is lower than the minimum salary threshold normally needing to be met for a health and care worker visa.

The government has stated that this is a temporary measure in place for 12 months, while the care sector copies with the ongoing pandemic, after which it will be reviewed. While the government states that a health and care visa will offer care workers a route to indefinite leave to remain if they remain employed and wish to remain in the UK, future Home Office guidance would have to clarify how this would be possible if care workers were to be later removed from the Shortage Occupation List and no longer eligible to apply under the health and care visa route. The government has not yet updated its rules and guidance on the health and care visa route to account for care workers, although they are likely to remain similar to the ones currently in place.

If you require immigration advice in relation to the issues above, we would be happy to help. Care providers who are looking to recruit care workers from overseas would need to hold a Home Office licence allowing them to sponsor under the health and care visa route, and we would be happy to advise about these issues too. Please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

Late applications to the EU Settlement Scheme

30th September 2021 By wesleygryk

If you’re from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you and your family might have needed to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living in the UK. This includes people who hold a permanent residence document or an EEA biometric residence card.

The deadline for applying to the EU Settlement Scheme, for most people, was 30 June 2021. If you have missed this deadline, you can still make an application.

You must either:

meet one of the criteria for a later deadline to apply
have ‘reasonable grounds’ for not applying by 30 June 2021

The scheme provides the following not complete list of possible reasonable grounds for not applying by the deadline:

you’re a child, or applying for your child, and you did not know you needed to apply
your parent, guardian or local authority did not apply for you when you were a child
you have, or had, a medical condition which prevented you from applying
you lacked the physical or mental capacity to apply
you have care or support needs, or those caring for you were unaware of the deadline
you’ve been the victim of modern slavery
you’ve been in an abusive or controlling relationship
you did not have internet access, or access to relevant documents
you came to the UK on a work or study visa and became eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme while you were here, but did not know you could apply
you already have indefinite leave to enter or remain, and you did not know you could apply to the scheme
you had permanent residence status or a residence document that stopped being valid after 30 June 2021, and you did not know you needed to apply to the scheme
you had difficulty accessing support to apply because of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions
another compelling practical or compassionate reason prevented you applying

The caseworker guidance suggests that the Home Office will be taking a fairly flexible approach to late applications, at least initially, stating:

For the time being, you will give applicants the benefit of any doubt in considering whether, in light of information provided with the application, there are reasonable grounds for their failure to meet the deadline applicable to them under the EU Settlement Scheme, unless this would not be reasonable in light of the particular circumstances of the case.

The best advice is to apply as quickly as possible, with evidence as to why the application is late. The evidence could, for example, include proof of a medical reason why the application has been delayed.

For more information on deadlines please see:

the government website: https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families/eligibility
the guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1004627/main-euss-guidance-v13.0ext.pdf

If you require immigration advice in relation to the issues above, we can help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com

Changes to nationality law post EU Settlement Scheme deadline – is my child British?

23rd July 2021 By wesleygryk

Children born in the UK to parents who are ‘settled’ (i.e. have indefinite leave to remain) are automatically British from birth. EU citizens and their family members who had lived in the UK for at least five years were able to apply for indefinite leave to remain (‘settled status’) under the EU Settlement Scheme. The deadline to apply was 30 June 2021. But what is the situation for children born in the UK after 30 June 2021 where the parents had a pending application for settled status at the time of their birth? Equally, what if the parents applied after the deadline but were eventually granted settled status?

As of 1 July 2021, there have been changes to the British Nationality Act 1981 to deal with this situation.

British Nationality Act 1981 (Immigration Rules Appendix EU) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 has provided for children to automatically acquire British citizenship from the date that their parent is granted indefinite leave to remain (“settled status”) under the EU Settlement Scheme. For children born on or after 1 July 2021, the legislation will operate under the following circumstances

Where a parent has submitted an application under the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June 2021 deadline, but the application was yet to be resolved at the point the child was born
For applicants who make a late application under the EU Settlement Scheme (i.e. after 30 June) if they can show that they had reasonable grounds for missing the deadline and the application was unresolved before the child was born. In this situation the applicant would need to show that:
they met the eligibility requirements by 30 June deadline; and
had the reasonable grounds for delay not intervened and they applied in time under the EU Settlement Scheme.

Under the above circumstances, the child in question will not have to register as a British citizen for a fee of £1031.20 (although the lawfulness of this fee is currently being challenged by PRCBC. They will automatically be born British citizens and they will be able to proceed with a British passport application straight away.

The changes are a welcome development in ensuring that children of individuals who applied late under the Scheme or those whose applications remain pending due to the decision-making backlog are not deprived of British citizenship.

If you would like more information or advice on how this may affect you or your children, we can help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

No Recourse to Public Funds – What does it all mean?

24th June 2021 By wesleygryk

S.115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 states that a person will have ‘no recourse to public funds’ if they are ‘subject to immigration control’. This means they have no entitlement to most welfare benefits, including income support, universal credit, housing benefit and a range of tax credits.

People ‘subject to immigration control’ include those with limited leave to remain, and this also extends to family members. For example, spouses/partners, children, adult dependant relatives and parents of children in the UK all have this condition imposed on their leave in these cases. Additionally, this is commonly imposed on asylum seekers and those who have overstayed their visas.

Failure to comply with the No Recourse to Public Funds condition may result in:

Your current permission to stay in the UK being revoked
Refusal of your visa extension application
Refusal of future settlement applications, including Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) or British citizenship.

Applying for a change of conditions

Paragraph GEN.1.11A of Appendix FM provides that certain types of leave will normally be granted subject to a condition of no recourse to public funds, unless the applicant has provided the decision-maker with:

(a) satisfactory evidence that the applicant is destitute as defined in s. 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; or

(b) satisfactory evidence that there are particularly compelling reasons relating to the welfare of a child of a parent in receipt of a very low income.

For these purposes, a person is ‘destitute’ if they do not have adequate accommodation or enough money to meet living expenses for themselves and any dependants.

When leave has been granted subject to a condition of no recourse to public funds, an application must be made to lift that condition before public funds can be accessed. The Home Office provides for two circumstances in which a person can apply for a change of conditions:

since being granted leave, your financial situation has changed and you have become destitute, or there are now particularly compelling reasons relating to the welfare of your child on account of your very low income, or there are now exceptional circumstances in your case relating to your financial circumstances; or
you were destitute, or there were particularly compelling reasons relating to the welfare of your child on account of your very low income, or there were exceptional circumstances in your financial circumstances at the time of your application, but you failed to provide evidence of this and would now like to rely on this.

You may be able to apply for this change of conditions to allow access to public funds if you have leave to remain under the 10-year parent or partner route, and where the refusal of your application for leave to remain would breach your rights under ECHR Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life).

If you require immigration advice in relation to the issues above, we can help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com