News and Updates

Home Office application fees frozen for another year

29th April 2021 By Orla Papadakis

The newly published fees list on the government website shows that there is no change in application fees from the previous year. This means that for the third financial year in a row, application fees are for the most part frozen. However, there are some changes in application costs that are worth noting.

The Immigration Health Surcharge, a fee charged on top of the majority of application fees, has risen significantly in recent years. When the charge was introduced on 6 April 2015, the charge was £200 a year. In 2018, this fee doubled to £400 and last year, it rose to £624. As an example, this means that an applicant applying for 30 months further leave to remain as a spouse can end up paying an application fee of £1033, £19.20 for biometric processing and an added £1560 for the Immigration Health Surcharge, a total of £2612.20 before extra charges such as biometric appointment fees are factored in.

There is a lower IHS fee of £470 for a student or Youth Mobility Scheme visa and those who are under the age of 18 at the time of application.

In applications where the IHS is required, failure to pay would result in an application being invalid (paragraph 34(4) of the Immigration Rules).

There has also been a major development this year in the legal challenge to the Home Office’s fees for registering a child as a British citizen. On 18 February 2021 the Court of Appeal ruled that the fee of £1012 set by the Home Office for applications to register children as British is unlawful. This decision means that the Home Office should reconsider the fee for this type of application, fully assessing the impact of the fee upon children. The organisation that brought the case, PRCBC, has been given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court on their argument that the law does not allow such a high fee. You can find the Court of Appeal’s judgment here. Currently the fee remains at £1012 whilst it is being reviewed by the Home Office.

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.

The end of the resident labour market test

1st April 2021 By Rachael Ockenden

The launch of the Skilled Worker category on 1 December 2020 heralded a new age for sponsors with the removal of the resident labour market test (RLMT), the time consuming and administratively burdensome advertising requirement of the Tier 2 (General) immigration route. The RLMT arguably did nothing to protect resident workers and was often merely a box-ticking exercise for sponsors.

However, the guidance accompanying the new rules appeared to retain the RLMT requirement leading to months of confusion amongst practitioners and sponsors alike. The guidance stated that the same documents sponsors were required to keep on a sponsored migrant’s file when an RLMT had been completed were still required for sponsorship cases post 1 December 2020.

The guidance was finally amended this month to clarify that there were different recordkeeping requirements for cases where an RLMT was a requirement and for those where it was not. The guidance also gives examples of the permissible circumstances in which no advertising at all would be carried out including where a worker:

was identified through a university milk round;
was already legally working for the sponsor on another immigration route and the sponsor established they were suitable for the role through their previous performance; and
made a speculative application and the sponsor was satisfied they had the necessary skills and experience to do the job.

An explanation and, where practicable, evidence must be provided to support these recruitment practices.

Whilst the clarification provided by the guidance is welcome and reassuring, the guidance still appears to mandate how a sponsor should advertise. RLMT-like documentation is still required to be kept on file and it would arguably be easier for a sponsor to rely upon one of the alternative circumstances rather than advertising for the role. It remains to be seen how the Compliance Officers at the Home Office will assess these cases.

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.

Biometric Residence Cards and Third Country Nationals

12th March 2021 By Ciera McCartney

When applying to the European Settlement Scheme from within the UK, most third country nationals (i.e., non-Europeans) will already hold a Biometric Residence Card issued to them because of their right to reside in the United Kingdom under European law. This document proving their status, the Biometric Residence Card, will have been issued under the EEA Regulations.

Third country nationals who have not previously held a Biometric Residence Card issued under the EEA Regulations will be invited to attend an appointment to provide their biometric data with the Home Office provider Sopra Steria. If the application for pre-settled or settled status is granted, the individual will be issued with a Biometric Residence Card under the European Settlement Scheme.

However, those third country nationals who apply to the European Settlement Scheme and already hold a valid Biometric Residence Card issued under the EEA Regulations are currently not issued with an updated Biometric Residence Card.

For example, a third country national who submits an application with two weeks left until their card issued under the EEA Regulations expires will not receive a new Biometric Residence Card under the European Settlement Scheme. The Home Office has confirmed this is because their card is still valid at the time the application was made. They have also confirmed this is the case even if the EEA card has expired by the date of the decision. An individual in this scenario will therefore also not be issued with a new card automatically under the European Settlement Scheme.

While third country nationals have their status recorded digitally on the European Settlement Scheme online portal accessible through Gov.UK, if they do wish to obtain another Biometric Residence Card to reflect their new immigration status, they must make a further application and re-submit their biometric data. Third country nationals are likely to need to do this in practice, given that their status is not linked to their passport, as is the case for European nationals.

Yet unfortunately the decision letter currently sent to applicants who have successfully obtained status is silent on this point and gives no guidance or a link to the appropriate page on the Home Office website where one can apply to update their Biometric Residence Card under the EU Settlement Scheme.

This lack of clarity raises practical issues. While we understand the Home Office plans to move the immigration status of all migrants to a digital only status, this has not yet happened, meaning third country nationals still need to evidence their status to carriers and border staff through a Biometric Residence Card when returning to the United Kingdom from abroad. Unaware that this is the case, we have heard reports of confusion by airline staff and border personnel, difficulty at the border and in several cases people left stranded outside the UK.

Third country nationals granted status under the European Settlement Scheme therefore do require a valid biometric card reflecting their current immigration status. Yet, if they fall into one of the scenarios outlined above, the process to update to a new card is unclear, costly (there is a Home Office fee of £75.20) and lengthy (the Home Office state these applications can take up to six months to be decided).

Instead, we believe all third country nationals should be given Biometric Residence Cards automatically up until the point that the Home Office can rely on digital immigration statuses for all migrants. These cards should be issued at the time the applicant is granted their new status, solving the practical difficulties faced by those third country nationals already holding at the date of application a valid Biometric Residence Card issued under the EEA Regulations.

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

Coronavirus: travellers to England required to self-isolate for 14 days

8th June 2020 By Andrew Jones

Starting from today, Monday, 8 June 2020, most travellers coming to England will need to self-isolate for 14 days and complete a ‘Passenger Locator Form’ so that the government can contact you if anyone you travelled with falls ill with COVID-19.

The government says that it has introduced these new rules to reduce the chance of a ‘second wave’ of coronavirus in the UK.

These new restrictions apply to most people travelling to England from outside of the Common Travel Area (the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands). If you are traveling from within the Common Travel Area, but were outside of it within 14 days of arrival, these rules apply to you, too. They apply equally to British citizens and foreign nationals.

Within 48 hours of departure, travellers need to complete a Passenger Locator Form. The form asks for your personal and travel details as well as where you will be staying for the first 14 days in the UK and an emergency contact in case you fall ill. The form can be found here. Travellers should print off a completed copy of the form or have it accessible on their mobile phone to show the Border Officer on arrival. Failure to do so can lead to a £100 fine and you may be refused entry (if you are not a British citizen).

Once in England, arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days. The rules on this are very strict, and much stricter than the current government guidance for those who are already here. If you are required to self-isolate, you cannot go out in public, go to work or go to school. You cannot leave your home for exercise or to walk your dog. You should not go shopping, even for essentials, and instead should arrange for these to be delivered. There is no “reasonable excuse” exception, not even in situations regarding childcare.

The only exceptions are:

If you are legally required to go somewhere (e.g. to take part in legal proceedings or a child moving between homes as part of a custody agreement);
You require urgent medical care;
To attend the funeral of a close relative;
To access basic necessities or essential public services and there are exceptional circumstances why these could not be delivered to you;
You needed to stay in safe overnight accommodation before travelling to the location where you would be self-isolating for the remainder of the 14 days; or
There is an emergency

Failure to follow these rules can lead to fines of up to £1000, or even up to £3200 in some circumstances. Migrants should be aware that they would be required to disclose these fines in applications for leave to remain and could see an application for British citizenship refused if it is made within three years from the date of the fine.

The full government guidance can be found here.

There is a long list of people who are exempt from these rules, which can be found here. These exceptions would not apply to most people coming to England, but does include diplomats, foreign representatives and other consular staff, those employed by the military, those who are only transiting and do not leave the airport and those (either living in the UK or outside of the UK) who travel in and out of the country at least once a week for work.

Please note, these rules only apply to England, as the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments have control over their own public health measures. At the time of writing, there were no regulations in place requiring quarantine for those living in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

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

European Update: The Good and the Bad

28th May 2020 By Alison Hunter

On 14 May, the government issued a new Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules. And once again it included changes to the European Settlement Scheme. Some were small in nature and a tidying up exercise to deal with small omissions or inconsistencies. However, there were two important substantive changes.

The good news is that protection has been extended to those in durable relationships to ensure that if their relationship with a European national breaks down due to domestic violence, they should be able to remain in the United Kingdom in their own right. This comes into force from 4 June 2020.

From 24 August 2020, the rule changes will also allow for dual British and Irish nationals born in Northern Ireland to rely on their Irish nationality to bring dependants to reside with them in the United Kingdom. This allows for a less onerous set of rules to be applied to them, ensuring there is no need for them to fulfil stringent financial requirements, which apply to British people sponsoring their family members.

This was however swiftly followed on 15 May 2020 with some far less welcome news: the new naturalisation guidance clarifies that European citizens who did not hold comprehensive sickness insurance while they were students or self sufficient, or were not exercising a Treaty right during the qualifying period for naturalisation, can be considered to have been in breach of immigration law. This means that if a European national is applying to naturalise having obtained settled status they will still need to show that they fulfilled these requirements during the five year period (or three year period, if married to a British Citizen) before making the application. Unlike under the European Settlement Scheme, where residence in the United Kingdom on its own is sufficient to ensure a grant of status, a successful naturalisation application may need to go beyond mere residence for the qualifying period, if an applicant did not hold pre settled or settled status for part of the period. Home Office caseworkers now have to check whether applicants can be considered to be in breach of immigration law and can request further information to reassure themselves that such time spent in the United Kingdom was ‘on a balance of probabilities’ in accordance with the law. I should add that the guidance also states that it will be possible for caseworkers to waive the requirement on a discretionary basis but without giving any further guidance as to when that would be deemed appropriate.

Given the £1330 fee attached to a naturalisation application, applicants should ensure that they really do qualify before making this payment to the Home Office as only £80 (the cost of the citizenship ceremony) would be reimbursed if the application were refused.

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