News and Updates

Home Office introduces two new private life routes to ILR

23rd June 2022 By Andrew Jones

On 20 June 2022, a large number of changes were made to the Immigration Rules. Included in those changes is the introduction of two new routes to indefinite leave to remain (‘ILR’) on the basis of private life, which benefit children and young adults in the UK.

ILR for a child born in the United Kingdom

A child who was born in the UK may now apply for indefinite leave to remain where:

The child was born in the UK and can provide a full UK birth certificate.
The child has lived in the UK continuously since their birth and for at least seven years at the date of application.
It would not be reasonable to expect the applicant to leave the UK.

This rule closely mirrors provisions in the previous private life rules which allowed a child to apply for limited leave to remain in the UK if they have lived here for at least seven years and it would not be reasonable to expect them to leave the country. This ‘seven years rule’ also allowed the parents of such a child to make an application under the Parent route.

However, in light of these changes, the child can now apply for ILR at that stage if they were born in the UK.

Unfortunately, if the child was not born in the UK, then they will need to apply for limited leave to remain in the same way as before.

ILR for young adults in the United Kingdom

As we have covered in a previous blog in November 2021, the Home Office announced a concession to the private life rules to allow young adults aged between 18 and 25 years old who had spent more than half of their lives in the United Kingdom to apply for ILR after just five years.

The Home Office has now incorporated this concession into the Immigration Rules. Therefore, an applicant would be eligible for ILR where:

They were last granted leave to remain on the basis of their private life as a child or on the basis that they are aged between 18 and 25 years old and have spent more than half of their lives in the UK.
They have spent five years in the UK with leave to remain on the basis of private life, family life or outside of the Rules under Article 8. In limited circumstances, it can include time spent in the UK with different visas, so long as they had leave to remain on the basis of private life for at least one year before they apply.

This represents a far quicker route to ILR for young adults who, previously, had to wait 10 years until they were eligible.

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.

Fee-waivers for citizenship applications by children

9th June 2022 By Katie Dilger

The application fee for a child applying for citizenship is £1,012 and has been for some time. This fee applies to all nationality applications by children.

The £1,012 fee has been the subject of litigation over the last few years by the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC). The High Court in 2020 and the Court of Appeal in 2021 both found that the fee was unlawful as the Home Office had set it without having considered the best interests of children.

The Home Office has now reviewed the registration fee in light of its obligation to consider the best interests of children. Unfortunately, it has re-set the fee at £1,012. However, for the first time it has also introduced fee waivers for children’s citizenship applications from mid-June 2022.

To qualify for a fee-wavier, applicants and their families must show that they cannot afford the fee. The new Home Office guidance explains that this means that the applicant child and their parent(s) “do not have sufficient funds at their disposal, after meeting their essential living needs, to pay the fee”. Applicants and their families will need to submit fee waiver request forms together with supporting documentation. Under this new policy, fees will either be waived in full or required to be paid. There is no provision for fee reductions or partial waivers.

Some children, namely those who are looked-after by a local authority, will be exempt from paying a fee at all and will not be required to apply for a fee waiver. This exemption does not, however, apply to children in receipt of local authority support. They may still qualify for a fee waiver, but, as with other applicants, they will need to apply for one and the fee will only be waived if they show that they meet the affordability test.

The Home Office has released detailed guidance on the new fee waiver regime. This is available at Citizenship fee waiver for individuals under 18 caseworker guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you require 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.

Update on Home Office decision timings

26th May 2022 By Orla Papadakis

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.

The High Potential Individual visa – will the new category live up to the excitement?

12th May 2022 By Imogen Simpson

Following the UK government’s announcement of a new High Potential Individual visa category for graduates of top global universities in July 2021, there has been a great deal of speculation within the world of immigration law about who exactly will be eligible for the visa and what this could mean for people who were previously unable to apply under the Graduate visa category. However, the new rules in the statement of changes released on 15 March 2022 have left some people wondering whether the category will live up to expectations.

Under the new rules those hoping to qualify under the High Potential Individual category must have graduated from one of the universities included on a list of the top 50 ranked global universities within the last five years. To the disappointment of many, the universities included are largely from countries which are arguably viewed as the most ‘developed’, with nearly half of the universities being in the USA and many countries not appearing on the list at all.

Another disadvantage is that, unlike the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme and the Tier 1 (General) category, the High Potential Individual category will not be a route to settlement.

It is not all bad news, as those who find their university on the list and successfully apply under the new category will be able to enjoy the freedom of being on an unsponsored route, meaning they will not be tied to any particular job.

As well as needing to have graduated from a top global university, applicants will need to meet an English language requirement and a financial requirement to be eligible as a High Potential Individual. Those who hold a PhD or another doctoral level qualification will be granted a period of leave of 3 years, whilst those who hold other degree qualifications will be granted a period of 2 years.

Applications under the new category can be made from 30 May 2022.

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

UK Expansion Worker – a inadequate replacement for the sole representative route?

28th April 2022 By Rachael Ockenden

The rules relating to business immigration changed once again in April 2022. In another alleged bid to simplify the immigration rules, the Home Office has introduced the Global Mobility visa which encompasses five categories, two of which replace existing routes. The feeling amongst many immigration practitioners is that this is simply yet another rebranding exercise which does not quite hit the mark.

One of the categories being replaced is the sole representative of an overseas business category.

Whilst the sole representative category may have been underused, it did facilitate UK expansion for overseas companies with no presence in the UK. The sole representative category was an unsponsored route and was relatively attractive in that it allowed dependent family members to join the main applicant and could lead to indefinite leave to remain in the UK (ILR) after five years.

The sole representative category has now been replaced by the UK Expansion Worker route. This is, quite inexplicably, a sponsored route. This means that the overseas business will need a ‘footprint’ in the UK in order to apply for a sponsor licence to bring an expansion worker to the UK. Applying at the right time, when a company has a footprint but no a trading presence, will be crucial.

An overseas business should be granted a provisional licence if there is no one in the UK able to run the licence, which presumably will quite often be the case where there is only a footprint. The proposed migrant themselves will then be responsible for maintaining the licence and assigning themself a Certificate of Sponsorship to support their visa application. Once the UK Expansion Worker is in the UK, they will need to request the licence to be upgraded from the provisional status. Following the success of this request, the overseas business will then be able to send a maximum of up to four further expansion workers to the UK.

Under the previous category, an overseas business was only ever permitted to have one sole representative in the UK. The Home Office therefore sees the increased number of permitted workers to be more generous. However, in practice, it is quite likely that the request to upgrade a licence will be subject to lengthy waiting times which may not support the business’ needs or the projections of a business plan.

There are stricter requirements in relation to the overseas business trading history and the proposed UK expansion, which must include establishing a UK trading presence within two years. If a trading presence is not established within two years, the business’ licence can be revoked. How the Home Office plans to keep track of a business’ progress is yet to be seen.

A significant disadvantage of the new route is that it is no longer a route to ILR. A UK Expansion Worker will only be granted immigration permission for a maximum of two years. If the business has established a trading presence, and applies for and is granted a Skilled Worker licence, the UK Expansion Worker could switch into this category if they met the relevant requirements. The Skilled Worker category is a five year route to ILR, though an individual switching could not rely on the time already spent in the UK under the UK Expansion Worker route.

It remains to be seen how attractive or effective the UK Expansion Worker route is for overseas businesses seeking to establish a branch in the UK.