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SBS Partnership Extended for Women Fleeing Gender-based Violence

31st March 2022 By Diana Baxter

We are pleased to announce the extension for another year of our partnership with Southall Black Sisters, a not-for-profit women’s rights organisation established to meet the needs of Black (Asian and African-Caribbean) women facing domestic and gender-related violence.

Under the partnership, SBS has funding to refer women who seek their assistance for legal advice and representation in immigration applications and appeals to experts in our team at Wesley Gryk Solicitors LLP. The partnership has been a great success during its pilot year in 2021, enabling us to represent women in immigration matters who are unable to access legal aid due to the nature of their immigration problem, but who cannot afford legal fees and disbursements.

In its pilot year, Wesley Gryk Solicitors LLP has advised and represented women fleeing violence from India, Pakistan, Jamaica and Zimbabwe. This has included: assisting victims of transnational spouse abandonment to return to the UK and obtain indefinite leave to remain as victims of domestic violence; assisting a woman with complex mental illnesses stemming from childhood sexual violence with a successful appeal under Article 3 ECHR based on her medical condition and risk of suicide on return overseas; and assisting a refugee fearing honour-based killing in Pakistan with a successful appeal to the Upper Tribunal following refusal at the First Tier Tribunal.

We look forward to another year working together with Southall Black Sisters to seek immigration solutions for women facing gender-related violence.

Updates to the Youth Mobility Scheme – but Indian Citizens will need to be patient.

20th January 2022 By Barry O’Leary

Updates to the Youth Mobility Scheme

This month, UK Visas & Immigration has updated its guidance to caseworkers on the Youth Mobility Scheme.

The guidance has been updated to reflect the addition of Iceland and India to the scheme from 1 January 2022.

The guidance now states that an applicant must be one of the following:

• a British Overseas Citizen, British Overseas Territories Citizen or British National (Overseas) as defined by the British Nationality Act 1981

• a national or citizen of a country or the holder of a passport issued by a territory, listed in Appendix Youth Mobility Scheme: eligible nationals. The countries and territories listed in Appendix Youth Mobility Scheme: eligible nationals of the Immigration Rules are:

• Australia
• Canada
• Hong Kong
• Iceland
• India
• Japan
• Monaco
• New Zealand
• Republic of Korea
• San Marino
• Taiwan Page

However, potential Indian citizen applicants are going to have to be a little patient, the first Indian ballot has not yet been announced and the general guidance to applicants states:

India Young Professionals Scheme

Do not use this page to enter the ballot for the India Young Professionals Scheme. The ballot for Indian nationals is not open yet.

No date for the ballot has yet been given.

When the scheme does open, Indian Citizens will need to be aware that there are 3000 visas available per year (relatively few given the size of population) and Indian Citizens need to meet an extra requirement based on qualifications or work experience.

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

23rd July 2021 By Ban Hussein

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.

EU Settlement Scheme – when to apply?

11th June 2021 By Alison Hunter

The simple answer to that is “now”.

The deadline for most EU/EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme is 30 June 2021. It is important to understand that most EU/EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members need to make an application to ensure they secure their existing rights beyond 30 June 2021. This includes people who hold a permanent residence document or an EEA biometric residence card.

Who does not need to apply?

People who have obtained indefinite leave to remain in the past do not need to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme but may decide that they want to as it will allow them to be registered with the Home Office and given a mechanism to prove their immigration status digitally, which may be useful in the future.

Equally, Irish citizens do not need to apply but may do so if they wish. Irish citizens are allowed to live and work in the United Kingdom going forward purely on the basis of their Irish nationality.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

First and foremost try not to. Remember that an application is submitted on the day that it is triggered on-line, that is to say the day that you press the button on the on-line form to send it to the Home Office. If you need to upload documents after this date that is still possible and the date of application will still be the date that you triggered the application.

However, if you do miss the date, the Home Office has now provided guidance which will allow you to explain why you missed the date and a caseworker can exercise discretion to still grant an application. 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.

Applications which can still be made

Although the EU Settlement Scheme deadline is 30 June 2021, there are still plenty of applications that can be made after this date. These include from spouses where the couple were married before 30 December 2020 and from children. Applications can be made for these family members to join an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen in the United Kingdom. The procedures will vary depending on whether the applicant is in the United Kingdom or abroad.

The application

Most applications are straightforward and can be done with the EU Exit app on a smartphone and by completing the on-line form. If you do though need advice, either guiding you through the application, or with questions about applications for family members, please do not hesitate to contact us on contact@gryklaw.com or by telephone 020 7401 6887.

Long residence ILR: what are the rules on absences from the UK?

15th April 2021 By Andrew Jones

Where a migrant can show that they have lived in the United Kingdom for at least a continuous, lawful 10-year period, they may be eligible for apply for indefinite leave to remain (‘ILR’).

However, one potential sticking point is whether they have been outside of the United Kingdom for too long. That is because the Immigration Rules say that for the period to be “continuous”, the applicant cannot have spent more than 18 months in total outside of the country during those 10 years, or any single absence of six months or more.

The Home Office guidance states that six months is calculated as 180 days and 18 months is calculated as 540 days. The Home Office interprets this very strictly and will only make exceptions to these limits in “compelling or compassionate circumstances”. There have been several stories in the news where applicants have been refused ILR due to their excessive absences, despite having perfectly good reasons for being outside of the country for as long as they were. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Home Office, the reasons were not compelling enough.

Recently, the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) looked at how the Home Office should be interpreting this rule. In particular, it looked at whether the limit is, in fact, 540 days. The Rules state that the applicant must not have been absent for 18 months – but how long is 18 months? A month is not a fixed period of time. The Home Office argued that a month should be interpreted as being 30 days long, which is how they calculated the limit as being 540 days. The Upper Tribunal disagreed and ruled that 18 months is 548 days and that the Home Office guidance was wrong.

On the face of it, this is not a big difference. However, it did make a big difference to Mrs Chang, whose appeal was being considered by the Upper Tribunal. She had been absent from the United Kingdom for 543 days during the 10-year period she was relying upon. As an illustration of how strict the Home Office is on this issue, her application was refused for that reason. Happily, after the Upper Tribunal decision, she will now be granted ILR.

We have a lot of experience making ILR applications on this basis, including advising clients on how to deal with excessive absences. If you have spent more than 10 years lawfully resident in the United Kingdom and would like advice or assistance on applying for ILR, please feel free to contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.