Wesley Gryk Solicitors LLP

Specialists in UK immigration and nationality law

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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.

Filed Under: News and Updates, The Firm, Uncategorised

Concessions for Afghans on study and work routes in the UK

17th February 2022 By Swabra Natabi

On 17 January 2022, the Home Office published guidance on concessions for Afghans who are in the UK on study and work routes. They relate to the provision of supporting documents and restrictions on switching immigration routes in the UK.

Switching 

The Immigration Rules have switching restrictions on some routes. For instance, you cannot switch to a Skilled Worker visa if you are in the UK on a visit visa. Under the rules, an individual must leave the UK and make an out of country entry clearance application.

In light of the volatile situation in Afghanistan, the Home Office recognises this may not be a possibility for Afghan nationals who would otherwise be eligible for other immigration routes. Therefore, this concession seeks to waive this requirement, provided the applicant meets the eligibility criteria.

To apply, the applicant must confirm in writing that they wish to apply under this concession, stating their reasons for making an in-country application.

Document evidence  

Applicants may not be able to provide all the documents required for their application under the relevant route. The applicant must provide a letter explaining why they cannot provide the required document.

There is no need to provide detailed evidence in support of the letter however the applicant must give a ‘sufficient and reasonable explanation’. The guidance sets out acceptable explanations such as the institution from which the document is required is no longer functioning or no one else can reasonably be expected to obtain the document on the applicant’s behalf because it is unsafe.

The requirement to provide the document may be waived if the Home Office is satisfied a document from Afghanistan cannot reasonably be obtained.

Eligibility 

The key requirements for both concessions are as follows:

1)  The applicant must be an Afghan national, or their dependent partner or child.

2)  They must be in the UK lawfully or have been granted an exceptional assurance or where they have overstayed it can only be for a very short time as allowed by the Immigration Rules.

3)  They must have lawfully entered the UK prior to 1 September 2021 or made an application for a visa by that date and arrived later, on a temporary route. The list of routes can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-nationals.

4)  They must be applying for permission to stay on one of these work or study routes:

      • Skilled Worker (including Health and Care Visa)
      • Global Talent
      • Student
      • Child Student
      • Parent of a Child Student
      • Intra-company Routes
      • Representative of an Overseas Business
      • T2 Minister of Religion
      • International Sportsperson
      • Temporary Work – Creative Worker/Charity Worker/Religious Worker/Government Authorised Exchange/International Agreement
      • UK Ancestry (main applicant must hold Commonwealth citizenship)
      • Investor
      • Start-up
      • Innovator

5)  They must meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules for the route on which they are applying, subject to these concessions.

Under the guidance, dependants can also switch in line with the main applicant or become a main applicant provided they meet the criteria.

It should be noted that applicants must meet all the criteria above otherwise their application will not be considered under the concessions. Further to this, the guidance states that the decision maker will consider each application on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all circumstances.

These concessions will be applied to all decisions made from 14 January 2022 and will be reviewed in a year.

Although temporary, the introduction of these concessions is welcomed, and will no doubt have a positive impact on the lives of many Afghan nationals.

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.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: News and Updates

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.

Filed Under: Uncategorised

Care Workers to become eligible for Health and Care Worker Visas

7th January 2022 By Dmitri Macmillen

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.

Filed Under: News and Updates

Global Talent – How talented do you have to be?

26th November 2021 By Alison Hunter

The so-called “prestigious prize” visa route was launched in May of this year and was intended to make it easier for academics or researchers to apply to come to the United Kingdom.  At the time of the launch of the visa, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, stated:

Winners of these awards have reached the pinnacle of their career and they have so much to offer the UK. This is exactly what our new point based immigration system was designed for – attracting the best and brightest based on the skills and talent they have, not where they have come from.

It has been widely reported in the Press recently that not a single scientist has applied under the fast track visa route which was intended for prize award winners in science, engineering, the humanities and medicine.  Many scientists have been dismissive of the scheme stating it is far too narrow and would only allow a tiny handful of talented people to apply.

But does the Global Talent visa allow people who are not necessarily at the ‘pinnacle’ of the scientific world or creative world to apply?  The answer to this is a resounding ‘yes’.

The Global Talent visa allows people who are leaders in their field or potential leaders in their field to apply and be endorsed by a designated endorsement body such as Tech Nation, the British Academy, the Royal Society for Science and Medicine, or Arts Council England.  The beauty of the visa is that an individual does not need to be sponsored by their employer and has access to the labour market in the United Kingdom as an employee or on a self employed basis.  So for example, academics can work at a university without being tied to them.  Actors, performers and musicians can develop their careers in the United Kingdom, supporting themselves for example through teaching. Those endorsed by Tech Nation may have technical skills or business skills in the field of technology and can come here to develop businesses or run their start ups.  In short, a large number of people are able to qualify, even if they are towards the beginning of their careers.

The process is a two stage process: an applicant initially applies to the endorsement body and if endorsed can then apply for a visa.  This is a category which leads to indefinite leave to remain, although of course there are some criteria that need to be fulfilled before that is possible, including showing that you have worked in your field of expertise in the United Kingdom.

So despite the off putting headlines that nobody has been granted a fast track visa and that you have to be unbelievably talented and experienced, this does not paint the full picture.  Successful cases for Global Talent visas have ranged from applicants just leaving university, to people who are well established in the field in which they have built their career.  If you fall within the remit of one of the endorsement bodies, it may well be worth you looking at the criteria which they assess against to see if you may be eligible.

We have expertise in submitting applications to the various endorsement bodies and are able to guide applicants through the process.  If you would like to discuss a possible application with us further, please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 7401 6887 or contact Alison@gryklaw.com

Filed Under: News and Updates

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Latest News

  • Home Office introduces two new private life routes to ILR
  • Fee-waivers for citizenship applications by children
  • Update on Home Office decision timings
  • The High Potential Individual visa – will the new category live up to the excitement?
  • UK Expansion Worker – a inadequate replacement for the sole representative route?
  • SBS Partnership Extended for Women Fleeing Gender-based Violence
  • Concessions for Afghans on study and work routes in the UK
  • Updates to the Youth Mobility Scheme – but Indian Citizens will need to be patient.
  • Care Workers to become eligible for Health and Care Worker Visas
  • Global Talent – How talented do you have to be?
  • Home Office announces ILR concession for young adults
  • Automatic extension of leave – some good news
  • The new International Sportsperson visa
  • Late applications to the EU Settlement Scheme
  • Ambitious roadmap to streamlined sponsorship
  • Changes to nationality law post EU Settlement Scheme deadline – is my child British?
  • No Recourse to Public Funds – What does it all mean?
  • EU Settlement Scheme – when to apply?
  • Digitalisation of the Immigration System
  • High Court rules in favour of Windrush victim in landmark ruling
  • Home Office application fees frozen for another year
  • Long residence ILR: what are the rules on absences from the UK?
  • The end of the resident labour market test
  • Biometric Residence Cards and Third Country Nationals
  • Coronavirus: travellers to England required to self-isolate for 14 days

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grykunplugged WesleyGrykUnplugged @grykunplugged ·
27 Jun

To mark Pride Month, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation (PSF) published today in The Medallion, their monthly newsletter, excerpts from - and a link to - an essay I’ve written, 50+ Years a Gay Man: A Personal Life in a Historical Context. https://mailchi.mp/presidentialscholars/june2022.

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wesleygrykllp Wesley Gryk LLP @wesleygrykllp ·
4 Jul

We are so pleased today to have submitted Trent’s application to register as a BOTC and British citizen following recent changes to the law.

Well done to the @BOTCCAMPAIGN for their work in highlighting the historic injustice for children of BOTC parents!

Home Office @ukhomeoffice

We've launched new routes to nationality for those affected by historical anomalies, including for British Overseas Territories citizens.

This will help people like Trent, who is now able to apply for both British overseas territories citizenship & British citizenship.

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wesleygrykllp Wesley Gryk LLP @wesleygrykllp ·
16 Jun

We are hiring!

We are looking to hire two paralegals! Deadline for applications is Sunday 3rd July 2022.

Find out more about the role, including how to apply, here: http://gryklaw.com/vacancies/

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wesleygrykllp Wesley Gryk LLP @wesleygrykllp ·
28 Jun

Congratulations to Wesley Gryk alum @IlonaBannister on the publication of 'Little Prisons', her second published novel!

We are very proud!

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wesleygrykllp Wesley Gryk LLP @wesleygrykllp ·
23 Jun

Amongst a swathe of changes to the Immigration Rules on Monday, 20 June 2022, was the introduction of 2 new routes to ILR on the basis of private life which will benefit children born in the UK and young adults.

Our Andrew Jones (@andrewijones) explains: https://www.gryklaw.com/home-office-introduces-two-new-private-life-routes-to-ilr/

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Wesley Gryk Solicitors LLP
140 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7AE
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