Immigration – Page 2

Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme

8th November 2024 By Dmitri Macmillen

On 19 February 2024, the UK government announced that it intended to create a new Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme. This scheme would enable eligible Ukrainians and family members to apply for a further 18 months’ permission to stay in the UK. The scheme is expected to open to new applications in early 2025.

We do not yet know the requirements eligible Ukrainians and family members will need to meet when applying for further permission under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, and expect further guidance soon from the Home Office. The Home Office have, so far, published limited guidance which says that applications to the scheme can be made by those with permission under the Ukraine Family, Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship and Ukraine Extension schemes. Those who previously had permission under a Ukraine scheme, and afterwards switched to a different immigration route, might also be eligible to apply under the new scheme. The application will be free and must be made before a person’s permission to be in the UK expires.

If you are looking to apply under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, please ensure you keep hold of your biometric residence permit, as the Home Office have said it will be requested as part of the application process. Many Ukrainians are concerned that their current permission might expire on 31 December 2024, as their biometric residence permit expires on this date. Biometric residence permits are being phased out by the end of 2024, as migrants will be expected to prove their immigration permission digitally as of 2025. To check the actual expiry date of your permission, please look at the decision email you received from the Home Office granting you permission in the UK, or check your eVisa using this link. If you cannot access your eVisa, you may need to follow this link to create a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account so you can access it.

If you require advice or assistance with an application under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, or require advice on other immigration options in the UK, we would be happy to help and can advise in Ukrainian if necessary. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

Meeting the ‘continuous residence’ requirement of Appendix Long Residence

12th September 2024 By Imogen Simpson

Where an individual has lived in the UK lawfully and continuously for at least 10 years, even with different types of immigration permission, they may be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain on the basis of their long residence in the UK. This is potentially helpful to many people who have held different types of permission but have not been able to apply for indefinite leave on their visa route. For example, where someone has held Student permission for four years, Graduate permission for two years and Skilled Worker permission for four years, they may not need to wait until they have held permission as a Skilled Worker for five years to apply for indefinite leave. This person could potentially accumulate all of their immigration permission in the last 10 years and apply for indefinite leave on the basis of their ‘long residence’.

However, in order to have a successful application for indefinite leave on the basis of long residence, it is not enough for the applicant to show they have lived in the UK lawfully for 10 years. They must also show that this residence has been ‘continuous’ – but what does ‘continuous’ mean?

Appendix Continuous Residence of the Immigration Rules sets out how the continuous residence requirement is met. Previously, to meet the continuous residence requirement, an applicant applying for indefinite leave on the basis of long residence must not have been outside of UK for more than 184 days at one time, and or for more than 548 days in the 10-year period. This was specific to long residence applications; some other types of applications also have a continuous residence requirement but would need to meet this only by not being absent for more than 180 days in any 12-month period. This meant that the continuous residence requirement was more restrictive for long residence applicants, who only had an average annual absence allowance of around 54 days.

The Home Office changed the Rules on 11 April 2024 so that long residence applicants would, in general, need to meet the continuous residence requirement in the same way as applicants applying for indefinite leave on different routes. However, this change brought with it a lot of confusion as the wording of the new Rules was very unclear.

We have since been given new Home Office guidance on the issue, as well as a Statement of Changes to the Rules which seek to clarify the matter. Exactly how an applicant meets the continuous residence requirement under Appendix Long residence will depend on whether the absences fall before or after 11 April 2024:

Any single absence (i.e., one trip overseas) started before 11 April 2024 must be no longer than 184 days.
Where some of the 10-year qualifying period starts before 11 April 2024, the absences before this date must not total more than 548 days.
The absences in the part of the qualifying period that falls on or after 11 April 2024 will need to meet the new rules i.e., no more than 180 days in any 12-month period.

In terms of point 2 above, it is only the part of the 10-year qualifying period which falls before 11 April 2024 which is subject to a limit of 548 days in total, regardless of the length of the period which falls before this date.

Applicants should also be aware that there are some exceptions where continuous residence will not be broken where the absence limits are exceeded, such as where travel is required for work in certain fields, or where there has been travel disruption due to a pandemic.

With limited exceptions, it is usually the case that where an applicant has at any point in the 10-year period overstayed their permission, this will also break their continuous residence. However, the Home Office has now confirmed that where an individual overstayed their permission between 24 January and 31 August 2020, the overstay will be disregarded to give allowances for those who overstayed because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, time spent in the UK between 1 September 2020 and 28 February 2023 where the individual had one or more grants of ‘exceptional assurance’ (which was a type of permission being granted to those who could not leave the UK due to pandemic travel restrictions) will also not break continuous residence. Interestingly, periods spent in the UK with exceptional assurance are being treated as an exception to overstaying, and any periods spent in the UK with exceptional assurance will not count towards the 10 year long residence qualifying period.

Long residence applications currently have a Home Office fee of £2,885, though this is subject to change.

If you require advice or assistance with an application for indefinite leave on the basis of long residence, we would be happy to help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

Removal of the automatic citizenship ban

8th August 2024 By Ilhaan Dirshe

Whilst there have been several updates to immigration law and policy since the change in government on 4 July 2024 – such as the end of the Rwanda policy and the announcement that the Bibby Stockholm barge will be closed – what may have been missed are the amendments to the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (IMA 2023) concerning the ‘citizenship ban’.

On 24 July 2024, the Home Office published The Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Amendment) Regulations 2024, which is a statutory instrument annulling aspects of the IMA 2023. Although these regulations brought in a number of changes, I will be focusing on the removal of the citizenship ban.

Section 32 to 37 of the IMA 2023 stated that individuals who entered the UK through ‘illegal and irregular means’ on or after 7 March 2023 were ineligible for British citizenship. This was a blanket ban which excluded all individuals from British citizenship if they meet certain conditions outlined in Section 2 of the Act. If an individual met any of these conditions on or after 7 March 2023, then they were automatically banned forever from obtaining British citizenship. It did not matter that their asylum claims were accepted and they were subsequently granted refugee status. Most alarmingly, this even included unaccompanied minors and children travelling with family.

Regulation 3 of the 2024 amendments has now removed this draconian ban on British citizenship, which is a positive step in the right direction. What would further cement these changes is for the IMA 2023 to be repealed completely through primary legislation, rather than statutory instruments.

This change is a welcome recognition that migrants who have entered the UK fleeing conflict and violence deserve our compassion and should not be penalised once in the UK because of their manner of entry. They should be able to obtain British Citizenship under the same rules as other migrants. An acknowledgement of this basic position is especially important in light of the recent violent disorder. It is extremely important to make clear that we condemn the racism, bigotry and islamophobia which has been demonstrated.

If you would like to discuss your eligibility for British citizenship, please do not hesitate to contact us using our online enquiry form or by calling us on 020 7401 6887.

The ongoing issue of sole responsibility

11th July 2024 By Katie Dilger

For well over 60 years, the immigration rules have contained the “sole responsibility” rule. This states that, where a child is seeking to join just one parent in the UK, the UK-based parent must have “sole responsibility” for the child. The rule applies to most immigration categories that provide for children, including the rules for the non-British children of British citizens and the dependents of Skilled Workers.

Home Office guidance states that:

“Sole parental responsibility means that one parent is unknown or has abdicated or abandoned parental responsibility, and the other parent is exercising sole control in setting and providing the day-to-day direction and care for the child’s welfare.”

In the absence of sole responsibility, there must be “serious and compelling reasons” for a child to be granted leave to join just one parent. Broadly, the long-standing guidance on this said that the circumstances had to be exceptional when compared to other children living in the relevant country, i.e., a very high test.

These rules cause issues for many families, including separated parents who co-parent and those who move to the UK to start work and set up the family home before their children apply to join them.

In October 2023, new guidance was published which applies to most immigration categories, save children falling under the family migration routes, i.e. the children and stepchildren of British citizens and settled people. The new policy supports the sole responsibility rule, but there is no reference to circumstances needing to be exceptional for there to be “serious and compelling reasons”. Instead, the guidance lists other factors that a caseworker should consider. These include whether there are good reasons why the other parent is not coming to the UK and parental consent.

Initially, the policy appeared to be a significant step forward. However, as yet, there appears to be little change in practice and refusals continue in reliance on factors that are said to indicate that serious and compelling reasons do not exist. Over the years, there have been various articles in the press which have highlighted the hardship that the rule causes and these have continued into 2024 as fresh generations find themselves in difficult situations.[1]

If you are affected by the sole responsibility rule and would like expert legal advice, please do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@gryklaw.com or on 020 7401 6887.

[1] For example, see ‘Inhumane’ Home Office denying visas to children of migrant health workers | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian

The move to eVisas: What if you have a paper document?

9th May 2024 By Emily Heinrich

31 December 2024 has long been in the minds of immigration practitioners and Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) holders. We have known that all cards would expire on this date and that, sometime in 2024, action would need to be taken to ensure BRP holders could continue to demonstrate their lawful residence in the UK from 1 January 2025. We have since learnt that all those with BRPs will be moved to ‘eVisas’, with invites due to roll out this year to set up online UKVI accounts. They will not receive new physical evidence of their status, which is perhaps a topic for another blog!

A group of individuals who may have little warning that they will also be impacted are those whose proof of their immigration status is on a paper document. Examples of this are wet ink immigration stamps showing ‘indefinite leave to enter’ and vignette stickers in (often expired) passports confirming the holder has ‘indefinite leave to remain’. It was already commonly understood that BRPs would be replaced with digital status – we now have confirmation that all documents will be.

In a recent update to the gov.uk webpage on Online immigration status (eVisas), the Home Office confirmed that those with indefinite leave evidenced by physical documents “should make a ‘No Time Limit’ (NTL) application” in order to first get a BRP and then, later this year, be able to create a UKVI account.

What is an NTL application?

An NTL application is only available for those who hold indefinite leave to enter or remain (also known as ‘settlement’) – i.e. individuals with no time limit on their stay in the UK. It can be made by those who hold immigration status on a physical (paper) document to apply for a BRP. (It can also be used to apply for a new BRP if your existing one has expired or needs replacing.) The application can only be made from within the UK.

Applicants must complete an online form and provide evidence, by electronic upload, of their current immigration status and ongoing residence in the UK. In particular, UKVI are looking to check whether the applicant’s ILR status may have lapsed, for example if they have been outside of the UK for more than two continuous years since it was granted. Once the form is submitted, the applicant must attend a UKVCAS Sopra Steria application centre to enrol their biometrics (i.e. digital photograph, fingerprints and signature).

The application is then processed, with decisions currently taking up to six months. The new BRP is then dispatched to the correspondence address given on the application.

How soon should I do this?

We would recommend applying for a BRP sooner rather than later, to be able to make use of the eVisa system promptly. The digital immigration system is being rolled out in phases and some immigration categories are already using it.

The government’s right to work check guidance is also already restricted on what documents may be accepted by an employer for a valid check; those with indefinite leave in an expired passport are even now not able to use this to prove their right to work in the UK. If you hold a paper document in an expired passport, it is of extra importance to make the application promptly if you are likely to need to demonstrate your lawful status in the UK for other reasons, e.g. for a new employer or education provider.

How much does it cost?

The application itself is free of charge and no government fee is payable when submitting the online form. However, fees may be payable for the biometric appointment, depending on the centre and time of day chosen and can range up to £270.

Will I need to do anything once I receive the BRP?

Once the BRP is received, the holder should carry this when they travel internationally. It will, of course, only be valid on its face to 31 December 2024, even though the status remains indefinite.

As a BRP holder, it will then be possible to register for an eVisa account once the system is rolled out, ahead of the document expiring on 31 December 2024.

If you are considering making an NTL application and have any questions, or you have concerns about whether your indefinite leave to enter or remain (ILR or ILE) remains valid, we would be pleased to advise. You can use our online enquiry form or call us on 020 7401 6887.