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Welcome to episode 69 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This is a bumper Brexit issue: we’ll be covering the government’s policy on ending free movement for EU citizens, in addition to a healthy crop of cases on EU immigration law while we’ve still got it. There are also some changes to the Immigration Rules on the Points Based System and asylum. We end on how not to get sent to prison by a family court judge. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device and subscribing has the advantage that each new podcast can be automatically downloaded for listening to on the go. To acces

Welcome to episode 68 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We’re continuing our review of the summer, with developments to mention in areas as diverse as asylum, litigation costs, citizenship deprivation and human trafficking. We’ll also discuss new visas for scientists and entrepreneurs. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device and subscribing has the advantage that each new podcast can be automatically downloaded for listening to on the go. To access previous Free Movement immigration update podcasts click here. The downloadable 22-minute audio podcast follows the running order b

Welcome to episode 67 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. As you may have noticed, we’ve been on a rather extended holiday, so we’re going to use this and the next episode to catch you up on what’s gone on in immigration law over the summer. There are a fair few cases to discuss, especially on detention, deportation and asylum. We then have good news to mention on EU law document applications, and some less good news on the procedural front. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device and subscribing has the advantage that each new podcast can be automatically downloaded for li

The way that I tell clients to treat this kind of evidence gathering process is… don’t treat it as an evidence gathering process. It may sound a little corny, but treat it as a celebration of your relationship so far. You’re telling a story to someone of how you met, what you’ve done together, where you’ve been. Imagine that you were explaining the relationship to your gran. Among the requirements for getting a UK partner visa are that “the relationship between the applicant and their partner must be genuine and subsisting”. That two people are in a real and committed relationship might be obvious to themselves and their lawyer, but satisfying a suspicious Home Office official making the decision on the visa application is another matter entirely. As so often in immigration law, the key is getting together the right evidence. In this interview, solicitor Nick Nason talks through the Home Office’s guidance on what constitutes a “genuine and subsisting re

Welcome to episode 66 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. CJ has just been on a podcasting course and you may notice a few differences this month, including some intro music. This month we start in the Supreme Court with its decision on the Worker Registration Scheme. We then tackle some recent controversies over long residence and passport eGates before running through the latest case law on asylum. A few quick updates on work visas and deportation law follow, and we conclude with appeals law. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device and

Welcome to the May 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This was a mercifully quiet month in immigration law, for a change, but there’s still a few decisions from the Court of Appeal to be aware of — particularly on asylum and trafficking — as well as an important process change for Zambrano applicants. There’s a useful judgment on damages for unlawful detention from the European Court of Human Rights and a new Shortage Occupation List coming in, and we also chat about the EU Settlement Scheme and the new Immigration Services Commissioner. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement

The Home Office processed around 166,000 applications for British citizenship last year. Most are granted, but some are refused. The most common reason for refusal is failing the ‘good character’ test. Almost 4,000 bids for citizenship were rejected on this ground last year. That makes up 40% of all refusals, or 2% of all decided applications (successful or unsuccessful). The requirement that a would-be British citizen be “of good character” is set out in the British Nationality Act 1981, but the law itself does not define the term. The Home Office has a wide discretion in setting the test and publishes detailed guidance on how it is applied. In this short interview, John Vassiliou of McGill & Co Solicitors talks through the fundamentals of the good character test and the changes made to it earlier this year, including on overstaying, illegal entry and children.

Welcome to the April 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a big Court of Appeal decision on “paragraph 322(5)” tax cases and the state of play on the new business visas. There’s just one asylum judgment to review, but several on deportation and detention. We’ll then look at some immigration appeals law and some non-Brexit EU law before finishing on the compensation scheme for victims of the Windrush scandal. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device and subscribing has the advantage

The EU Settlement Scheme is well underway, with 600,000 European citizens and their families having now applied to stay in the UK after Brexit. The scheme appears to have lived up to its billing insofar as the Home Office is looking to grant people settled status rather than refuse it. Officially, there have been zero refusals in the 188,000 cases decided by mid-April 2019. It does seem wildly unlikely that a 100% grant rate will be sustained in the long run. There have been well-documented teething troubles for individual applicants, and the number of people who will ultimately slip through the cracks by failing to apply at all remains a major concern. For now, we are doing all we can to help European citizens and their advisers to navigate the scheme. Resources include blog posts, YouTube videos and a full ebook (updated edition coming soon). It seemed a shame not to add a podcast to the list, so we thought we’d use that format to address some common issues with the settled status proces

Welcome to the March 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a couple of High Court victories by NGOs before turning to some significant developments in business immigration. There’s also been some movement in asylum law which we’ll review before looking at some new cases concerning appeal rights and children. We finish on developments in the wonderful world of immigration detention, including the damning Home Affairs committee report castigating the whole business. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobi

Welcome to the February 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we start with a quick discussion of deprivation of citizenship in the context of the Shamima Begum case before tackling some of the case law on asylum (in particular Sri Lanka for some reason). Then to legal aid, where there’s good news for practitioners seeking to backdate a certificate but the government confirmed that the major cuts to legal aid of recent years will remain in place. We then touch on a couple of cases about taking an asylum appeal before looking to Brexit (now T-minus a couple of weeks). Finally, a quick mention for some new research from us on Home Office enforcement of right to work fines. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts o

Welcome to the delayed January 2019 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We start the round-up with some mixed news on appeal rights before getting into the latest on Brexit and the Settlement Scheme for EU citizens living in the UK. There is some significant new guidance on good character in the context of British citizenship applications to chew over and then some business immigration updates. Finally we fly through a few cases from the Upper Tribunal, in particular on asylum. Listen to the end to hear why the 10-year residence rule requires 10 years of lawful residence — the answer may not surprise you. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 100 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher&nb

Welcome to the December 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. It’s a bumper issue, with a host of immigration announcements just before Christmas to cover, including two sets of changes to the Immigration Rules, a white paper, an Immigration Bill and announcements on EU citizens’ rights. We run through the main policy and procedural changes for lawyers to be aware of before turning to some case law on asylum and detention, as well as all the Upper Tribunal’s reported decisions for this month — all in just 25 minutes. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 40 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device an

Welcome to the November 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we again take it from the top with the Supreme Court’s latest attempt to cut through the complexity of our immigration law before turning to a major High Court decision on trafficking. November also saw the Home Office roll out a new in-country application system, so we’ll discuss what we know about that so far. There’s then some Upper Tribunal case law on appeals, asylum and Article 3 to chew on, and we conclude on the now-infamous paragraph 322(5). If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 40 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device an

Welcome to the October 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We posted 40 articles on the blog last month, but are realistically limited in a podcast to discussing the most important ten or so. A Supreme Court judgment obviously qualifies, so we start with that one on how the best interests of children factor into removal decisions before turning to another case involving children, this time in the Upper Tribunal. There’s also a set of changes to the Immigration Rules to mug up on. Most of the rest of this month’s update is case law, of which the most significant case may be on Surinder Singh rights. There are a couple of asylum decisions to be aware of also, albeit on reasonably niche issues, as well as some new unlawful detention cases. We round off on two reported cases from the Upper Tribunal, one on trafficking and one on Article 8. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. Ther

Welcome to the September 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. We tried something a bit different this month. CJ and I ran the podcast together in a more conversational style. To keep the length reasonable we’ve focussed in on fewer subjects but covered them in a bit more depth. Let us know if you think it is better or worse in comments, please! We’ll try again in the same style for the next couple of months and see how it goes. It was a new experience for us and we’d hope we’d improve with practice. We start by talking about deprivation of citizenship, before moving on to Brexit. There’s less case law to cover than usual, but a few interesting decisions and policy changes on asylum, deportation and human rights are worth reviewing. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 40 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all

Welcome to the August 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I start on two subjects I’ve always been interested in, refusals of visit visa applications and the power to deprive people of their British citizenship. Both came to public attention in August due to media coverage. From there we go to the more specialist realm of procedure, including some significant new guidance on awarding costs against the Home Office. Then I mention a few developments in human rights and EU law, including Brexit, before finishing on some interesting new judgments on human trafficking. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 40 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed 

Welcome to the July 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I start by discussing some developments in nationality law, then cover the EU Settlement Scheme that is starting to take shape and currently being piloted. While we await Brexit, EU law still applies, so we cover a judgment on the Surinder Singh immigration route as well as changes to the EEU Regulations. Then some material on asylum and detention, before the usual procedural update. If you are a lawyer and would like to claim CPD (Continuing Professional Development) points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 80 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Stitcher here or point your podcast player to the podcast feed for Free Movement. Using a mobile device and subscribing has the advantage that

Welcome to the June 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. I start this month with a whistle-stop tour of some of the latest changes to the Immigration Rules before highlighting a couple of procedural changes, including the end of special deadlines for the Home Office in judicial review cases. Then to Brexit, as the government published something approaching a plan on citizens’ rights, and then to some judgments around children and families. I then note some case law on trafficking, deportation and asylum before ending on a note of alarm on immigration bail accommodation. This month we published a lot of new or updated explainers on many of these topics, which I won’t attempt to summarise in the podcast but will flag up as we go through. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 40 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available

Welcome to the May 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. It was a bumper month for immigration and asylum law updates, with 61 posts published on Free Movement in May. I can’t possibly cover everything, but the highlights include an important High Court intervention on automatic detention and new judicial guidance on immigration bail. From there I move on to the latest case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union and then return to the UK for some developments on the now infamous Windrush cases. Then there are some new cases in the rather different areas of business and asylum and the usual dry but vital procedural changes. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this podcast, sign up here as a Free Movement member. There are now over 40 CPD hours of training materials available to members. You can find all the available courses here. If you listen to podcasts on your mobile phone, you can subscribe for free via iTunes here, Sti