On Monday the UK government published a policy paper entitled ‘Immigration from 30 March 2019 if there is no deal’.

The EU Settlement Scheme opened up for a public test phase on 21 January 2019. EU citizens with a passport and their non EU family members in possession of a biometric residence permit (BRP) are now eligible to apply under the scheme. With millions of applicants now potentially eligible, we answer some frequently asked questions on the new settled status scheme.

  If you have been following the recent changes in immigration law, you will appreciate that a considerable upheaval of the visa application procedure has taken place since November 2018. With the introduction of their new digitalised service for visa applications, the Home Office launched a number of new user-pay services.

In the recent decision of SA v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] CSIH 71  the Court of Session considers the correct approach to assessing whether it is reasonable to expect a child who has lived in the UK for seven years (or who is British) to leave the UK.

On Thursday, the latest Code of practice for employers on illegal working penalties has been published by the Home Office.

  On Wednesday, a new Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (HC 1779) was published after being presented to Parliament.  The changes are mainly focused on the points based system, but also contain the inclusion of spouses of refuges under domestic abuse settlement provisions and an amendment to ancestry visas.

As the holiday approaches we would like to take this opportunity to inform valued clients and potential new customers of our Christmas opening hours: We will be closed on the 25th & 26th December and 1st & 2nd January  24th & 31st December opening hours are 9am-2pm 27th & 28th December opening hours are 9am-3pm We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a happy new year, when it comes from all of us here at McGill & Co  

The Home Office announced last night that the Tier 1 (Investor) visa route will be suspended from midnight tomorrow, Friday 07 December, until new rules come in to force in 2019. The decision to suspend the visa program has reportedly  been taken as part of reforms designed to tackle organised crime and money laundering.

In our most recent contribution to Free Movement blog, John Vassilou takes a look at the case of R (Khan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Dishonesty, tax return, paragraph 322(5)) [2018] UKUT 384 (IAC). In particular, John looks at the guidance provided by the Upper Tribunal to the Home Office in relation to Tier 1 (General) applications which raise issues of dishonesty under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules.

Many clients with children in the UK will have heard of the seven year rule. They will have been told that they need to wait until their child has been in the UK for seven years. What they often don’t know is why this is and what happens once the child reaches seven years residence.