EU nationals – top tips for applying for your Student visa this summer

For EU nationals looking to start university in the UK this year, we’ve set out some key issues to consider before applying for your Student visa.

A series of changes to the EU Settlement Scheme have resulted from the February 2023 High Court judgement in the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) case.  The judgement said that  in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement when the UK left the EU, pre-settled status holders do not lose their residency right upon failure to make an application for settled status before their pre-settled status expires.

For firms regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), it is vital that the business – and its relevant employees – ensure that its conduct is without reproach in order to avoid supervisory or regulatory difficulties. This extends to issues of governance and administrative matters, as well as more obvious issues of conduct (such as, for example, financial misconduct) which often receive more press.

The Nationality and Borders Bill, the government’s signature piece of legislation on immigration, shows questionable priorities at a time when the UK is in the midst of a wider immigration crisis.

The Youth Mobility Scheme allows employers to access younger workers from countries such as India and Iceland for two years. With skills shortages afflicting critical sectors, now might be the time for the government to consider a youth visa agreement with the EU.

EU free movement rules ended for the UK on December 31 2020. As a result, recruiting an EU citizen who is not already living in the UK now involves a visa application.

As the UK goes through the disappointing process of raising barriers on entry to EEA nationals coming to the UK, an immigration category soon to emerge, that is separate to the EU Settlement Scheme, is the frontier worker visa.

Katie Newbury discusses the implications of a no-deal Brexit on free movement and the impact on Europeans living in the UK.

As we head into the summer months, spare a thought for overworked UK farmers who at the peak of the harvesting season are struggling to recruit the workers they need.  The National Farmers’ Union has long been lobbying hard for added flexibility in recruitment of non-EEA nationals given the growth in the sector. 

In our latest Brexit webinar, part of our immigration update series, Nick Rollason and Katie Newbury consider the latest developments on Brexit and the relevant issues around EU nationals living in the UK or those who are considering coming to the UK.

The House of Commons has voted to reject the House of Lords amendment which sought to guarantee the rights of EU nationals resident in the UK before Brexit negotiations begin. This paves the way for Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty to be triggered later this month, when the two year negotiation process will begin for the UK to leave the European Union. Although this two year period can be extended with the agreement of all 27 members, it is unlikely in reality that this will be achievable. Whilst the government has stated that negotiations regarding the rights of EU citizens will be a priority once Article 50 is triggered later this month, until this issue is decided many EU nationals will remain in limbo in the UK with on-going uncertainties regarding whether or not they can continue to reside in the UK.

Theresa May’s eagerly anticipated speech on the UK’s starting point for negotiations on Brexit, has sketched a very broad outline of her intentions with respect to immigration from the EU moving forward. However when you get up close there is little new detail and her comments have, arguably, raised more questions than they have answered. 

Following the conclusion of the pilot to trial online applications for EEA nationals wishing to apply to register their status or apply for Permanent Residence, the online application process has now been rolled out nationally as of 1 October 2016. 

When the British electorate voted in the referendum on 23 June whether to stay in or leave the European Union few of us in the legal profession thought we would need to become experts on a rather arcane provision of the Treaty on European Union (Article 50) about the mechanisms which need to be applied to the departure of a Member State from the EU. However, now this is the case and there is much rumination about the constitutional requirements for both the UK to trigger the departure procedure and the EU institutions to negotiate that event. 

At a faster pace than any had imagined, we are today welcoming a new Prime Minister. A Prime Minister who made a forceful case for significantly cutting immigration when given a platform at last year’s party conference. A Prime Minister who has headed up the department which oversees the design and implementation of immigration policy in the UK over the last six years. A Prime Minister who will need to grapple with, amongst other issues, the position of current and future European migrants to the UK in any upcoming negotiations on the implementation of a ‘Brexit’. It seems prudent, therefore, to reflect on her last six years at the Home Office and consider what her department’s past actions and particularly that speech at last year’s party conference may portend for us who work in immigration or who avail ourselves of the immigration system moving forward.

Many of the developments over the last six years can be seen in the context of a Government striving to meet the arbitrary target of reducing immigration to the tens of thousands. In this quest, no immigration category has been left untouched. 

The prospect of a Brexit can no longer be ignored. David Cameron is currently planning to seek reform of the EU and an in/out referendum is to be put to the UK by the end of 2017. Some reports suggest that previous strength of business opposition to a Brexit is waning. Alongside sections of strong euro-scepticism within the public, it seems inevitable that employers and employees must begin to think about potential changes to UK employment law and what any such changes could mean for them.

As covered in our earlier blog on how separation and divorce could affect your right to remain in the UK, the breakdown of a marriage for a couple with an international background can be particularly difficult if one party relies on the other’s immigration status to stay here.

The Home Office announced on 20 October 2015 that from 1 February 2016 all private landlords in England will have to check that new tenants have the right to be in the UK before renting out their property. The new scheme will not apply in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland for the time being. 

Via ILPA, questions have arisen regarding the Home Office’s understanding of EU law regarding self-sufficient EU citizens. The problem appears to be that the Home Office has asserted, at least in one recent decision, that:

• The non-EEA family members cannot work in the UK until after the EU citizen has established that he or she is a worker under the (UK) Regulations and (EU) Directive; and
• The income of the non EEA family member cannot be taken into account to decide whether the EU citizen is self-sufficient.

A look at the UK-US Agreement on visa, immigration and nationality information sharing.