15 March 2017
Immigration update - How will triggering Article 50 impact employers of EU nationals?
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.
18 January 2017
Theresa May signals an end to free movement and leaves EU citizens here and British citizens abroad in limbo
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.
5 October 2016
Roll out of online application process for EEA nationals
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.
27 July 2016
Brexit and British Citizens living in other Member States
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.
13 July 2016
Reflections on the impact of the UK’s recent and future hostile migration environment
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.