Blog
Keeping the peace at Christmas – top tips for shared parenting over the festive season
Lauren Evans
24 August 2016
New digital visa application service for visitor visas
In 2014 the Home Office introduced a new digital application service for applicants in China to apply for visitor visas online, known as Access UK.
Following its successful launch, Access UK is now available for applicants applying to visit the UK in over 180 countries and 10 languages.
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.
13 May 2016
Foreign companies to be required to declare their owners when buying property in the UK
Press reports of this week’s Anti-Corruption Summit, hosted by David Cameron, coincided with the story of actress Emma Watson allegedly buying a UK property through a BVI company. While investment in UK property through offshore companies is perceived as a principal means by which corrupt individuals seek to launder dirty money, Mr Cameron accepts that there are many legitimate reasons for corporate property investment.
23 March 2016
Further details regarding the Immigration Skills Charge announced
As you are aware the government is proposing to introduce an Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) for Sponsors who hire Tier 2 migrants and we last wrote to you about the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations with regard to this in our 20 January 2016 alert. This week you may have come across reports which seek to confirm the details of the Charge.
11 March 2016
Government publishes its latest Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules
The government published its latest Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules today and contrary to expectations, none of the widely anticipated new measures have been introduced, following the recommendations of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in its Tier 2 Review report in January.