Finally, some great news have arrived out of the United Kingdom’s Home Office. On October 29, 2015, the Changes in Immigration rules HC535 statement was announced which brought more revisions to the Immigration Law. One of the things that has been pretty well by Theresa may the Home Secretary is to never get exhausted of ideas with regards to the ways to get the Immigration laws of the United Kingdom to be changed. She constantly churns out these revisions whenever it is suitable for her. On November 19th, 2015 is when a lot of the changes being introduced by this statement of changes are expected to come into effect.
A few of these revisions include:
- Jobs in Digital Technology and Nurses
Jobs in digital technology and nurses have been added to the shortage occupation list by the Statement of Changes HC395.
The inclusion to the shortage occupation list of nurses is an important step adopted by the government of the United Kingdom because it has eventually discovered that it requires the recruitment of additional nurses from overseas so that the NHS (National Health Service) can be boosted. This is going to lead to a lot of hospitals all over the country embarking on a huge recruitment process to employ nurses that are not from within the United Kingdom, an opportunity that is perfect for nurses who are outside there to capitalize on it before they close the window once more.
On the other hand, the conditions through which nurses are going to make their applications are very technical. There exist a lot of other requirements that are legal which has to be met aside from just being a nurse who is qualified in order to obtain the visa. The conditions are based on points, which means that under the rules an applicant must obtain a particular amount of points in order to be successful with their application for the visa.
Apart from this, applications can be denied just because of the failure of an applicant to have a certain box ticked on the application form. There would not be any right of appeal against the decision, assuming an application is denied. This is why it is important that the application is done properly otherwise an applicant would have misused their application money. Fees on application are non refundable if the application is not approved.
The recommendation is that anyone who wants to attempt to make these applications must seek for recommendation from professionals who are qualified in the United Kingdom and who are authorized to give such recommendations because it is costly to obtain the visa because an applicant has to pay the NHS Health surcharge and Home Office application fee when they make their visa applications. Professionals who are regulated in the United Kingdom are responsible and in a better position to render the suitable degree of service to applicants undergoing the process.
Individuals should grab this chance while it is still available. It is probable that the list on shortage occupations would be reviewed once more and the nurses would be taken off it once the government feels that it is satisfied with the quantity that is requires for the NHS of the United Kingdom. This has once occurred in the past. The reality that this addition is being made now is not an indication that it is going to stay there forever.
- Refugee status withdrawal
Once an individual is approved with the status of a refugee, there are situations in which the status can be withdrawn by the Secretary of State. Here, withdrawal indicates either cancellation, cessation, or revocation of refugee status. The circumstances in which a withdrawal can be made of the refugee status are clarified by HC 395. A consolidation has not yet been made to the Immigration rules to reflect these revisions. In my view, an introduction to these revisions by HC 395 is simply to make it simpler for a person’s refugee status to be withdrawn by the Secretary of State. We are all going to watch how the new rules are going to be practically applied and a report on this is going to be made available at a later date.
- Applications for Settlements
When an application is being made for an indefinite leave to stay in the United Kingdom, the requirement from an applicant is that they show adequate knowledge of the language of English and adequate knowledge with regards to living in the UK. This is achieved by sitting for and excelling at an accepted test in English language and a different test on life in the United Kingdom. Presently, there already are accepted providers who administer the test in English language. The revision in this aspect is that henceforth a secure test in English Language would be taken by applicants.
Another revision is the £35k minimum earnings threshold for settlement applications for tier 2 which has been introduced. This means migrants on Tier 2 are going to have to be paid not lower than £35,000 so as to be deemed as qualified for indefinite leave to stay in the United Kingdom. On April 6, 2016 is when this change is going to come into effect.
For anyone who requires additional details with regards to the aforementioned changes, kindly visit www.gov.uk and search there for the statement of changes.
OTHER REVISIONS
The Bill on Immigration 2015 which was talked about in the former article made public on this website in September 2015 presently is now being under the consideration of the House of Lords. After it goes over the House’s different stages and gets their approval it is going to be sent for some final corrections at the House of Commons before it gets the Royal Ascent and turns into law. After it comes into effect, an amendment is going to be given because the bill could have effect on a lot of people.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has commenced its plans to turn Landlords into their actual officers for immigration. On October 20th, 2015, an announcement was made by the Home office that commencing on February 1st, 2016, landlords are going to have the legal duty to perform checks of immigration on everyone of their tenants. Under the Immigration Act 2014 a violation of this duty is going to be punished by the payment of a fine of not less than £3,000.
This is going to be escalated by the Immigration Bill 2015 in which landlords who breach this duty are going to face jail terms of not less than 5 years. “Right to rent” checks are going to be mandatorily performed by landlords on their tenants in direct cooperation with the Home office assuming they have suspicions with regards to the right to rent property by their tenants in the UK.
Campaigners of human rights have performed research and found out that this plan is going to lead to people from ethnic minority backgrounds being discriminated. However their calls have been ignored by the Home Office. Presently the only hope is for the Immigration Bill 2015 to be stopped from turning into a law by it not being approved by the House of Lords.
- British Nationality
A number of enquiries have been received by me from persons who have made attempts to have their applications submitted for Citizenship of Britain via the service for Nationality checking and the advice was that they should not make such applications till the completion of 10 years due to a prior violation of laws of immigration.
The date of the breach is when the 10 years is counted from. The Home office has stated this as its position. However, there are lawful challenges that could be submitted where cases are turned down due to a prior violation of the rules of Immigration. Obviously, these legal challenges are not going to be advised to you by the Nationality Service because they are not established to provide legal counsel particularly on how the Home office can be challenged by people in their cases.
People need to discuss with their lawyers with regards to their particular cases and should not get frightened by the details that they receive from the Service for Nationality Checking. Actually people are not under any compulsion to refer to the Service of Nationality Checking prior to making their citizenship application. It is more appropriate to look for your own individual legal counsel from lawyers instead of making use of the service for nationality checking which is a collaboration between the Local Authorities and the Government.
In spite of the revisions to applications for citizenship that was announced in December 2014 by the Home Office, it is worthwhile for individuals to make their applications for Citizenship of Britain now because there is the likelihood that it is going to become much more difficult to achieve such a status in the future than it is presently. This is an opportunity that is gradually going away.
Kindly take note that this article is not trying to give direct legal counsel to the individual cases of people. If you feel that the Immigration law changes in the United Kingdom could affect you, kindly look for counsel from an expert.