UK Immigration News

Following the last Tier 2 visa allocation meeting of 2017, the number of restricted Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) available for January 2018 stands at 1,409, according to UK Visas and Immigration data. The department published its December report citing that its figures were correct as of 21 December, 2017.

UK visa and immigration enforcement will be exempt from new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to be introduced by the EU from 25 May 2018, threatening the data rights of ‘everyone’ in the UK campaigners have warned. Campaign groups have described the exemption as ‘unnecessary’, ‘unlawful’ and ‘worryingly broad.’

In early December 2017 Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn intervened in an immigration case in which a US academic married to a British citizen was denied a UK visa, before both were told to leave the country. Corbyn has accused the Home Office of jeopardizing the UK’s global reputation for higher education and research by denying visas to foreign academics married to Brits.

Applications for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK for Tier 1 General visa holders must be submitted by 5 April, 2018 at the latest. Tier 1 General ILR closes on 6 April, 2018 and so this UK settlement route is being withdrawn from this date. You should make sure that you have passed the Life in the UK Test before you apply and in some circumstances you may need to pass an English language test.

In a report by Computer Weekly it is claimed that UK IT professionals potentially face increased and unfair competition from Indian Tier 2 visa holders working for UK Employers with a Tier 2 Sponsorship LIcence, if the UK agrees a free trade deal with India, post-Brexit. Speaking in London recently, YK Sinha – India’s high commissioner to the UK – said that any future trade deal between Britain and India rests on Britain’s willingness to relax skilled worker visa rules.

Former Royal Marine and actively serving bodyguard to the Queen, Simon Milne MBE, was left seething in early December 2017 after his French wife of 24 years saw her application for UK permanent residency rejected. Mr Milne, who has served in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, says that his wife Francoise now fears for her right to remain in the UK post-Brexit.