Employer duties under the Croatia Accession Regulations 2013

Following the accession of Croatia to the EU on 1 July 2013, a Croatian national who wishes to work in the UK will need permission to do so, unless they are exempt from this requirement.

You should undertake the necessary checks when employing Croatian nationals to ensure they have, or are exempt from requiring, permission to work.

 

 

The New Immigration Bill - Its Impact on Migrants

In the Queen’s speech on 8 May 2013 marking the beginning of the new parliamentary session, the UK Coalition Government laid out the key pieces of legislation that it intends to create over the next year.

One of the key legislation announced in the Queen’s speech is the Immigration Bill.

The new Immigration Bill is meant to stop foreigners coming to the UK from benefitting from the NHS and other public services.

The Coalition Government disclosed that the Bill will:

a.      Regulate migrants’ access to the NHS

b.      Require landlords to carry out “Right to Occupy” checks on tenants to ensure they are legal migrants

c.      Introduce tighter checks on people obtaining UK Drivers Licence.

Another aspect of the Bill is geared towards making it easier to remove or deport foreigners from the UK through limiting their Rights of Appeal as well as their rights under the Human Rights Act. 

Regulating Migrants’ Access to the NHS

This is meant to stop foreigners coming to the UK benefitting from free access to the NHS.

One of the proposals put forward to regulate Migrants’ access to the NHS is to make foreigners pay medical insurance.

“Right to Occupy” Checks by Landlords

This “Right to Occupy” checks will require landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants, to ensure that tenants occupying their property are not living in the UK illegally. It is meant to stop illegal immigrants from being able to rent accommodation in the UK. In order words, the Coalition Government does not want illegal immigrants to have a place of shelter.

How this legislation will operate is not yet spelt out but, if we have to go by antecedents, I have a feeling that it is likely to run parallel to the “Right to Work” checks placed upon employers to undertake prior to engaging new staff or the regular checks employed to further ascertain the continuous immigration status of employees.

Apart from the uncertainty on how the legislation will operate, another point of note here is what enforcement measure will be put in place by the Coalition Government to police the new legislation?

We know that presently there are penalties against Employers who employ illegal immigrants without carrying out the required document checks prior to the offer of employment to such illegal immigrants.

Such penalties range from heavy fines (up to £10,000 for each illegal immigrants found employed by them), criminal charges and ultimately, prison sentence. The question now is will the same penalties be meted out to Landlords found to rent their property to illegal immigrants?

This legislation, even though it is yet to become operational, it is already creating waves as some landlords, in their quest to safeguard themselves from the likely consequence of a breach of this legislation, have started asking their tenants for their immigration status documents.

I have clients whose landlords have demanded for their status documents and are now faced with the prospect of losing their accommodation in the event that the UKBA does not decide on their pending application on time.    

Only time will tell how this piece of legislation will impact on both landlords and tenants alike. A piece of advice for landlords is to be on the look out for further announcement on this piece of legislation to ensure they are not caught out when it finally becomes operational.

The other aspect of the Bill will involve the introduction of stringent measures which will make it virtually impossible for illegal migrants to obtain UK Drivers Licence.

Another aspect of the Bill also involves limiting the rights of appeal against removal or deportation by introducing an “extraordinary circumstances” threshold for foreigners convicted of serious crimes in the UK.  This is about making it easier to remove or deport illegal immigrants from the UK, especially those with serious criminal conviction.

Good Character and Application for Naturalisation

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) recently announced a change to the way it assesses assess the ‘good character’ requirement for naturalisation applications.

Listed hereunder are few of the considerations the UKBA will take into account when assessing the ‘Good Character’ requirement in naturalisation applications to become a British citizen:

Criminal Convictions

No longer will criminal convictions be considered ‘spent’ but instead they will be evaluated according to a ‘sentence based threshold’ as follows:

• Sentence of 4 years or more imprisonment - your application will be refused, regardless of when the conviction occurred;
• Between 12 months and 4 years imprisonment - your application will be refused unless 15 years have passed since the end of the sentence;
• Up to 12 months imprisonment in the last 7 years - your application will be refused unless 7 years have passed since the end of the sentence;
• A non-custodial offence - applications will be refused if the conviction occurred in the last 3 years.

Unpaid fines and notices

If it has been referred to a court due to non-payment where the court orders the fine to be paid are treated as a conviction and will be assessed by the UKBA against the sentencing threshold for a non-custodial offence. For example, where an individual has been ordered to pay a court fine of £100, they will have to wait for 3 years from the date of the conviction to be able to make an application for naturalisation as a British citizen. This includes unpaid TV licence fines etc.

A police caution

This will be assessed against the non-custodial sentencing threshold.

Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO)

The breach of an ASBO is considered as a criminal offence.

Fixed penalty notices

Depending on how many you have and how recently you have received them, the UKBA might view them as an indication that you are not in fact of good character.

Finances and dealings with HMRC

The UKBA can make checks to ascertain that all of your financial liabilities are up to date and are current. Particularly if you are self-employed, the UKBA will want to see evidence that you are paying your taxes! If you are behind on your payments, or have not made any payments at all, the UKBA can view this as an indication that you are not of ‘Good Character’.

Council Tax

The UKBA will make checks to ensure that your Council Tax is up to date and whether you have kept your Council informed of the number of people living in your property and that you are paying the correct amount of Council Tax.

If you are in doubt of your circumstance or how this changes will affect you consult a Legal Representative today for further information on how to avoid falling foul of these new changes.

 

Re: UK ‘shooting itself in the foot’ on immigration policy

Few days ago I read an article in The Times written by Lord O’Donnell, the former head of the British civil service.

In the article, Lord O’Donnell opined that the UK government is shooting itself in the foot and should change its immigration policy to boost economic growth.

He went on to mention how the annual limit introduced by the coalition government in 2011 on skilled workers from outside the EU is proving to be a “big barrier to growth” that is depriving the UK of talented people.

The affable Lord O’Donnell then went on to advise the government that “The first thing the government can do to help growth is to stop shooting itself in the foot”.

Everyone that has been following the staccato of changes to Immigration Rules (about 20 changes in the last 2 years - and still counting) will agree that it is borne out of the government’s drive to slash net migration to, as it is often spouted by the Home Office officials, “tens of thousands” by 2015.

Nobody is arguing with the drive to slash net migration but as it is evident with the style of cuts being implemented in all other spheres of governance, this so called drive to slash net migration and the way it is being done is counter-productive as it is stifling growth.

The changes to Immigration Rules that are adversely affecting growth is not limited to skilled workers from outside the EU but cuts across all the Points-Based System applications. Most visibly of all are the changes affecting foreign Students.

This has had most Colleges and Universities reeling from huge shortfall in student in-take from outside the European zone. It is a known fact that most of the Colleges and Universities in United Kingdom had always been dependent on foreign students to balance their books. These foreign students pay astronomical fees which the institutions depend on as a lifeline for growth. Suddenly, the rug is now being pulled from under their feet.

I attended a meeting with some proprietors of private colleges about a year ago in London where everyone present was lamenting at the effects of the changes inherent at the time. Many more changes have been introduced since that meeting that has further hit these educational institutions in the pocket. The micro after-effect of this is the loss of licences of many Colleges and Universities - the most recent being the London Metropolitan University - and the attendant loss of jobs by employees and students of these unfortunate institutions.

It is reckoned that the macro after-effect of this is a massive loss to the economy which many believe runs into hundreds of millions of pounds a year which has contributed to the lack of growth in the economy.

Part of the reasons for this constant tinkling with the immigration rules also stem from the belief that immigrants are taking up jobs meant for the British nationals. This school of thought is so far away from the truth that it is so glaring that even the uninitiated can see it clearly that it is nothing but.

A recent example is the problem that arose with G4S shortly before the recent London Olympics.

G4s was awarded a contract to employ a little over 10,000 people to work during the Olympics. This contract was awarded years before the Olympics was due to open but less than a week to the opening of the games we were told that G4S was unable to fill the vacancies. This is in spite of the fact that there were over 3 million people unemployed at the time.

It beggars believe that an opening of 10,000 employment opportunities could not be filled at a time that over 3 million people are on the dole.

It doesn’t take a genius to work it out that had the Home Office not been coming down hard on migrants and employers employing them, the problem with G4S wouldn’t arise.

I commented in one of my numerous articles that we seem to be cutting our noses to spite our faces.

I was recently invited to a TV talk show on Sky channel 203 called “The Chrissy B Show” to discuss the topic ‘In Search of Greener Pastures’.

Before I came on to my segment of the show, a clip was aired of a lady who works with migrants in a factory and she spoke of how hardworking the migrants she works with are. She went as far as saying that the migrants - even though they hardly have enough sleep due to the long hours they worked - are even scared to turn down overtime. She extolled their work ethics and added that even though she is hardworking herself, she is in awe of their energy and willingness to go on regardless.  

I am not against tightening of the borders and restricting or barring people who should not be in this country from coming in but my argument is that it should be done with some level of common sense, decorum and fair play. In a nutshell, whatever rules that is to be put in place for this purpose should have a human face.

The situation has got to the stage now that certain aspect of the immigration rule borders on segregation. The income threshold requirement being introduced affecting even British citizens wishing to bring their spouse into the UK for settlement from outside the European zone is a typical example.

The income threshold requirement is set at a level that is beyond the average employed British citizen. To make matters worse the threshold gets even higher with the more children you have with your spouse.

This is a subtle warning to British citizens to choose carefully who to fall in love with. I am surprised that no one as yet challenged this flagrant abuse of human right.

Again, if you have a child living outside the European zone who is over 18, you cannot bring that child to come and live with you in the UK unless they are suffering from some ailment that requires looking after round-the-clock. Even then, you still have to prove that there is nobody else to care for them out there. How bizarre?

So in my candid opinion, I would say that the learned Lord O’Donnell is spot on with his opinion and advice that the UK government is “shooting itself in the foot” and should change its immigration policy to boost economic growth.

 

 

 

UKBA To Track Down 150,000 Illegal Immigrants

The UKBA is planning to launch a project in September 2012 to deal with the huge backlog of Immigrants who have overstayed their leave in the UK.

 
It plans to write to an estimated 150,000 illegal immigrants who are remaining in the UK illegally.


According to the statement from the Immigration Minister Damian Green, the UKBA will send letters to those who's applications have been refused by the UKBA but are still remaining in the UK illegally warning them that they a liable to be deported and barred from entering the UK unless they leave within 28 days.

 
There is a change to the Immigration Rules affecting overstayers which will take effect from 1st October 2012. This new statement from the Immigration Minister looks like a preamble to that.

 
This project, according to the statement, will be targeting foreign nationals from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Supreme Court Rules in Favour of Asylum Seekers

The Supreme Court has yesterday delivered another landmark judgment in a case brought before it by the Home Office.

The case involved a Zimbabwean woman who came into the UK on a student visa but later had her asylum claim rejected by the UKBA officials who allegedly insisted she should go back to her country of origin and simply pretend she backed the ruling party.

However, seven judges of the Supreme Court "agreed that a person's right not to support any political party deserved the same protection under the UN's Refugee Convention as the right to support them".

This ruling stand to favour thousands of asylum seekers and my advice to anyone in this situation is to seek for proper legal advice on the next step forward.

Changes to applications from overstayers

The UK Border Agency has announced another change to the Immigration Rules affecting applications from overstayers.

"From 1 October 2012 if you have overstayed your leave by more than 28 days any application for further leave will be refused. This change in the Immigration Rules will affect applicants applying for further leave under:

• the points-based system;
• all working and student routes;
• visiting routes;
• long residency routes;
• discharged HM Forces; or
• UK ancestry routes.

This change is in line with the new immigration rules coming into effect for the family migration route from 9 July 2012.

If you have limited leave to remain you must ensure you apply to extend your leave, if needed, in time. If you wish to remain in the UK after the 28 day period you should leave the UK and reapply for a visa".

Please monitor this website for further information about the changes.