In a welcome development, restaurants can now hire skilled chefs from overseas under a Tier 2 sponsor licence. This important change could alleviate the chronic shortage in chefs causing many restaurants to close down. The shortage is particularly acute for curry houses, hence the recent changes being called a ‘Vindaloo [...]
Helping people with spouse or ‘Partner’ applications is often the most rewarding work I do, as I get to play a role in bringing loved ones together. Unfortunately, applicants and sponsors normally find these applications highly stressful. Before I go further, let me get the definitions out of the way. [...]
Religious organisations, whether churches, mosques, synagogues or Buddhist, Hindu or Sikh temples, have for a long time had a unique set of immigration rules imposed on them which dictates who can work, and even volunteer, for them. This article provides a current overview of the key immigration policies which affect [...]
The EU Settlement Scheme has been open to the public since 29 March 2019 yet Polish people have been particularly slow to register. Here, I consider why this is and why this could become a problem. Recent figures show that over 1 million individuals have applied to register on the [...]
Perhaps it is the Trump Effect, but since I moved back up to work as an immigration solicitor in Leeds over a year ago, I have assisted a particularly high number of USA nationals join their loved ones in the Yorkshire region. I have been making sense of a user-unfriendly [...]
If you are a resident of the USA and want to obtain a visa for the UK, then you will face what is, quite frankly, a confused mess of a system. In the first of this two-part series I will look at the application process for applying for visas generally. [...]
I’d like to share with Truth Legal readers the fruits of my hard-earned labour establishing the various options for non-EU family members looking to apply to settle in the UK from abroad. There's detailed guidance available but it has holes, and it took a lengthy discussion with a Home Office [...]
The new EU Settlement Scheme will provide a ‘straightforward and user-friendly means for resident EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to remain here permanently’, according to Caroline Nokes, Minister for Immigration. Unless, it seems, you are a non-EU unmarried partner of an EU citizen (or ‘durable partner’, in [...]
New immigration and nationality fees kick in today and, for once, it is relatively good news as the vast majority of fees are frozen. To some extent this will mitigate the effect of the Immigration Health Charge which was doubled earlier this year. However, although fees remain stable, they are [...]
With no end to the Brexit uncertainty in sight, prudent EU nationals and their non-EU family members are taking action now to secure their immigration status. This article focuses on the upcoming changes and what steps those affected should take to protect their rights. What are the changes? After Britain [...]
