Immigration Blog

Immigration rules expressly prohibit passing the sponsorship costs to the employee. However, visa fee and the IHS can be paid by either employee or the employer. The new rules explain when and how the sponsor may recover these costs.

Is there discretion to grant indefinite leave to remain where some of the requirements of the rules are not met? This question is particularly burning for the applicants under the long residence rule who have lived in the country lawfully for 10 years and want to settle permanently.

The Isle of Jersey has its own immigration rules. These rules are loosely based on the UK Immigration Rules but there are some important differences. The types of family visas for Jersey are the same as for the UK: Spouse or partner visa Fiancé or proposed civil partner visa Parent of a child Adult dependent

It is received knowledge that if you are married to a British citizen, UK spouse visa is your default immigration option. Although in the majority of scenarios this is the case, sometimes there are better options that shouldn’t be ignored. This blog offers tips on the five factors you have to bear in mind when choosing the right immigration category.

If you are in the UK on a dependent visa and your marriage is on the rocks, visa problems are perhaps the last thing you want to get worried about. And yet it may come to a point when you have to face the dreaded question – what options do I have if I want to stay in the UK? Self-sponsorship can be a practical solution if you are running your own business and have at least one settled employee who can be responsible for the sponsor management system.

For holders of Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK, Immigration Rules changed quietly in October 2023. Before introduction of Appendix Returning Resident, our advice was on the side of caution – if you are leaving the UK for a prolonged period of time, repeated visits may not be sufficient to maintain your indefinite leave to remain. Our advice now is more confident in that visiting the UK is sufficient to protect your status and the purpose of visit should not have an impact on your status.

Getting married in the UK, staying in the UK after marriage and applying for a British passport – there is no automatic entitlement to any of this. Read our immigration lawyers’ guide on how it works.

How frequently can I come to the UK as a visitor and how does the 180-day rule work? There is no hard and fast rule about spending not more than 180 days in the UK in any one year, but in practice this is taken as a checkpoint beyond which the notion of a country of residence and the country you are visiting may be reversed. Here are some helpful tips from an immigration lawyer explaining how the “soft” rule works.