RFI: UK Immigration Policy

Yes, that's my understanding.

I don't see how it's possible to round up a bunch of people who have been ILR for years and years, who have paid as much tax as any British citizen on their income, and who have been entitled to the same programme of benefits etc. How is this even workable after the five years required to qualify for ILR?

It does sound like an unworkable mess, but I wouldn't be shocked if the tories attempt to implement it. Feels very Trumpish. Very sorry for everyone who has this hanging over their heads.

The ludicrous policy of trying to get net immigration down to 'tens of thousands' from 250k+ is at the heart of all this nonsense. It's essentially impossible - despite their best efforts they haven't prevented the university sector from recruiting foreign students, they have zero control over EU immigration and, in the one area they can actually influence (Tier 2 skilled migration), numbers have actually gone up iirc, partly due to the skills gap in the tech sector and positioning of London as the no.1 financial services hub in the world. Pretty much the only thing that they can do is announce cruel, stupid things in the hope that they're perceived to be cracking down.

This is me, isn't it? People on EEA-2s and EEA-4s?

I think that EEA2/4 are not covered. Non-EU partners of EU workers tend to get preferential treatment over non-EU partners of British nationals, but I'm not an expert.

You are probably good until the referendum.

I just have no-frills ILR, granted in 1995 after four years of renewing my visa (and before all these ~categories~ were invented). If they want to apply this to people who've been here *forever*, does that in effect mean a huge number of long-time British taxpayers will risk deportation if they have the audacity to lose a job or fall ill? A new layer of insecurity isn't exactly what anyone having a Very Special Freelancer's January needs right now.

lol :(

There's no way they can go that far, right? This retrospective bullshit is about as practical as kicking out all the French people living here if the EU referendum passes (or fails, I'm not sure which way the question will be phrased you know what I mean). Which they also wouldn't do, right? Right?

Reviewing the 2012 policy docs, it looks like it's effective for Tier 2 visa holders who started after the 6th of April 2011. Anyone before that should be ok.

Is this an example of the new rules coming into force, or something else:

https://kingstonshakespeareseminar.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/shameful-start-to-shakespeare-400-dr-paul-hamilton-arrested-and-held-by-uk-immigration/

Something else. This is how a lot of people who have recently finished studying get treated.

it's pretty diabolical. almost amusingly egregious.

No expert here but there seems to be a lot of worth in the common idea that 'If you make controls on immigration stricter and stricter, you're only going to penalise well-meaning people who haven't done anything wrong, because they're the easiest to track down'?

Pretty damning:

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/03/23/disaster-for-theresa-may-as-legal-ruling-brings-student-depo

I probably shouldn't say too much about this off 77 but I think the vast majority were probably cheating though it's very possible honest candidates were unjustly impacted.

Also fairly sure that voice recognition, which was the public justification for the dragnet and the point at which the Home Office defence fell down at tribunal, had next to nothing to do with anything.

Well, a vague feeling that the vast majority were probably cheating was all the government had to go on, so ur in good(?) company.

Altho I'd say even the cheating candidates were unjustly impacted tbh

No. The cheating was so unsophisticated it would be very easy to detect if you were looking properly. The nature of the cheating (certain defined test centres charging a premium to read the answers out at the front) would have made it hard for honest candidates to have been accidentally caught up. However there could be grey areas where centres were offering bent and honest sessions at the same time. You could probably work out with a reasonable degree of confidence which was which but possibly not beyond a reasonable doubt.

Having the language requirement for students isn't wildly unfair but it is for families, etc. The main problem was ETS not paying attention and the government choosing an inappropriate test for inclusion.

Kind of interesting given the fact that this is hugely embarrassing to the Home Office - both painting it as incompetent in dealing with tribunals and having very little idea of what they're doing when it comes to a major policy affecting hundreds of thousands of people - that it has received such little coverage in the press.

At the moment you have a politics.co.uk blog, a brief Times Higher Education article, a paywalled piece on the FT and one article in the Independent. Everyone else, from The Guardian to the Mail, hasn't touched it afaict.

all frightened to talk about immigration because of bullying by PC liberal thugs

tories losing legal rulings right, right and centre right

idk how much of this i am reading correctly but it looks like Byron organised a special "training event" across 15 of its branches as a ruse to round up all its foreign workers so the Border Force could come and deport any without valid visas:

http://www.eliberico.com/la-policia-de-s-a-sus-paises.html

what the fuck

Henry Dimbleby (Leon owner) is the child of which newscaster, again?

My Spanish isn't so hot but I'm pretty sure Leon isn't mentioned in there.

This isn't really the right thread for this but close enough.

My uncle is dying of cancer. Probably talking days left. He was living in Thailand but came back to go into hospital as he had no medical insurance there. His partner of 10 years is a Thai citizen, and we want to get him over here so they can be together for the last time, but he needs a Visa to enter the UK and it seems to take 3 months which we don't have. We think there is some kind of fast track way to get around this but I don't know how this stuff works and there seems to be a lot of dubious websites offering Visa services and I don't know if they are trustworthy or this is even possible. We're not really talking immigration because he just wants to be able to visit for a couple of weeks.

Long shot maybe but any ideas ILX?

Is your uncle a British citizen?

Yes

VFS runs visa processing for the UK in Thailand and I think they offer a priority service. That should be the first place you look. A visa consulting agency will typically only make sure you have all your documents in order and won't necessary speed things up otherwise.

May also be a long shot but there wouldn't be any harm in calling the British Embassy in Bangkok and explaining the situation to see if they have any emergency options.

OK, thanks SV - VFS is the main one we've been looking at but like I said not sure if these kinds of things are just scams or not. They do have a priority service for £750. Says it's for medical emergencies in the family tho and not sure if an unmarried gay relationship is gonna count for that :(

We've tried ringing the Thai embassy here in case they know anything but they're closed til Monday.

I think my uncle's partner has been in touch with an embassy or consulate in Chiang Mai, my mum drafted up a letter over email explaining the circumstances for him to give them.

VFS is the official processing partner of the embassy. They are the same people you go to if you want a Russian or Indian visa in the UK. They're usually very good.

Great, thanks. Feel more at ease we're looking in the right place now.

Good luck.

UK asylum refusal decision: 'Your strong attachment to your Islamic faith is inconsistent with your claim to use lesbian dating sites ...'

https://twitter.com/Paul_Dillane/status/763326753595133954

The treatment of LGBT asylum applicants is one of the great, under-reported scandals.

awful