Prime Minister May sticks to election pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands

With a surprise general election set for 9 June, Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed the Conservative pledge of slashing net migration to the "tens of thousands", or what she described as "sustainable levels".

Mrs May, who is currently twenty points ahead of her nearest rival, Labour leader  Jeremy Corbyn, in the UK election polls, said it was important to reach net migration targets to reduce pressure on public services and the lower paid workers.

Theresa May

She said: "I think it is important that we continue, and we will continue, to say that we do want to bring net migration down to sustainable levels.

"We believe that is the tens of thousands, and of course once we leave the European Union we will have the opportunity to ensure that we have control of our borders here in the UK, because we'll be able to establish our rules for people coming from the European Union into the UK."

Referring to Brexit, May continued: "That's a part of the picture that we haven't been able to control before and we will be able to control it.

"Leaving the EU means that we won't have free movement as it has been in the past."

Party sources had earlier revealed to the press that the commitment would appear in the party's 

General Election manifesto.

Amber Rudd

On Sunday, Home Secretary Amber Rudd confirmed she wanted to "continue to bring immigration down", which under her watch have started to fall.

Who will make our coffee and croissant?

Miss Rudd, who took control of the Home Office from Theresa May added:

"I did hear that Pret a Manger had come out and said, 'It's absolutely essential for us to have European workers because if we don't we're going to have to make more of an effort to recruit in the UK'. 

"Well, good. I'd like them to make more of an effort to recruit in the UK. So we will be trying to push them as well to do more in the UK.

"Them and all business – so that we make sure we look after people who are otherwise unemployed in the UK better".

Pret's director of human resources claimed it would struggle to staff its outlets after Brexit because so few British people apply for jobs. Andrea Wareham said the industry was not seen as sufficiently desirable to attract a significant number of British jobseekers. 

The coffee chain employs people from 110 countries, but in London you are more likely to find European workers running the show. With millions of able bodied British people claiming benefits, it is hardly surprising that Amber Rudd refuses to pander to those worried about who will make their coffee or warm up their croissant in the stores that seem occupy almost every other shopfront in London. How did we all manage before Starbucks started our obsession with coffee? 

None of the main parties has said that EU migrants living here would not be able to continue to live and work in the UK.

Recent immigration figures reveal that net migration fell to 273,000 in the year to September, which is the first time in two years that the balance of people arriving and leaving the UK slid below 300,000.

The number of international students coming to study in Britain dropped to their lowest level since 2002, which contributed to the overall net migration figures.

Jeremy Corbyn said Labour would introduce a "fair" and managed immigration system that "works for all", while pointing out many immigrants have made a "massive contribution" to the NHS, education, industry and public transport services.

The previous Blair Labour government opened the doors to millions of migrants across all sectors from care workers and nurses to international students. At the same time the EU expansion took place adding at least 2 million migrants from former Soviet Bloc countries such as Poland and Romania.

Since coming to power in 2010, the Conservatives have reversed the spiralling immigration trend with tough new measures - such as scrapping the Post Study Work Visa, reforming the visa appeal system and introducing fines to landlords housing illegal immigrants - even if former Prime Minister David Cameron’s original targets have not yet been reached.

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Rents rise as young first-time buyers struggle to get a foot on the UK property ladder, but there is help available

UK based Indian charity in visa fraud Immigration scam

The UK Charity Commission has disqualified Ravinder Singh, a trustee of a British Sikh charity and banned him from being involved in any charity in future after he was found guilty of visa fraud and using the charity as a front to bring Indian nationals to the country.

The Khalsa Missionary Society had been struck off from the charity register in February 2016 and it was revealed that 57-year-old had misused the organisation to facilitate the serious crime of immigration fraud.

The Home Office began a criminal investigation into charity, set up to advance the Sikh religion in the UK through prayer meetings and lectures, in 2004, prompting the commission to start its own investigation.

The visa scam took advantage of the UK’s generous policy towards religious organisations wishing to sponsor ministers. Indian migrants paid the Khalsa Missionary Society around £4,500 each to sponsor their UK visa applications and work permits as religious ministers to be employed by the charity.

In addition to the immigration fraud, funds were laundered through the “charity's bank accounts to give the appearance that the charity was receiving legitimate donations," the commission said in its report.

"The inquiry concluded that there had been misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. He had breached his legal duties to protect the charity's assets by using the charity as a conduit to commit immigration fraud," it adds.

The Commission's inquiry had found that Singh was only one active trustee in the charity and had removed him as a trustee in January 2016.

Theresa May, former Home Secretary and current British Prime Minister

The five-tier points based system for UK working visas, brought in by the last Labour government, was wide open to fraud and scams, as the Entry Clearance Officers (ECO's) were effectively stripped of their powers to veto a work permit decision.

When the hen Home Secretary, now Prime Minister, Theresa May took over the Home Office in 2010, she immediately set about closing down immigration schemes and visa appeal rights. The measures have taken many years to turn the 'immigration tanker' around and net migration has fallen slightly last year.

The last seven years has seen a raft of Immigration Rule changes and Acts, as the Conservatives attempted to reverse the more open door immigration policies of the Tony Blair administration under which around 5 million migrants came to the UK.

Mrs May raised the bar for working visas and brought in minimum income and English tests for foreign spouses, the legality of which was upheld recently in the Supreme Court following a legal challenge.

Brexit may herald a new era for a restricted EU immigration policy, depending on how the Article 50 negotiations develop, which is a worry for the estimated 3 million European migrants living in the UK.

The UK is an attractive place to work, start a business or buy property, with no restrictions on foreign buyers and a vibrant mortgage market with record low interest rates. Last week, a leading mortgage lender announced that it was introducing a fixed rate mortgage with an interest rate of .99%.

Migrants have always been quick to buy property as soon as they find their feet. I know a number of migrants who came to the UK with "nothing to declare" and pennies in their pockets who are now multi-millionaire property investors.

If you would like to learn more about investing in UK property, I have a limited number of complimentary tickets to a LIVE EVENT  - Beginners Property Course (held in the UK), which will give you the basic knowledge and techniques to get started as a property investor. If you are interest, email me your full name and telephone number to euukimmigration@gmail.com.

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Article 50 date 29 March 2017 and UK Brexit within 2 years

Minimum £18,600 income for foreign spouses lawful "in principle", Supreme Court rules

Rents rise as young first-time buyers struggle to get a foot on the UK property ladder, but there is help available

UK visa overstayers still here despite £30 million Home Office illegal immigration crackdown

A new immigration report has slammed the Government and Home Office for failing to find and deport thousands of foreign nationals overstaying and living illegally in the UK.

The Home Office has been criticised for failing to crack down on the number of foreign nationals who have overstayed their visas in the UK.

The inspector of borders and immigration John Vine said the Government had failed to reduce the number of 'overstayers' despite a flagship Home Office scheme costing millions of pounds designed to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the UK.

Mr Vine said the ‘immigration refusal pool’, or the numberof foreign nationals refused leave to remain in the UK after 2008, was 174,057 in June 2012.

That visa refusal figure was relatively unchanged in the same period this year and remained at 173,562.

Mr Vine said:

"Any failure to take action against foreign nationals who overstay their permission to be in the UK has the potential to undermine public confidence in immigration control."

The Home Office awarded a multi-million pound contract to outsourcing firm Capita in 2012 to review and, where possible, close the records of foreign nationals in the migration refusal pool.

But according to Mr Vine, Capita has not only failed to deliver on the Government's ambition to crack down on illegal 'overstayers' it has also overstated its successes.

The report highlights a sample of 57 migrant records closed by Capita after stating that the overstayer had left the country. Inspectors found that 16 – around one quarter - had been ‘closed in error’.

This would amount to 1,140 records in 2013/14, 25% of the 4,080 people Capita reported to have left the UK that year, may still be illegally staying in the country. 

"I was disappointed to find a high level of inaccuracy in the classification of MRP records, with more than a quarter of departures in my sample being incorrectly recorded," Mr Vine added.

"Considerable improvements in the Home Office's capability to monitor, progress, and prioritise the immigration enforcement caseload will be needed to deliver its strategy for reducing the level of irregular migration."

Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire defended the Home Office:

"We inherited an immigration system in complete disarray, which turned a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of people with no right to be here, and made no attempt to remove them or even to properly identify the scale of the problem.

"Under the UK Border Agency there was no systematic plan to deal with illegal migrants other than failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals. We scrapped the failing UK Border Agency and brought its work back under the control of ministers partly in order to sort out that mess."

The Government has introduced a new Immigration Act, which cuts the number of human rights type visa appeals blocking the deportation of an illegal immigrant from 17 to 4 

Immigration specialist Cynthia Barker said that the problem of visa overstayers will take years to solve:

"The UK still has no proper system to count people in and out of its borders, so nobody really knows how many overstayers and illegal immigrants there are in the UK. 

"Research by the think tank ippr, suggests that the illegal immigration figure is at least 500,000, which it estimates would take £5 billion and 20 years to deport and remove all of the overstayers.

"The longer an illegal migrants stays in the UK the more chance they have of staying, for instance due to right to a family life under article 8 or through a long stay concession or amnesty."

The failure of the campaign to remove overstaying migrants and students included the ‘go home’ vans and Capita’s bungled 40,000 text messages to so-called illegal immigrants and visa overstayers, asking them to leave the UK. Many of the messages were sent in error to British citizens.

Student visa expiring

Foreign students in the UK who are not nationals of the European Economic Area must contend with one of the toughest immigration systems in the world and an ever-changing set of rules. This article gives an overview of the options available when your UK adult student visa is expiring. If you intend to continue studying in the UK The most straightforward option is normally to extend your student visa. This is an application for “leave to remain” under the Tier 4 (adult student) category. You must meet the following requirements:

• Have been accepted onto an suitable course with a registered Tier 4 sponsor;
• Not have spent more than the maximum period permitted in the UK on a student visa (ranging from three to eight years depending on the course level);
• Meet the English language requirement;
• Meet the financial requirement (to have held a specified amount of money for a month preceding the application); and
• Not fall under the general grounds for refusal (relating to criminal convictions etc).

Further details on the eligibility criteria can be found in the Immigration Rules and official guidance (available on the UK Border Agency website). It’s vital to understand the requirements as there is very little flexibility if they are not met. If you want to work in the UK If you have a job offer from an employer who is licensed to sponsor foreign workers you may be able to extend your stay in the UK under the Tier 2 (General) immigration category. This is subject to various requirements, including a minimum proposed salary and skill level. A list of licensed Tier 2 sponsors is available on the UK Border Agency website. Alternatively, if you want to engage in business in the UK after graduating you could consider the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) category (you must have £200,000 or in some cases £50,000 available for investment); or the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) category (you must have studied at degree level at an authorised institution that has approved your proposed business plan). If you are married to or in a long-term relationship (two years cohabitation is normally required) with a British citizen or national of the European Economic Area you might be able to make an application to remain here on that basis. There is a number of immigration categories in addition to the above that may allow you to extend your stay in the UK. It is also possible to make a “discretionary “application if you do not fall under a specific category although these are only approved in the most compelling circumstances. In all cases there are two golden rules to follow when your student visa is expiring. First, start planning well in advance. Second, use an adviser who is registered with the Law Society or the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). This will not guarantee that you will be able to stay in the UK but should ensure that you are aware of all the options and minimise the risk of your application being refused on a technicality.
If you need any immigration advice or are worried about the new immigration rules or need help with Sponsorship or Tier 2, Tier 4, applying for university if your college has closed down, Visa, ILR, Settlement, Citizenship, Dependant Visa or an appeal against a UK Border Agency or British Embassy refusal, or if you have been waiting for a reply from the Home Office for longer than a year, please email: immigration@londonccs.com or visit www.conceptcaresolutions.com for free immigration news updates.

Unfair family migration Rules

Habib Rahman, Chief Executive of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said during the coming year the organisation will focus on campaigning against the Government’s restrictions on family migration. Speaking at the JCWI’s AGM in London last night, Mr Rahman said the Immigration Rule changes, in particular the minimum £18,600 income requirement to bring in a non-EU spouse or partner, introduced by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in July were dividing families and hitting British. Mr Rahman also referred to an article in yesterday’s Evening Standard "Tough New Visa Rules put Foreign Students off London”, where an unlikely ally Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson called on Prime Minister David Cameron to remove students from net migration targets. Speaking in India, Johnson accused the Government of causing “unnecessary alarm” with tough immigration rules, which have already resulted in a 9% fall in student visas, expected to rise to 25% next year. Last week the outspoken London Mayor strongly criticised his own party’s target to slash net immigration, claiming that visa policies were preventing the City and universities from recruiting the brightest talent, and were “a block to growth”. One of the guest speakers at the meeting was Emma Ben Moussa, a British bride of a Moroccan husband, who has just given birth to their first child nine weeks ago. Emma tried to live in Morocco with her husband, but found the life hard and had no chance of finding well paid employment. She returned to her home in Kent this year during the middle of a complicated pregnancy, but could not return to her job as a store manager at WH Smith. The couple found themselves caught in the £18,600 trap and even if she returned to work immediately she would not be able to show 6 months payslips required to sponsor him on a spouse visa. Her husband’s prospective income cannot be taken into account or the fact that she would be able to work full time if he could be here to look after the baby. They obtained a visit visa after what Emma described as a very difficult experience dealing with the British Embassy in Casablanca, Morocco. The JCWI are currently helping the couple to stay together in the UK and have submitted an “outside the Rules” application for further leave to remain. Should this be refused, her case will almost certainly go to appeal and could end up as a test case in the High Court. The second speaker, Professor Eleonore Kofman of Middlesex University, highlighted the discriminatory nature of the new Rules, which will adversely affect 61% of women, double the rate of men, due to lower earnings. Professor Kofman noted that it was not just the arbitrary £18,600 income requirement which was splitting families. Other restrictions contained in the Rules include not allowing a partner’s prospective earnings to be taken into account and length of time needed to prove income. She said the UK was now the second hardest country to sponsor a spouse after Norway. Raza Husein QC offered some hope pointing to two upcoming cases challenging the Rules in the Upper Tribunal and High Court early next year. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, said the Rule changes were rushed through by the Executive without a vote or proper Parliamentary scrutiny. He was disappointed that a “Negative Prayer” or objection laid down in Parliament was only signed by 7 MP’s. Corbyn said it was easy for the Government to be “tough” on poor migrant families and reminded us that the UK was built on immigration and would be a “wet and insular little island” without it. Referring to the London Metropolitan University’s licence revocation, which is in his constituency, he claimed that the UKBA had not acted rationally and had done spot checks on overseas students during the holidays. The meeting ended with a lively question and answer session in which Habib Rahman defended JCWI’s record of campaigning against the UKBA’s onslaught on private colleges and international students. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) is an independent national charity which campaigns for justice in UK immigration, nationality and refugee law and policy.
If you need any immigration advice or are worried about the new immigration rules or need help with Sponsorship or Tier 2, Tier 4, applying for university if your college has closed down, Visa, ILR, Settlement, Citizenship, Dependant Visa or an appeal against a UK Border Agency or British Embassy refusal, or if you have been waiting for a reply from the Home Office for longer than a year, please email: immigration@londonccs.com or visit www.conceptcaresolutions.com for free immigration news updates.

Weekly UK Immigration News Round up 05 September 2010

Illegal immigrants working in the House of Commons

A firm called ‘KGB Cleaners’ employing illegal workers in the House of Commons. You couldn’t make it up!

Migrating to Canada: eligibility criteria for federal skilled worker applications

Want to migrate to Canada under the federal skilled worker scheme? Check out the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website, which outlines the following changes to the elligibility critieria effective 26 June 2010

Domestic Worker OFW jumps to her death from 7th floor condo with umbrella

Filipino migrant rights group is urging the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia to investigate the death of an unidentified overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who supposedly jumped out of the window of her employer’s condominium unit on the 7th floor of a building using an umbrella as a parachute to escape

Migrant millionaire entrepreneur Vijay Patel honoured by De Montfort University

Indian-origin entrepreneur Vijay Patel, who came to Britain from Kenya 40 years ago with only five pounds in his pocket but went on to find riches in the pharmaceuticals industry, has been honoured by his old university.

POEA opens Regional offices for returning OFWs

Returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), or “balikmanggagawa,” from Pangasinan and Ilocos Norte can now process their overseas employment certificates (OECs) without going to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) head office in Mandaluyong City.

Net immigration figure pose a problem for UK Prime Minister Cameron

Last week’s figures showing a sharp rise in immigration into the UK is sure to add to the pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to say how his proposed cap on annual immigration will work and at what level it will be set, the Financial Times reports.

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info@immigrationmatters.co.uk or visit www.immigrationmatters.co.uk