Home

• On the 3rd of April 2006, the Home Office implemented new immigration rules. Among other issues, these rules extend the qualifying period for “Indefinite Leave to Remain” (ILR) from 4 years to 5 years for both existing and prospective migrants in employment and ancestry categories (work permit, Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), ancestry and business investor visa holders). 
  

• This policy had neither been fully revealed to the public, put out to public consultation or even put through a parliamentary vote. One year might seem little to some, but this has caused hardship to thousands of law-abiding highly-skilled people, as explained below.

• The same set of changes prevented UK-based trainee doctors from overseas to take up further employment in the UK.
  

• In November 2006, the Home Office has changed the rules again, this time putting new, much tougher conditions for visa extension to those on the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP). These changes affected everyone on HSMP, despite the HO's earlier promises (in written form) that existing HSMP visa holders would not be affected by new changes.

• A review of citizenship rules is currently taking place and a report is expected in April 2008. Watch out: there may be more retroactive changes to come...

Falls and rises: migrants fight back

• Many labour MPs and both opposition parties have expressed their disagreement with the new changes, in the form of Early Day Motions and official party statements.

• The changes were critisized by London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
  

• The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights chaired by Andrew Dismore MP has issued a report (based on evidence from VBSI and HSMP Forum) stating that the recent retroactive changes violate human rights. You can read this report here.
  

• The Comission for Racial Equality has written to the Home Office expressing concerns over potential racial discrimination.
  

     "4 to 5 year" changes

•  VBSI together with North London Chinese association were doing their best to lobby the Parliament and the Government against retrospective rules. Liam Byrne (then newly-appointed Immigration Minister) had called the changes "shocking" and personally promised VBSI to look into reviewing the rules. He however then pulled back saying he would not change anything.

• A legal battle initiated by solicitor Stephen Kong has then started. After a series of frustrating delays, an even more frustrating Judicial Review hearing took place, culminating in a Judgement fully in favour of the Home Office. In part, this has happenned because the Court did not allow to introduce additional claimants to the case and most of the original ones had already obtained their ILRs.

• There was an intention to appeal, but this did not happen due to a lack of financial support.
  
  

      HSMP visa extension changes: battle won

• The action group HSMP Forum (www.hsmpforum.org) has been created to fight against these changes. Having gone through unsuccessful negotiatons with the Government, they have applied for a  Judicial Review. The Judicial Review was won in the High Court (Judge: Mr Juctice Newman, barrister: Michael Fordham QC) and the Government has decided not to appeal against the judgement.
  

      Doctors' employment rule changes

• The changes have been successfully disputed in court by BAPIO. The Government however is trying to appeal against this ruling in the House of Lords. See here for updates.
  

• It makes a great deal of difference for those who will have to reject a good job offer, or not be able to move to a larger flat when their child is born, or have to tell their child that they cannot go to university this year.

• But much worse, some people will have to leave the country, where they have been living and working for 4 years, because their current contracts expire and other employers are only ready to take them if their visa status is permanent. For those who can salvage their job, the retroactive changes extend the already severe restrictions on travel outside the UK while awaiting settlement status.

• Even for those of us who do not face immediate difficulties, the new changes bring incredible distress, despair and uncertainty. They make us feel very vulnerable in the country where we have chosen to live and work, and whose liberal values we trusted and relied on.

• Finally, the recent changes were the first step in a major reform of UK immigration policy. If we don't stand up against them, who knows what further upheaval in our lives we can expect?

• Retrospective changes in immigration rules are galling for everyone affected: skilled and talented people who have come to work and give their best to this country, often at great expense and walking away from a successful career elsewhere. But more importantly, it is dishonest on the part of the Home Office.

• As Work Permit (WP) and Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) visa holders, we entered this country through extremely strict, merit-based immigration schemes.

• When we applied for and were granted the right to live and work in the UK, we were assured in every possible way (the IND website, published rules and conditions, official letters from the Home Office) that we would qualify for settlement (also known as "Indefinite Leave to Remain" or ILR) after four years of being gainfully employed or engaged in successful economic activity.

• We offered our knowledge, skills and expertise and in return were given a possibility of settling in the UK permanently after 4 years of working hard, paying the taxes - in effect, at a
  higher because we could not claim even the most basic tax credits.
  

• We had done our part by the time the government decided to break the deal.

• We love this country, its democratic values and principles, its people and traditions.

• But we also believe that as law-abiding residents, diligent taxpayers and major contributors to the UK's economy it is intolerable that we are made scapegoats whose rights are sacrificed for the sake of making immigration statistics look better.

Join our campaign!