Unless you are a national of a Majority English Speaking Country or are a long-term resident of a country with no test centre, and you are applying for a visa from that country, you are required to have passed an English language test for applications as a spouse, partner or fiancé or proposed civil partner joining a person already in the UK.
In this six-part series of articles, we are going to explore how people from different continents can travel to the UK.
Each continent will have a specific discussion from the point of view of specific countries and from what the UK calls “visa nationals” and “non visa nationals”.
Obviously, we are going to miss out entirely nationals from EEA and Switzerland countries because if you have any of those nationalities, you will be free to move in and out of the UK as part of your free movement rights conferred by the European Treaties. Read More
All UK settlement visa applications in India after August 16th have to be accompanied by a TB clearance certificate if you wish to visit the UK for more than six months. The screening requirement will also be extended to applications for UK work visas (Tiers 1, 2 and 5 on the points based system) from September 10th and student visas (Tier 4) from November 1st.
Tuberculosis kills 1,000 Indians per days and for this reason India is one of the 67 countries to which pre-entry TB screening will be required. This list was prepared with the help of the World Health Organization and includes countries like China, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong.
Applicants who require pre-entry TB screening will contact a clinician on the list in order to arrange an appointment. Nevertheless most applicants will require only a physical examination and a chest x-ray. If the result is that the individual is clear of TB, a certificate will be issued by the clinic and will be submitted with the UK visa application. This certificate will have to be carried in hand luggage and presented on arrival at the UK airport if requested.
If you have any questions or need further information, please, do not hesitate to contact us.
If you want to discuss this or any other immigration application, please contact us or call us on 0845 126 1350. Or add your comments below or begin a conversation with us on facebook or twitter @iam_immigration
Post Alvi [2012] judgement
Following on from the Alvi [2012] UKSC 33 judgment, a new Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules CM8423 has come into force from 20 July 2012.
The statement is 223 pages long and also corrects cross-referencing errors in Appendix FM of the immigration rules that came into force on 9th June that effected families
The changes “further” amend the immigration rules in order to reflect the decision in Alvi which states that any requirement that, if not satisfied by the migrant, would lead to a UK immigration visa application for leave to enter or remain to be refused, must be included in the Immigration Rules and laid before Parliament in accordance with the procedure set out in section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971.
Read More
Following the Government Family Consultation and the UK authorities inserting a clause in the Crime and Courts Bill to remove the full right of appeal for those applying to enter the UK as a family visitor, The government laid the Immigration Appeals (Family Visitor) Regulations 2012 in Parliament on 18 June 2012, which set out who qualifies for a full rights of appeal against refusal of a visa to visit family in the UK.
Read More
The UK authorities inserted a clause in the Crime and Courts Bill to remove the full right of appeal for those applying to enter the UK as a family visitor. Subject to Parliamentary approval and Royal Assent, it is expected to come into force by 2014. Refused applicants will still be able to appeal on limited grounds of human rights or race discrimination.
Read More
The UKBA website, and it seems lately – a lot of their IT systems, seem to be falling over or stopping or crashing.
Today, attempts to get on to their website at ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk seems to be bringing a message: ‘Internal error communicating with Mediasurface Server. Possible network failure. If problem persists, please report the following information to Mediasurface Support: java.rmi.UnmarshalException: Exception waiting for response; nested exception is: java.io.EOFException: Forceful shutdown’.
This follows on from users being unable to register, unable to book appointments online and another host of gremlins.
Read More
Send to Kindle
