UKBA Policies on Business Immigration Unlawful

The Supreme Court has ruled that aspects of UK Border Agency policies on business immigration are unlawful.

In Alvi v SSHD it was argued before the Supreme Court that aspects of UKBA policies on business immigration were unlawful. It was claimed that they had not been laid before Parliament before coming into effect. The Supreme Court agreed that any policies, guidance or such like which could determine an applicant’s rights to remain in the country were, in effect, Immigration Rules and should be laid before Parliament prior to taking effect.

In response to the case, the Home Office chose to pass additional Immigration Rules very quickly to rectify the position. Consequently, these sections now contain numerous errors and are confusing in parts. The overall significance of this case is that the new rules could open the government up to an enormous number of legal challenges, not only from working migrants, but also from family migrants and others.