Family visas to be restricted in future, with no appeal

[jager]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... split.html

In future only the children or parents of immigrants in the UK will be allowed to travel – putting an end to abuse of the system by cousins, uncles and other more distant relatives.

Ministers also plan to end the abuse of immigrant wedding visas. At the moment thousands apply for special visas each year to allow them to attend marriages in the UK. But if they are turned down, they can appeal, costing time and resources.

Immigration Minister Damian Green plans to scrap the right of appeal – putting Britain on a level playing field with the U.S. and most of the rest of Europe.

David Cameron has personally called for a tightening of the rules on family visas.

Official figures show that two out of three people who come to the UK to join family stay on – many of them absconding when their visas run out.

The plans will form the centrepiece of a Green Paper on the family route to immigration due to be published later in the summer.

Before that the Home Office will also publish plans to break the link between temporary and permanent immigration, breaking the presumption that people on short-term visas should have the right to stay.

[Aryan2013]

Typical Migration Watch/Daily Mail "story".

We must wait and watch for the green paper/proposals!!!!

[geriatrix]

Leaked Home Office policy paper reveals legally risky plan for ministers to scrap right of appeal.

The leaked Home Office submission to the immigration minister outlines a bid for secondary legislation in the new parliamentary session starting this autumn to abolish appeal rights for family visitors. It also discloses that ministers want to scrap the right of appeal for thousands of skilled migrant workers in Britain who want to extend or renew their visas under the points-based system.

Family visitors (from outside the UK) aren't the only ones that the ministers want to target, but also existing PBS migrants (within UK)!

[Monifé]

‘Abolishing wedding visa appeals makes sense. No other major countries offer such rights. In the U.S. you apply for a visa to join your relatives. If you are told No, that’s it. There is no appeal.’

The above, an extract from the article, from a "senior government official".

Absolutely ridiculous. I have never heard anything like it. How would she like it if she fell in love with a non-EU national and their spouse visa was refused? I doubt she would just up and leave.

Can't believe that. Smells of illegality or against human rights to me.

[jp70]

‘Abolishing wedding visa appeals makes sense. No other major countries offer such rights. In the U.S. you apply for a visa to join your relatives. If you are told No, that’s it. There is no appeal.’

The above, an extract from the article, from a "senior government official".

Absolutely ridiculous. I have never heard anything like it. How would she like it if she fell in love with a non-EU national and their spouse visa was refused? I doubt she would just up and leave.

Can't believe that. Smells of illegality or against human rights to me.

Its easy to make laws/rules if the lawmaker is not involved personally in the issues. I cannot imagine a lawmaker making a law "Europeans cannot marry Pakistanians" if the lawmaker him/her-self is european and just dating with a Pakistanian living in Pakistan... . But its easy to make such laws to other people if it does not touch the lawmaker himself.

[jager]

Absolutely ridiculous. I have never heard anything like it. How would she like it if she fell in love with a non-EU national and their spouse visa was refused? I doubt she would just up and leave.

Can't believe that. Smells of illegality or against human rights to me.

The article is confusingly written (it's the Mail after all), but it looks like the appeal rights of family visitors are to be removed, not the immigrant partners themselves.

[Greenie]

‘Abolishing wedding visa appeals makes sense. No other major countries offer such rights. In the U.S. you apply for a visa to join your relatives. If you are told No, that’s it. There is no appeal.’

The above, an extract from the article, from a "senior government official".

Absolutely ridiculous. I have never heard anything like it. How would she like it if she fell in love with a non-EU national and their spouse visa was refused? I doubt she would just up and leave.

Can't believe that. Smells of illegality or against human rights to me.

According to the guardian article (sorry but I refuse to click on a daily mail link out of principal) they would take away the rights of family visitors (including marriage visitors) to appeal, not the right of appeal for a spouse visa. I think there is no chance that this (removal of appeal for refusal of a spouse visa) would happen.

As with other similar threads we have had about future changes I think speculation is not going to get us anywhere and we should wait until the government actually releases their proposal/statement of intent.

[ajmal]

‘Abolishing wedding visa appeals makes sense. No other major countries offer such rights. In the U.S. you apply for a visa to join your relatives. If you are told No, that’s it. There is no appeal.’

The above, an extract from the article, from a "senior government official".

Absolutely ridiculous. I have never heard anything like it. How would she like it if she fell in love with a non-EU national and their spouse visa was refused? I doubt she would just up and leave.

Can't believe that. Smells of illegality or against human rights to me.

Its easy to make laws/rules if the lawmaker is not involved personally in the issues. I cannot imagine a lawmaker making a law "Europeans cannot marry Pakistanians" if the lawmaker him/her-self is european and just dating with a Pakistanian living in Pakistan... . But its easy to make such laws to other people if it does not touch the lawmaker himself.

The decision of "No right of appeal" for family visitor visa is going to hit largely to:

British Indians 1.6 million (2008 estimate)
British Pakistanis 1.2 million (2010 estimate)
British Bangladeshi 0.5 million
British Chinese 0.4 million

Living in UK and have immediate family members living outside UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/0 ... isa-appeal.

[t_kaay]

Well lets hope they first look at how many appeals are made each year in this catergory and how many are upheld/overturned. In my experience, the UKBA have a tendency to talk to up their decisions and make stupid mistakes, which are then overturned on appeal. Maybe if they got the decision right in the first place, the right to appeal wouldn't make much difference