Dear friends,
Greetings to you all.
As I am aware that many of you are very concerned about your right to settlement under the old 4 years qualifying period rules for employment categories and following our Judicial Review application, I am writing to you just in case you wish to know the development of the JR proceedings.
Please allow me to brief you, ladies and gentlemen:-
1. We are actively pursuing the Judicial Review application and I can confirm that our JR was lodged in time on 9th June and duly acknowledged by the Court on the even date. Please note, we are not seeking judicial review of any decision of the Home Office to refuse individual applicants' application for indefinite leave to remain on the basis of their completion of four year work permit employment BECAUSE at the time of our judicial review application, we had not even submitted any application for indefinite leave to remain on this basis for the claimant clients. INSTEAD, we had made a judicial review application against the retrospective application of the new settlement rules (HC 1016) itself and the application was lodged on the 9th June 2006 within the time limit. This was done in order to preserve the right to judicial review of the new rules. The deadline for this (the Judicial Review) was 3 July 2006. Therefore, If the JR were successful in the broad term, it would benefit all the 100,000 immigrants in the employment categories, not just individual claimants.
2. The Treasury Solicitors has unexpectedly again requested for a further extension of time limit yesterday (8th August) for filing of acknowledgement in order to take further instructions from their client i.e. the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD). The extended deadline requested by the SSHD is now 18th August 2006.
3. In relation to the BAPIO's (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) judicial review application, the Court has ordered that their application to be expedited and we understood from the press that it may be heard by the end of August 2006. If this is the case, we would expect a substantive response from the Secretary of State or the Immigration Minister or via their solicitors, the Treasury Solicitors, by 18 August 2006, for obvious reasons. The similarity between BAPIO's JR and ours is that both are seeking JR of the retrospective effect of the new rules in HC1016. We shall update you of the latest development as soon as this becomes available.
4. If the Secretary of State refused to reconsider and if permission to apply for Judicial Review were granted, we would, if necessary, ask the Court to expedite hearing of the case considering its nature and the group of people affected.
5. Even if, the application were to be delayed to next year as some claimed that it would, please do not forget that not only those issued with work permits in 2002 are affected by the new rules, but many more others issued with work permits in 2003, 2004, 2005 and before 13th March 2006 (the date the new rules were announced) are all affected, the latters would have qualified for ILR in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 but for the new settlement rules. So, the JR if won will no doubt benefit all those who could apply for settlement under the 4 years qualifying period rule in the next four years. Moreover, in BAPIO case the Court has as we understand ordered for their JR hearing to be expedited.
Of course, my firm and I are fully aware that Christine Lee is working unceasingly hard to lobby the Ministers to reconsider the new rules and we are all hoping that her efforts will bring positive results even before our JR is decided.
Before I update you again, Harvey Son & Filby wish you all the best.
With Best Wishes,
Stephen Kong
(Partner of Harvey Son & Filby Solicitors)
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HARVEY SON & FILBY SOLICITORS
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Partners: Paul Harvey LLB Solicitor, Richard Kong LLB LLM Solicitor, Stephen Kong LLB LLM Solicitor
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*non-solicitor
Head Office at 231 Foxhall Road, Ipswich IP3 8LF. Tel: 01473 712 962 Fax: 01473 721 777. This firm is regulated by The Law Society of England and Wales and a member of Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA).
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