UK Visas and British Citizenship

“Daniel was a fantastic much needed help during my application for a Residency Card for the UK and EU. It’s obviously a lengthy process but he was with me every step of the way responding to all my individual needs leading to a successful application process.” Benjamin, NZ national For an individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit  http://www.1st4immigration.com. If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website:  www.1st4immigration.com/training . We have a weekend OISC Level 1 course as well as a Points-Based System course and we also have online training courses, including Online OISC Level 1 course and courses focusing on Spouse/Partner visas. All our training courses are CPD-accredited with CPD credit accepted by OISC.  

“Excellent service and support offered by Natalia and Sebastian throughout my entire application for Permanent Residency. I have no words to describe how grateful I am for their help, their professional manner, and the way they handled not a very easy and straight forward case! Thank you for your patience guys! 10 out of 10 and definitely I will highly recommend 1st 4Immigration for stress free applications!” Sergiu, Romanian national In this case we avoided the rule of medical insurance for an EEA student because of the applicable TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS. For an individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit  http://www.1st4immigration.com. If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website:  www.1st4immigration.com/training . We have a weekend OISC Level 1 course as well as a Points-Based System course and we also have online training courses,...

A very important update on the Immigration Rules for spouses and partners of British citizens following the MM (Lebanon) case:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc290-20-july-2017   In a nutshell, the outcome is:  if you meet the Financial Requirement - you get 5-year route.  If not, but have exceptional circumstances  (exceptional in the policymakers'  opinion), you could be given a chance provide some other convincing ways to support yourselves - and you would be put in the 10-year route. Good news for those who would have struggled before but a twice longer wait for permanent residency (meaning double fees for the UK government with double health surcharge). Still, better than nothing.  Here we have a post that explains the difference between a 5-year and 10-year routes:  http://1st4immigration-visas.blogspot.pt/2017/08/one-of-our-most-popular-posts-and-most.html   We wo...

On June the 26th, 2017, the Government posted   an updated statement on the status of the EU citizens in the UK on   https://www.gov.uk/guidance/status-of-eu-nationals-in-the-uk-what-you-need-to-know Ms May’s statement confirms her “offer” to let the EU citizens, who are already living/working in the UK, to continue benefiting from the European treaty rights, i.e. to continue as before. Those EU citizens who have been exercising Treaty rights (such as working) in the UK for 5 years can apply for permanent residence status. The application is not compulsory – at the moment – but it makes a good sense to make it as soon as possible. It would make their lives a lot easier after Brexit, such as when using the NHS or applying for a job (employers and NHS staff are not immigration officers, so would need a formal document). This would be that "ID-style paper" , which you are likely to need to sooner or later.  At the moment we call such a paper a Permanent Residence docum...

On June the 26th, 2017, the Government posted   an updated statement on the status of the EU citizens in the UK on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/status-of-eu-nationals-in-the-uk-what-you-need-to-know Ms May’s statement confirms her “offer” to let the EU citizens, who are already living/working in the UK, to continue benefiting from the European treaty rights, i.e. to continue as before. Those EU citizens who have been exercising Treaty rights (such as working) in the UK for 5 years can apply for permanent residence status. The application is not compulsory – at the moment – but it makes a good sense to make it as soon as possible. It would make their lives a lot easier after Brexit, such as when using the NHS or applying for a job (employers and NHS staff are not immigration officers, so would need a formal document). This would be that "ID-style paper" , which you are likely to need to sooner or later.  At the moment we call such a paper a Permanent Residence document,...

The Daily Mail usually presents its stories in a certain way for dramatic effect, but this article touches a very interesting subject in the immigration law – dual UK/EEA nationality and what rights the Europeans gain (or lose) by becoming British citizens? In this article (link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4555554/Blow-Theresa-s-immigration-clampdown-EU-court.html ), a Spanish citizen became British in 2009 and then married a Tunisian (i.e. non-European) citizen in 2014. The rights of the Spanish/British wife were not affected but she could not so far secure a residence document for her husband under the European law (using her Spanish nationality) and was forced to go down the UK law route (using her UK nationality). The law (“The Regulations”) was changed in 2012, stopping dual UK/EEA citizens from “choosing” whether to use EU or UK law when applying for residence of their family members, such as for a non-European spouse. Before that this Spanish/Tunisian co...

A recent Daily Mail article caught our eye: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4410894/EU-couple-devastated-children-denied-UK-residency.html   A European (Dutch-Spanish) family made an application to the UK Home Office to confirm their status of permanent residents in the UK. This application, EEA(PR), has been one of the most common application since the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016 Referendum. Many EU/EEA citizens and their family members panicked and wanted some peace of mind, hence getting this official document confirming their permanent status in the UK.   In this case both parents were granted a PR document. Their children (12 and 15 yo), however, were refused on the basis that they didn’t send enough evidence of children’s residency in the UK. Although this makes another dramatic   “good” news story headline We at 1 st 4Immigration believe it was probably the case of the Home Office just not ticking a couple of boxes. In other words, th...

The timeline of Brexit events so far has been both interesting and concerning for Europeans living in the UK as well as for Britons living in Europe.   Firstly, we had a vote in June 2016, voting to leave the EU. The UK Government then took almost a month to publish a statement on the immediate effects on status of EEA citizens, which can be found here (updated now since its first publication in July 2016). At the time it was, and still is, simply saying not to worry and everything remained as before for the time being - quite rightly and legally accurate.   Yet it is not the past or present that is on the people’s mind – it is the future!     The Government triggered Article 50 (of the Lisbon Treaty) on 29 th March 2017 and again published the reassuring statement just over a week later, again telling the EU/EEA citizens not to worry for the time being while the UK remained a full member during the upcoming 2 years. That statement can be found here:...

“ Hi Daniel, thank you for your hard work and efforts in securing my EU Dependant visa. I am therefore writing to give you the appreciation for all your consideration and professional advise for the past few months. Once again, thank you so much. ”  Sylvia, Nigerian national In this case the client was submitting an EEA residence card application as a family member of an EU national from within the UK, for 5 years in this category. For an individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit  http://www.1st4immigration.com. If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website:  www.1st4immigration.com/training . We have a weekend OISC Level 1 course as well as a Points-Based System course and we also have online training courses, including Online OISC Level 1 course and courses focusing on Spouse/Partner visas. All our training courses are CPD-a...