Highly Skilled Migrant Challenge Succeeds

by Emma

The High Court ruled yesterday that the changes made to the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme in November 2006 should not apply to those already in the UK at that time as highly skilled migrants.  The Home Office suspended the programme in November 2006 and brought in new rules that they insisted should apply to people already in the UK as highly skilled migrants as well as new applicants.  This approach was challenged by a judicial review action in the High Court on the basis that it was unlawful to apply the new rules retrospectively.

The Highly Skilled Migrant Programme is no more - replaced by Tier One of the Points Based System - but this judgement will be of interest to many highly skilled migrants who were in the UK in November 2006.

However, be warned, Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister, is considering an appeal.

The judgement can be read here.  A shorter report of the case and background can be read here.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Business Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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