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On 22 February 2008 the United Kingdom Border Agency's (the "UKBA") website announced dramatic changes to the regime under which migrants can come to the UK to work.  

The announced changes were limited to Tiers 1 and 2 of the points based system (which – in contrast to Tier 5 - are the only avenues of the points based system so far in force which lead to settlement in the UK).  It was said that from 1 April the Government will:

In November of 2008 the government’s Identity and Passport Service issued draft regulations to be implemented as secondary legislation to the Identity Cards Act 2006, which received royal assent on 30 March 2006.   The regulations were published and comments were invited as part of the consultation process – which lasted for three months, ending on Friday 13 February 2009.   The draft legislation is expected to be laid before Parliament in March.  

From 3 March 2009 nationals of Bolivia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Venezuela will all have to apply for visas if they wish to visit the United Kingdom.  So will South Africans, unless they have visited the UK before using the passport they currently hold.  

Back in November of last year an extensive statement of changes in the Immigration Rules (HC 113) implemented Tiers 2 and 5 of the United Kingdom Border Agency’s points based system.  It also introduced a distinct category for business and special visitors and introduced new routes for visiting sportspeople and entertainers, based on previous concessions.  

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has announced that Tier 4 of its “points based system” will become operational at the end of March 2009.  

Tier 4 will replace the current immigration rules relating to people wishing to come to the UK as students.   In common with Tiers 2 and 5 of the points based system applicants under Tier 4 must be sponsored – in their case by a licensed education provider.  

There were five Claimants applying for judicial review in R on the application of Low & others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWHC 35 (Admin).  The first three Claimants were Chinese nationals who had been contracted to work for the fourth Claimant, a company providing catering services based in Ireland, and who at the time of their arrests in the United Kingdom had been working for the fifth Claimant, a Chinese restaurant in the UK.   The first three Claimants had no valid leave to remain in the UK and no right to work.  In their application they sought orders confirming both that they were entitled to work in the UK and that their detention was unlawful.   

For many years the Court of Appeal’s judgment in R (Mahmood) v Home
Secretary [2001] 1 WLR 840 represented what often seemed like a very solid and very thick brick wall preventing anyone who had established a family life in the United Kingdom from succeeding in showing that his or her rights protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights were unnecessarily and disproportionately violated by a decision to remove him or her from the United Kingdom.  

As the Path to Citizenship Green Paper announced nearly a year ago  – the new Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill introduces the operation of a kind of “earned citizenship” of the UK.  The bill was partially published in draft form in July of last year.  The complete bill received its first reading in the House of Lords on Wednesday 15 January of 2009.  

In the most recent country guidance case for Zimbabwe, the Tribunal found that risk on return to Zimbabwe is no longer limited to those individuals who are members or supporters of the MDC party; individuals who do not demonstrate support for the ZANU-PF party are also at risk. Furthermore, being or having been a teacher in Zimbabwe enhances risk on return. Finally, the Central Intelligence Organisation is responsible for monitoring returns to Harare airport.