Country Update 2022: UNITED KINGDOM

Contributed by: Kingsley Napley LLP

June 2022

1. Legislative Changes

Nationality and Borders Act 2022:

• Asylum seekers who have travelled to the UK through a safe country can have their asylum case declared inadmissible and be removed to any safe country willing to accept them (meaning Rwanda – now that the UK cannot remove asylum seekers to the EU).

  
  

• Two-tier asylum system: asylum seekers who enter the UK via irregular means to receive less support.

  
  

• Maximum penalty for entering the UK illegally or overstaying increased to 4 years’ imprisonment.

  
  

• Life imprisonment for people smugglers.

  
  

• No-notice deprivation of British citizenship.

  
  

• Some appeals accelerated, some appeal rights removed.

2. Business Immigration

• Business visitors: No significant changes.

  
  

• Temporary immigration categories: No significant changes.

  
  

• Employment-based immigration (work and residence permits):

  • Sole representative visa replaced by UK Expansion Worker visa in April 2022: https://www.gov.uk/uk-expansion-worker-visa.

  • Intra-company Transfer visa renamed Senior or Specialist Worker (part of wider rebranding under Global Business Mobility umbrella).  

    
    

• Highly Skilled immigration:

  • Graduate visa (for graduates of UK universities) introduced July 2021: https://www.gov.uk/graduate-visa

  • High Potential Individual visa (for graduates of top-ranked non-UK universities) introduced May 2022: https://www.gov.uk/high-potential-individual-visa

    
    

• Investment-based immigration:

  • Tier 1 (Investor) visa abolished 17 February 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tier-1-investor-visa-route-closes-over-security-concerns 
    

3. Family based immigration

No significant changes.

4. Asylum

Hong Kong. British National (Overseas) visa introduced January 2021:

https://www.gov.uk/british-national-overseas-bno-visa 

Ukraine. New routes for Ukrainian nationals introduced since March 2022. Free to apply but must get a visa before travelling to UK:

• Ukraine Family Scheme: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-ukraine-family-scheme-visa 

• Homes for Ukraine: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-visa-under-the-ukraine-sponsorship-scheme 

• Ukraine Extension Scheme: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-stay-in-the-uk-under-the-ukraine-extension-scheme 

Everyone else. Asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda if they have arrived in the UK through a safe country: https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2022/04/14/factsheet-migration-and-economic-development-partnership/ 

5. Deportation

No significant changes (leaving aside the Rwanda plan).

6. Citizenship

No-notice deprivation of citizenship.