Immigration Bill Becomes Law
The Government’s Immigration Bill received Royal Assent on 14th May and has now become law.
The Immigration Act 2014 brings a number of fundamental changes to the system of immigration in the UK, including:
- Cutting the number of immigration decisions that can be appealed from 17 to 4, while allowing the UK to return certain harmful individuals before their appeals are heard if there is no risk of serious irreversible harm.
- Ensuring that the courts have regard to Parliament’s view of what the public interest requires when considering European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) Article 8 claims in immigration cases – making clear the right to a family life is not to be regarded as absolute and unqualified.
- Clamping down on people who try to gain an immigration advantage by entering into a sham marriage or civil partnership.
- Requiring private landlords to check the immigration status of tenants, preventing those with no right to live in the UK from accessing private rented housing.
- Introducing a new requirement from temporary migrants with time-limited immigration status by requiring them to make a financial contribution to the National Health Service.
The Immigration Act also contains powers to prevent repeat bail applications when a removal is imminent, and revoke driving licences held by immigration offenders.
In addition, the Act will allow the Home Secretary to deprive a naturalised individual of their British citizenship if their actions have been seriously prejudicial to the interests of the United Kingdom, and the Home Secretary has reasonable grounds for believing the person is able to become a national of another country.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0.
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