Britain: Professionals facing deportation get visa reprieve
LONDON: Nearly 1,000 professionals from India and elsewhere got a reprieve when the UK government agreed on Tuesday to review their applications for indefinite stay, which were earlier refused using a rule meant for terrorists and criminals.
The government also put on hold any deportations. The decision to review and put on hold applications that would have been turned down was communicated by home secretary Sajid Javid to Yvette Cooper, chair of the home affairs committee of Parliament, sending a wave of relief among many.
The issue has affected a large number of Indian professionals such as solicitors, doctors, chemists and teachers, and their families, who have demonstrated outside Parliament three times since January.
Some of them have initiated legal action.
Javid, who appeared before the committee earlier this month, wrote to Cooper: “I have asked the immigration minister to conduct a review of the cohort of cases who arrived under the Tier 1 General route and were refused due to discrepancies with their HMRC (tax) records.
“I can confirm that all applications potentially falling for refusal under the character and conduct provisions of paragraph 322(5) in the Tier 1 (General) ILR and 10-year Long Residency routes, where the applicant had previously been in the Tier 1 (General) route, have been put on hold pending the findings of the current review.”
As part of the review, Javid said the Home Office was also checking individual case records to identify any applicants who were removed from the UK after having been refused permanent stay under paragraph 322(5).
Income discrepancies in applications to the Home Office and to the income tax authorities were construed as examples of dishonest conduct, and applications for indefinite stay by professionals under the Tier 1 (General) category were refused. Many were asked to leave Britain or face deportations.
RULE 322(5) OF THE IMMIGRATION ACT DEALS WITH CRIMINALS BUT WAS INVOKED WHEN APPLICATIONS FOR INDEFINITE STAY SHOWED ERRORS IN TAX DECLARATIONS.