New Settlement Route for Turkish Business People in the UK – what do we know so far?
Ankara agreement allows Turkish nationals to enter the UK and establish themselves as self-employed businesspeople, i.e. run their own businesses.
Until the recent case law of R(Aydogdu) v SSHD (Ankara Agreement – family members – settlement) [2017] UKUT 167 (IAC) and the Scottish case of Bektas Alagoz [2017] CSOH 27, Self-Employed Turkish business people were able to obtain indefinite leave to remain in the UK after four years of the grant of their initial leave. The above mentioned two cases however established that SSHD was eligible to vary the rules on indefinite leave to remain while complying with the agreement. Following these two cases, SSHD unexpectedly announced that they were suspending applications for indefinite leave to remain.
With effect from 16 March 2018, the rules for settlement under Ankara Agreement were accordingly changed. The new rules meant that Turkish business people under the Ankara Agreement would not be entitled to settle in the UK. Currently, what applicants can get is a further period of leave, which is 3 years’ which is will an uncharged application. It should be mentioned here that Turkish Business people who submitted their applications for indefinite leave to remain before 16 March 2018 will be assessed under the guidance and rules which were in force at the date of the application.
For those people who submitted their application on or after 16 March 2018, fortunately, the SSHD has announced that a new path to settlement for Turkish business people under Ankara Agreement would be presented later on this year. Now, Turkish business people will have to wait to find out what this new route to the settlement will be. The only thing that SSHD confirmed is that this new route will be a charged route in line with others seeking to settle in the UK.
Having said the above, it is still unknown what the arrangements will be for Turkish people who have already been in the UK for numerous years and encounter starting again their period of stay in the UK for their settlement applications.
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