On 15th March Government has published a new statement of changes which included several changes to the immigration rules. The document is 205 pages long. Below is a quick overview of changes made to the Private life route.
Previous position
Previously if the child was born and lived in the UK for 7 continuous years child was entitled to apply for leave to remain under 10 years route provided requirements under the immigration rules are met. This is now changed under the new statement of changes.
Unfortunately, there are separate requirements for children who are not born in the UK. I will deal with both categories separately in this short article.
Children who are born in the UK
Under the new statement of changes If the applicant is born and lived in the UK for continuously 7 years at the date of application, he/she should be able to apply for settlement directly instead of limited leave to remain provided other requirements are met.
Children who are not born in the UK
Children who are not born in the UK but have lived continuously for 7 years and are still under the age of 18 should be able to apply for leave to remain as was the case previously. Statement of changes further confirms that these applications should be able to apply for settlement after 5 years instead of 10 as was the case previously. Although it would have made sense to apply the same rules across the board nevertheless something is better than nothing.
Can the applicant still apply to register as a British citizen after 10 years:
Even better. Once a child is granted settlement status child should be able to apply to register as a British citizen after 12 months. This will further reduce the time from 10 years. Please note that this will only apply to those children who are born in the UK.
Children who are not born in the UK should be able to apply to register as British citizens 12 months after obtaining settlement status. This is a significant reduction from what would have been approximately an 11 years wait instead of 6 years under the new policy.
Please note that the above changes are in addition to the previous guidance introduced in October last year for young adults aged 18-24. Please refer to the link below for further information.
Disclaimer:
The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Connaught Law and authors accept no responsibility for loss that may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please don’t hesitate to contact Connaught Law. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Connaught Law.
About the Author
