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Contents of the letter from UKBA - dated 10th June 2009

Date – 10th June 2009

To:

Amit Kapadia

Executive Director (Chairman)

HSMP Forum

 

From:

Jonathan Sedgwick                                                                           

Deputy Chief Executive, UKBA

 

Dear Mr Kapadia

Thank you for your correspondence of 29 May and 1 June, regarding the implementation of the High Court judgment of 6 April 2009 .

You wrote to me about the fact that the remedies do not make provision for those who applied for their initial HSMP approval between 3 April 2006 and 7 November 2006 . I will come back to you regarding this group in due course.

With regard to the difficulties that individual applicant’s may be experiencing in obtaining appointments for our Public Enquiry Offices, I’m afraid that this is due to a high level of demand for the premium service which is affecting all types of applications. As previously highlighted we have two dedicated teams dealing with postal applications submitted under the ILR policy document which should allow these applications to be considered promptly. I will continue to keep this under review.

As you have highlighted, the terms set out in the ‘HSMP Forum Ltd Judicial Review: Policy Document’ make it clear that any time spent outside the UK directly as a result of the November 2006 Immigration Rules changes will be treated as contributing toward the continuous leave requirement providing that individuals access the remedies provided in this document. This is explained in the Immigration Directorate Instructions, Chapter 6a. Caseworkers will be able to identify anyone covered by this provision from our own records and because of this a separate letter was not considered essential. We took the decision to issue letters to individuals for the purpose of deeming ILR under the second set of remedies because these could not as readily be identified from our electronic records.

It is the intention of the existing policy that any application fee paid by an HSMP participant that would have not been necessary but for the April 2006 Immigration Rules change will be reimbursed. Where it is possible for these to be identified in the course of considering new applications this will be done automatically. However, where this is not possible an individual should raise this through the proforma available on the UK Border Agency website. A number of cases have been raised with us already and caseworkers have been advised on how to handle these. It is anticipated that these numbers will be small so we will continue to deal with them as they arise.

You have separately raised a couple of issues at Heathrow and Glasgow and we would like to discuss these with you directly. I have asked the Head of Border and Visa Policy, Andrew Jackson, to get in touch with you.



Yours sincerely

JONATHAN SEDGWICK

 
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