The appeal was of a family member of an exempt diplomat who wished to remain in the UK to complete her studies and we assisted her in an application for Discretionary Leave to Remain. ...

This case was a challenge to the amendments to paragraph 281 of the Immigration Rules which were laid before Parliament on 1^st October 2010 and came into effect on 29^th November 2010.  The amendments which we are going to refer to as the new Rule requires the foreign spouses or partners of British citizens or persons settled in the UK applying to come to the UK as a spouse to produce a certificate of knowledge of English language to a prescribed standard.  Before those applying for indefinite leave as spouses and partners were only required to demonstrate this knowledge two years after entering the UK.  The new entry test assesses both speaking and listening.  The level required is lower than that required in the post entry test required for those applying for settlement and is subject to a number of exceptions....

Following the Supreme Court Judgment in Quilanbib -v- Secretary of State for the Home Department (2011) UKSC 45 which ensured that the minimum age requirement of 21 in the Immigration Rules for spouse and partners of British citizens and those with settled status was unlawful, the Government has been considering the implications of the judgment and decided to take the following action:...

A recent inspection report was released by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), detailing his findings and recommendations following an assessment of the UKBA’s efficiency in managing their powers to deport foreign national prisoners.  Usually a person who is liable to deportation is a non British citizen that is currently or has in the past committed a criminal offence and has served a prison sentence of over 12 months in length....

Adoption has increasingly become a hot topic in immigration law in the UK and here at Danielle Cohen Solicitors we are proud to say that we have helped an Indian child join her adoptive parents in the UK....

We were instructed by the father of the Appellant who was a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago born in December 1993, hence a minor....

We represented the Appellant who applied for settlement in the UK as she has been here since September 2003. The Appellant was a citizen of South Africa, who arrived on a visitors visa and thereafter became an over stayer. She was in a relationship with a British national, intending to marry soon. She applied for settlement with another firm of solicitors on 6th August 2009 on the basis of medical treatment, mental health issues and under Article 8 of the European Convention. The application was refused on the grounds that the Appellant failed to demonstrate that she was unable to obtain suitable medical care in South Africa. The application was also refused on the basis that her removal would not be in breach of her Article 8 ECHR Human Rights. The Secretary of State argued that most of the period of residence was without leave. Her age and the length of residency did not provide grounds for not removing her. Her ties and domestic circumstances were not sufficiently compelling....

Whilst Danielle Cohen Immigration Solicitors in London handles many asylum cases, we thought we would highlight today a particularly unusual asylum case of an individual who became a refugee sur place, i.e. whilst she was resident in the UK and after leaving her country of origin....

Here at Danielle Cohen Immigration Solicitors we handle all aspects of UK immigration law on a daily basis but some cases are rarer than others.  We were recently involved in an unusual immigration case involving statelessness....

Here at Danielle Cohen Immigration Solicitors in London we recently handled a very moving case involving a child abandoned in the UK by one of his biological parents. We are sharing it here as an example of a case involving the effective overlap between family and immigration law and another case in which we were able to achieve a successful and compassionate outcome for our client....

Andrea* had been in the UK as first a student and then under what was the International Gradual Scheme and what became the Tier 1 (Post Study Worker) category. However, her leave was due to expire and having established herself in industry, earning a good salary, she now qualified for Tier 1 General (formerly HSMP). ...

Mrs H* came to Danielle Cohen, UK immigration solicitor, at the end of five years as a work permit holder. Prior to her work permit, she had been a student and felt exasperated by the application process. She had hoped that she was going to be making her final application to the Home Office after completing five years as a work permit holder as she was eligible for indefinite leave to remain. ...

Dr K* a non EU national came to Danielle Cohen Immigration Solicitors having been refused leave to remain in the UK....

Dave* was a non-European national. In his thirties he married and had a child but he and his wife drifted apart romantically and settled into a routine companionship which could have lasted into their retirement had Dave not discovered in his late fifties that he would be happier with a male partner.  He and his wife divorced amicably and on a trip to the U.K. he wandered into a gay friendly pub and whilst watching sport there struck up a conversation with Jerry, a European national also in his sixties.  That day’s debate on the finer points of rugby versus American football was the starting point of a life changing relationship for both men.  They spent more and more time together, and began to plan for a Civil Partnership ceremony, with the reception to be held, fittingly, at the pub where they had first met....

Four year old Katerina* was visiting her aunt in the UK with her mother, when she suddenly collapsed and was rushed to hospital.  The rest of her family in Eastern Europe waited anxiously for news and when it came it was not good.  She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, the prognosis for which was poor unless she could receive intensive specialist treatment of a type unavailable in her home country.  This young child underwent both surgery and acutely necessary courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to prevent the tumour recurrence. At the time her mother came to Danielle Cohen Immigration Solicitors Katerina was a very sick, very vulnerable little girl struggling with nausea and vomiting as a consequence of her treatment.  Her mother, who was pregnant with her second child, was doing her best to be strong and supportive for her beloved child but her pain and anxiety were obvious and only increased by the fact of her separation from the rest of her family and the bleak prospects for her daughter’s future if she had to return to her homeland where the potentially life-saving treatment would not be available....

Welcome to Danielle Cohen Immigration Solicitors’ blog.  We are a firm of specialist lawyers dealing with all areas of immigration law covering applications to the Home Office and British embassies abroad and applications under the new Points Based System (previously dealt with under the work permits and highly skilled migrant programme).  We also advise people who are in the country illegally and who face detention, administrative removal or deportation, applications for leave to remain on medical grounds and applications that are made outside of the Immigration Rules.  In the area of personal immigration matters we handle marriage applications, civil partnership applications, unmarried and same sex partner applications, applications for family members and dependants and visitor applications as well as applications for British nationality, asylum applications and Human Rights based applications...