Settlement Visa

[Roblpl]

I'd be interested in your views on the following issue chaps as I've just got back from a visit to my girlfriend in LOS. We decided not to go for a VV but wait for a while and go for settlement instead. Anyway, I am aware that European Legislation, as defined by the Social Chapter, makes it unlawful for "a sovereign state of the European Union to interefere with family life".

Question - Doesn't this mean that if the criteria for a "family" has been satisfied i.e. you have a genuine married, then then UK Government cannot refuse a Settlement Visa?

What do you think - perhaps food for thought for some people?

Roblpl

[GU22]

Question - Doesn't this mean that if the criteria for a "family" has been satisfied i.e. you have a genuine married, then then UK Government cannot refuse a Settlement Visa?

A moot point, because if the criteria have been met then they wont refuse the visa!

However, whilst the legislation you mention does gurantee the right to family life, I don't think it says anywhere that that family life must be in the UK or anywhere else in the Union.

Over to Scouse, I think.

[the scouser]

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has now been enshrined in English and Scottish law as the Human Rights Act. What this means is that a claimant no longer has to go to the European Court of Justice to seek a remedy but, rather, can go through the British courts.

Article 8 states that everyone has the right to a private and family life. However, as GU22 commented, this does not confer a right to enjoy that life in the UK, so the UK government could argue that they are not preventing you from exercising it in, for example, Thailand.

Furthermore, Article 8 is a qualified right. This means that it can be derogated from in the interests of wider government policy. Consequently, the visa officer in Bangkok could argue that refusing your wife's visa represents a justified interference in your right to a family life as it is in the interests of maintaining an effective immigration control.

In order to mount a successful Article 8 claim, the circumstances would have to be compelling.

Scouse.

[vinny]

See also Home Office's Policy on ECHR and Human_Rights_Act_1998.

In Moon (Human rights - Entry clearance), the AIT has indicated that the ability of an applicant who is outside the UK to rely on Article 8 should be seen as an exception.

Edited May 19, 2006 by vinny