DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, IMMIGRATION LAW AND - Rights of Women

You should seek immigration legal advice as soon as possible.
• If you still had current leave to remain on a spouse visa when you applied for DDV, you
would have a right of appeal, and you should seek advice as soon as possible.
• If you applied for DDV whilst you were on some other type of visa (e.g. as a dependent
on your partner’s work visa), you would have a right of appeal. But the appeal would not
have any legal merit, because this application is only open to those who are on, or have
had, a spouse visa. Whatever the reason for your refusal, there may be some other
application you could make to the UKBA. But, by having applied for leave under the DDV
concession and been refused, you would now no longer have any leave to remain unless
you make an in-time appeal.
• If you applied under the DDV concession at a time when you had no leave, you will have
no right of appeal, and will remain liable to removal. When the UKBA eventually make a
decision to remove you, you will then have a right of appeal.
2. New Immigration Rules on family migration from 9 July 2012: important changes
for women fleeing domestic violence but who do not fit the Domestic Violence rule,
and for other women with no recourse to public funds
The new Immigration Rules have introduced major changes in the requirements for all categories
of family migration, and set out in detail what the UKBA believes to be reasonable requirements for
an applicant to qualify for leave to remain under art 8 ECHR (an application based on the
applicant’s rights to private and family life) and/or ‘best interest of the child’ as set out in the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, brought into law in section 55 Borders, Immigration and
Citizenship Act 2009 (an application to remain in the UK with a child whose best interests it is to
remain in the UK).
The UKBA clearly intends these new Rules to set clear limits on who will, and who will not, be
granted leave to remain on the basis of family life under article 8 ECHR or the ‘best interests of the
child’. In its press statement on 11 June, the UKBA said:
The new Immigration Rules will also unify consideration under the rules and Article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights, by defining the basis on which a person can enter or
remain in the UK on the basis of their family or private life. (Our emphasis)
However it is very important to note that the rights protected by art 8 ECHR and the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child must be considered in each individual case and in
accordance with the law. This means that, despite the UKBA’s desire to introduce limitations on
how art 8 ECHR or the rights of a child can be taken into account, individual applicants may still be
entitled to leave to remain even if they do not meet the UKBA’s ‘requirements’ now contained
in the Immigration Rules.
From 9 July 2012, there will be 2 main ‘routes’ to settlement for family migrants.
• The 5-year route
Those family migrants who are not overstayers and whose current leave to remain permits them to
switch into a family migration category, or who can make a valid entry clearance application as a
spouse, partner, child, elderly dependent relative, complying with all the requirements of the new
family migration Rules will be granted leave to remain in the ‘5 year route’. The new ‘eligibility’
requirements include very specific and onerous requirements as to income, as well as a list of
‘suitability’ requirements. These are summarised below. Applicants will be given leave to remain for
30 months (2 ½ years) with no recourse to public funds. They will then have to apply for a further
period of 30 months’ leave. After 5 years they will be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain.
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