Enhance Your Time off Policy in United Kingdom with Legitimate eSignatures

How to eSign a document: eSignature legitimateness for Time Off Policy in United Kingdom

hi and welcome to this latest immigration law update video in this video i wanted to look at deadlines for applications under the eu settlement scheme and provisions for late applications and the home office guidance surrounding this i'm recording this video in mid may 2021 and the grace period that ends at the end of june 2021 is rapidly approaching so i thought this was an important video to do so i've shared my screen with you and i'll put all the links below this video as usual and where i'm starting is in appendix a of uh appendix eu which is the definitions section and this is the definition for required date so it says this a where the applicant does not have indefinite lead to end or remain or limited leave to enter or remain granted under this appendix so if you haven't got leave under appendix eu the date of application must be before the 1st of july 2021 or where there's reasonable grounds for the failure to meet the deadline or and then there are some other deadlines given for certain other scenarios which we'll go through when we have a look at the policy but the main principle from appendix eu is the application must be before the first of july or there is a provision for late applications where there are reasonable grounds for the failure to meet the deadline now as we hit different difficulties with appendix eu and i think there'll be more of those and more of those before the court it's always worth going back to the withdrawal agreement so on your screen now is article 18 of the withdrawal agreement and article 18 1 d says this so this is where the provision for late applications comes from it says this where the deadline for submitting the application referred to in point b is not respected by the persons concerned the competent authorities that's the home office in this case shall assess all the circumstances and reasons for not respecting the deadline and shall allow so it's couched in positive language those persons to submit an application within a reasonable further period of time if there are reasonable grounds for the failure to respect the deadline notice that double use of reasonable their reasonable period of time reasonable grounds so this is now dealt with in the home office's policy document it's a chunky policy document as you'll see from my screen there 204 pages it's the main brexit policy document eu settlement scheme eu other eea and swiss citizens and their family members and this is version 11 published on the 6th of april 2021 as with all my videos do check there hasn't been any updates when you're coming to make your application or consider this issue so if we look down the content section you'll see on page 26 there's this section making an application deadline so an application for indefinite leave to enter or remain or limited leave to enter or remain and appendix eu must be made by the required date and we looked at that definition in the definition section of appendix eu where the guidance refers to the required date this means the deadline to apply to the eu settlement scheme as follows as defined in annex 1 to appendix eu which we looked at now where the applicant has limited leave to enter or remain granted under appendix eu the deadline is before the date of the expiry of that leave unless you are satisfied by information provided with the application that at the date of application there are reasonable grounds for the person's failure to meet the deadline and you'll see in each one i'm going to read to you there is this reasonable grounds exception so if you've got say pre-settled status you've got that deadline to apply for settled status before the expiry of your leave unless there's reasonable grounds what are the other deadlines well there are certain different deadlines and in all other cases you will see it's before the 1st of july 2021 so by the 30th of june the end of the grace period unless of course the reasonable grounds what are those other deadlines well if you're joining a family member of a relevant sponsor no definitions here and that joining family member arrived in the uk on or after the 1st of jul as first of april forgive me 2021 the deadline is within three months of the date they arrived in the uk and less reasonable grounds if it's a spouse or civil partner of a swiss citizen who arrived in the uk on or after first april 2021 within three months of the date arrival and before first january 2026 and less reasonable grounds in a case of a joining family member of a relevant sponsor and the joining family member is a child who is born or adopted in the uk on or after first april 2021 deadline three months of the date on which they were born or adopted and less reasonable grounds and then here we are all other cases before first july 2021 so the end of the grace period now there are certain cases where it is deemed that you have reasonable grounds for applying late the two are the this where you've got limited leave to enter or remain granted under another part of the immigration rules or outside of the immigration rules look at the first bullet point there on your screen which hasn't lapsed been cancelled or curtailed etc and the expiry of that leave is after the 1st of july 2021 the first july 2021 the deadline is the expiry of your leave unless there's reasonable grounds or if somebody ceases to be exempt from immigration control so they're exempt from immigration control and they cease to be exempt on or after first july 2021 the deadline is within 90 days of them ceasing to be exempt unless there are reasonable grounds in all other cases somebody can make an application and put forward their reasonable ground so these are the ones where there are deemed to be reasonable grounds other cases you've got to put forward those reasonable grounds now it says in line with the citizens rights agreements the remains scope indefinitely for a person eligible under the settlement scheme to make a late application where in all the circumstances there are reasonable grounds for the failure to meet the deadline they must make a valid application and set out the reasons for missing at the deadline again as usual with appendix eu if this issue and they're missing um some of the components for the application to be valid they should be prompted or contacted and given a reasonable opportunity to provide it then if it's a valid application you want to consider if there are reasonable grounds and then here's an important part in line with the general approach under the eu settlement scheme of looking to grant status rather than reasons for refuse you must take a flexible and pragmatic approach to considering in the light of the circumstances of each case whether there are reasonable grounds for the person's failure to meet the deadline applicable to them under the eu settlement scheme so it's going to be a generous approach looking for reasons to grant rather than to refuse then there's guidance below which sets out some of some circumstances in which reasonable grounds may be shown but it's not an exhaustive list and every case must be considered in the light of its particular circumstances in general the more time that has elapsed the the harder it will be to satisfy that there's reasonable grounds and that goes back to the withdrawal agreement that double use a reasonable reasonable period reasonable grounds and for the time being following 30th june 2021 you will give applicants the benefit of the doubts that's really important if you're making this application or if you're a representative making representations in respect of it you know this is something you can refer to the benefit of the doubt should be given in looking for whether there are reasonable grounds and there's some dates about when applications for settled status will come up and talking about prompting people and again where somebody has not provided sufficient information in relation to the reasonable grounds again they should be contacted engaged with and given a reasonable opportunity and discretion should be exercised in favor of the applicant to minis minimize administrative burdens again so a positive approach where you're satisfied there are reasonable grounds going to consider the application it looks like we've already made a late application it's very unlikely you're going to be able to make and you'll refuse it's unlikely you're going to be able to make a second late application but where it's deemed you haven't got reasonable grounds it looks like you'll be refused under eligibility grounds and then you'll be able to challenge that by administrative review or appeal if somebody after the first of july is encountered by immigration enforcement and you know because the the grace period has ended then have unlawful in the uk the immigration officer should consider whether they've got rights under appendix eu or potentially and give them 28 days to make that application under the settlement scheme so that's helpful there then the guidance goes on to have a look at example so starting at page 31 we've got the examples and each one they set out the sort of scenario um they give some indication of the sort of evidence they'd look for and give some work examples so the first one is children including children in care and care leavers for example say a parent or a carer has neglected to apply for somebody while they were a child and now the child's an adult and they realize they need to apply to sort themselves out that would usually constitute reasonable grounds again i'm not going to read through the sort of different scenarios or the evidence provided and interestingly with that one you do not need to consider the reasons why a parent or garden at guardian or local authority failed to apply on behalf of the child or the child did not make their own application and that then as i said examples are given physical men or mental capacity issues or care support needs these were usually constitute reasonable grounds these are positive examples and again the sort of evidence that you'll need is set out there and again examples serious medical condition or significant med a medical treatment was being received and it includes pregnancy or maternity uh leave or where a woman is at a difficult child birth or where their newborn child is in need of medical treatment victim of modern slavery even if they've just got a reasonable grounds i think you you'd be able to a reasonable positive reasonable grounds decision you'll be able to put that forward abusive or controlling relationship or situation that prevented somebody from applying and then again a sort of catch all other compelling practical or compassionate reasons and some examples are given there so it's quite good and quite widely drafted uh guidance then we look at these two deemed situations where somebody's deemed to have reasonable ground so this is where they cease to be exempt from immigration control and then you know period of 90 days an example is given or without existing limited leave to enter or remain under another provision of the immigration rules or outside of the immigration rules and then interestingly where somebody had status under the eea regulations and perhaps didn't realize that they needed to apply because they thought they could just rely on their old eea regulations documentation that's provided and even where somebody it talks about somebody being able to gain permanent right of residence during the grace period under the old eea regulations have a look at that and if they waited to obtain their permanent right of residence and then chose to apply and that was after the grace period that would would constitute an example is given so helpful guidance there so we've got some important deadlines coming up and the primary one is the end of june that's the end of the grace period there are some different deadlines for other scenarios and obviously we've got these reasonable grounds exceptions where late applications can be made and some positive guidance which is worth taking a look at i hope that's helpful to you