On Monday, UK High Court dismissed the judicial review challenge by the Alliance of Turkish Businesspeople (AOTB), claiming the Home Office had acted unlawfully in imposing additional requirements on Turkish business persons who wanted to obtain “Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)” in the context of the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA), known as the Ankara Agreement.
The agreement provided a popular “special ECAA business visa” from which around 20,000 Turkish citizens have benefited so far.
Under the ECAA, Turks could initially apply for a one-year visa and subsequently a three-year visa before being eligible for an ILR visa, without paying any application fee.
On March 16, 2018, the Home Office announced that Turkish citizens will no longer be eligible for the ILR visa extensions but will still be able to apply for multi-year extensions. The office then introduced a new ILR category in immigration legislation for current Turkish ECAA businesspeople and their dependents.
The Turkish alliance brought in the judicial review, arguing that the Home Office had been imposing additional conditions, such as requiring five years residence prior to obtaining the ILR instead of four years, paying £2,389 application fee per person, and passing an English language test.
The court, however, dismissed the claim and was in favor of the Home Office.
In the ruling, the judge declared, “The Home Office was entitled to attempt to introduce some uniformity with the nationals of other states, and changes to the requirements have been restricted so as to reduce the impact on the applicants for ILR.”
In response to the ruling, founder of the Alliance of Turkish Businesspeople, Leni Candan, said they were very disappointed, notably since the judge himself conceded that the office’s policy changes breached their legitimate expectations.
“We are saddened that the very real difficulties faced by business owners and their families, as a result of this policy change, have been deemed inadequately prejudicial,” Candan commented, adding that they were considering an appeal.
According to the Home Office, there were approximately 6,000 Turkish business people and their dependents who were waiting for ILR visas before the change to immigration rules last year.
Turkey applied to the European Economic Community (EEC), a predecessor to the European Union (EU), in 1959. The visa scheme is based on the Ankara Agreement signed between Turkey and the EEC in 1963.
The post UK High Court dismisses claim by Turkish businesspeople for indefinite visa extensions appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/03/20/uk-high-court-dismisses-claim-by-turkish-businesspeople-for-indefinite-visa-extensions/
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