Mon, 16 Apr 2018
A doctor described as providing an essential service at NHS hospitals has been successful in obtaining Indefinite Leave to Remain.
The doctor originates from outside of the EU and has worked at NHS hospitals for over 5 years. He made what he thought was a routine application for Indefinite Leave to Remain following payment of a premium fee to the Home Office to enable him to attend a Visa Premium Service Centre. His application was refused.
He instructed Abid Mahmood as his barrister on a public access basis to assist thereafter. Proceedings for Judicial Review were issued at the Administrative Court raising several grounds of challenge. The doctor’s grounds included whether the relevant Immigration Rules were ultra vires, whether Paragraph 34E had been properly taken into account, the unfair results which arose by virtue of different assessment of time for postal applicants, as compared with applicants like him who had paid a hefty fee to attend personally at the Home Office and issues in respect of evidential flexibility following the Supreme Court’s decision in Mandalia v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] UKSC 59.
The Home Office refused to reconsider its decision at the Administrative Review stage and at the Pre-Action Protocol stage but following the issue of the High Court proceedings it agreed to grant the doctor Indefinite Leave to Remain and to pay his legal costs.
The national press has recently referred to examples of others in the medical profession having had their applications refused by the Home Office and this doctor wanted others who may be in a similar position to be aware of his case.
