MM case

We earlier looked at the first two prongs of the attack on UK families, by UK politicians:

1) Raising the age at which a British citizen could sponsor a non-EEA partner to age 21, in Quila, which the Supreme Court deemed was unlawful and hence the age was brought back down to 18
2) Introduction of a pre-entry English language test, on which a ruling from the Supreme Court is awaited, in Bibi.

This time we look at the third prong which has also been the most damaging in terms of the number of people affected, relating to a case most readers will be familiar wit - the MM case, challenging the £18,600 threshold, but also exclusion of third party support, bizarre lump sum multiplier to make up salary shortfalls, rigidity in application of the rules and no allowance for Article 8 and s55 (best interest of children) by caseworkers, amongst other things.

BritCits got involved just before the case was heard at the Court of Appeal.  We worked with the MM lawyers and submitted  this witness statement .  Also read our overview of the two-day hearing and the horrid Court of Appeal judgment.

On 19th May 2015, the Supreme Court granted permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s judgment to all four of the appellants with 'MM' as the Lead Appeal and the other three dealing only with the points MM does not.

No date for the hearing has been given yet but the legal team expect it to be no earlier than November 2015.  I hope by this time next year at least we have in place family immigration rules that are fair!

8th July update:
Today we received confirmation that the MM case hearing will be from Wednesday 24th February to Friday 26th February in the Supreme Court.

Three days of hearing is welcomed, given there are four appellants and the volume of evidence to be submitted against these rules.

It is possible to go in and watch the hearing in person - and for those who are able to, this is strongly encouraged as it also shows the judges the public interest in the case and the people directly impacted. 

For those who can't make it however (or simply wish to watch the hearing again), we understand the Supreme Court also puts out webcasts that will alllow the watching of the rules, certainly as a recording after the event, but possibly live as well.

More on this closer to the time though we hope 9th July 2016 will no longer need to be a protest against the family immigration rules.