High court ruling on home office delay in marriage cases

UPDATED: 17 May 2006
Home Office Delay Can Make the Decision to Refuse Unlawful
The High Court has ruled that an inordinate and unexplained delay of 22 months by the Home Office in making a decision in a case, made the eventual decision to refuse the application unlawful (R (on the appliaction of AJOH) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2006) (unreported)).

The applicant married a British citizen in April 2003 and applied to the Home Office for leave to remain based on her marriage. However the Home Office did not make a decision until March 2005 when they refused her application.

The judge (Collins J) found that the Home Office are obliged to make a decision in a reasonable time or offer a reason for the delay. In this case they had not. As a consequence of the delay, the applicant was in an unfair situation to the extent that it breached her rights under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and that her removal would be disproportionate to the implementation of proper immigration control.

The case follows a number of cases concerning long delay by the Home Office and follows the Court of Appeal decision of Akaeke (2005) EWCA Civ 947, Times September 23, 2005.

If you require advice about this or any other UK immigration matter, please do not hesitate to contact one of our specialist immigration and human rights lawyers.

John wrote:Badboyz, interesting! A number of people will be pleased to see that.