Advisory: UKBA Chief Inspector's Report on Decision Time Marriage Applications

Decisions in Marriage Applications are Reasonable but Chief Inspector Raises Concerns About Backlogs and a Lack of Consideration of the Best Interests of Children

John Vine CBE QPM, Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, said:
 
 “Every year a substantial number of foreign nationals seek to enter or remain as married or civil partners of people already in the UK or overseas. I found that in most cases decisions on marriage applications were reasonable. I was also pleased to find that all the applicants had been checked against the Police National Computer and the Home Office Warnings Index.
 
 However, once again I was concerned to find backlogs within the Agency. These consisted of 14,000 requests from applicants to re-consider decisions to refuse them further leave to remain, and a further 2,100 cases where people were awaiting an initial decision on their application for further leave to remain. Some dated back nearly a decade. This is completely unacceptable and I expect the Agency to deal with both types of case as a matter of urgency.
 
 Immigration decisions can have a significant impact on children. My inspection could find no evidence in the files that specific consideration was given to the best interests of children in 59 of the 60 cases where children were involved. In addition, I found that caseworkers in the UK routinely considered Human Rights, but this rarely happened when the application was made overseas.
 
 The percentage of allowed appeals in marriage cases is too high. Work was being done to review appeal outcomes, but there was scope to do more.”

Download pdf of report here

BBC should be doing report on this today