New immigration legislation on the way

The Government has issued a new set of Immigration Regulations to commence on 1^st February 2017. The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 revoke and replace the 2006 Regulations.

The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 have gone through a number of significant changes since their inception. This area of law is constantly developing and has been especially impacted by judgments from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The aim of the new set of Regulations is to consolidate the various changes made to the 2006 Regulations and to give effect to a number of important ECJ judgments.

Amendments to the new Immigration Regulations 2016

Some of the key amendments in the new Regulations include:

• A definition of civil partnerships, marriages and durable partnerships.
• Revised definition of an EEA national.
• Confirmation that an EEA national’s continual residence will be broken where they serve a prison sentence.
• Clarification that where a child of an EEA national has a derivative right to reside because they are in education in the UK, the EEA national parent does not have to have been resident when the child began their education.

Training from Housing Rights

This can be a complicated area of law for advisers trying to assist migrants with accessing Housing Benefit, social housing and homelessness assistance. Housing Rights is running a course on migrants and their rights to housing. This course will include a Professional Resource fully updated to reflect the 2016 Regulations and any relevant case law.