Because of the Coronavirus public health crisis, there have been some temporary changes to the asylum and immigration process. This includes to the asylum substantive interview, further submissions, visa extensions, appeal hearings, reporting requirements and detention.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, reporting requirements have been paused for many people and largely reduced for others. Now that the lockdown measures are relaxing, the Home Office are likely to start to ask people to report again.

Migrants Organise have produced a checklist to help you see if your reporting requirements are appropriate to your situation. If the requirements aren’t appropriate, you may be able to challenge them

Leah Cowan’s Border Nation (published by Pluto Press) is a short, sharp, incisive analysis of the colonial origins of borders, the violence of immigration control and the profit motive driving so much of immigration policy and practice.

There are quotable lines on every page of this short book, which manages to dig deep into the issues and link up weighty ideas while still being very accessible.

The organisation Law for Life have produced an information guide about right to rent. The guide includes information about who has a right to rent, when you need to prove this right and when you don’t, how to prove a right to rent, changes as a result of Brexit and Covid-19, what you can do if you are discriminated against in this process and more.

Yes, well. It’s been quite a year.

Aside from, well, everything we’ve had a busy year recruiting new members of our Management Committee, appointing new roles within the Committee AND we’ve had three fab new staff members join us. That’s been a lot of zoom calls.

This week, the Immigration Health Surcharge increased from £400 to £624.

Read more about the surcharge – and who is exempt from paying – in the Entering the UK section of the Right to Remain Toolkit. We’ve updated the Toolkit to reflect these changes.

We are delighted to announce that the latest edition of the book version of the Right to Remain Toolkit, our self-help and solidarity guide to the immigration and asylum system, has arrived!

In all types of asylum, immigration or human rights applications, you will need evidence to support your application.

This video looks at when evidence might be needed, what is meant by evidence, and what counts as “good” evidence.

In all types of asylum, immigration or human rights applications, you will need evidence to support your application. What is good evidence?

Tempting as it is to not look back at this year, it’s important to remember the small successes, and how we’ve survived this year to fight for a better one.