Permanent residence

ARCHIVED: this Overview is no longer maintained as it covers the implementation of EU free movement law in the UK prior to IP completion day, on which date domestic legislation implementing EU free movement law was revoked, subject to certain savings and modifications. For further details, including on the relevant savings and the position of CJEU case law, see Practice Note: Brexit and the end of EU free movement law in the UK. The Practice Note has been retained in archived form for historical interest, because EU law as previously implemented in the UK remains relevant in certain limited situations. For historical versions of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016, SI 2016/1052, including immediately prior to revocation, see Legislation.gov.uk. For the ongoing development of EU free movement law in EU Member States, see: Immigration, employment & share incentives (EU Law)—overview.

The right of permanent residence (PR) was introduced by Directive 2004/38/EC (Citizens' Directive), which was initially transposed into the UK by the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/1003 (EEA Regs 2006). The EEA Regs 2006 came into force on 30 April 2006,

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Latest Immigration News

Detailed list of Home Office’s Sponsor Guidance changes of 6 March 2026

Immigration analysis: On 6 March 2026, the Home Office issued new versions of each of the three principal Worker and Temporary Worker Sponsor Guidance documents, as well as of other Sponsor Guidance documents including Appendix D (on retaining documents) and the Sponsor a Skilled Worker guidance. We have set out below a detailed list of all of the substantive changes, as well as other wording changes which the Home Office appears to have made to focus sponsors’ minds on recent operational concerns, in light of the current significant increase in compliance checks and enforcement (eg around salary underpayment). One important change is the replacement of the ‘genuine vacancy’ concept with the newly defined term ‘eligible role’, now contained in a new standalone glossary document. The new four-limbed definition embeds skill, salary and route requirements, compliance with wider employment law, and proportionality to the sponsor’s business model into a continuing test that must be met throughout sponsorship. Other operational-related changes include around illegal working requirements, and reinforcing the importance of Certificate of Sponsorship details matching the work actually undertaken (or reporting permitted changes). The wording around the standard of proof for the enforcement threshold has also been amended to ‘reasonable suspicion’, presumably as an attempt to expand the Home Office’s discretion to refuse, suspend or revoke licences. Other suitability/compliance amendments relate to concerns about dishonesty, salary inflation or risks to the integrity of the sponsorship system. At the same time, the guidance emphasises that participation in the sponsorship scheme (now formally termed a ‘scheme’) is voluntary and that a licence is granted and held at the Home Office’s discretion. There is also an increased focus on worker welfare and compliance with wider UK law, including a new requirement to inform sponsored workers of their employment rights and retain evidence of having done so. It had been anticipated that further guidance would be included on when and how employers are permitted to ‘claw back’ some immigration costs in circumstances where a sponsored worker leaves their employment early, but there were no more changes made on this aspect in the new guidance.

Court of Appeal finds undocumented ‘s3C leave’ to remain does not breach child welfare duty—R (Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London) v Home Secretary

Public Law analysis: This Immigration analysis considers the impact of R (Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London) v Home Secretary, in which the Court of Appeal found that not retrospectively issuing e-visas to people with leave to remain in the UK under section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 (IA 1971) did not breach section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 (BCIA 2009).

Extension of the right to work regime

Immigration analysis: The current right to work regime requires all employers to conduct checks on all employees to ensure that only those who are legally entitled to work in the UK are doing so. However, following the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (BSAIA 2025) being passed and receiving Royal Assent on 2 December 2025, BSAIA 2025, s 48 seeks to extend these obligations further to cover the non-employee workforce. This was subject to a public consultation looking at how the changes should be operationalised and enforced, and how processes could be simplified to make it easier for employers to fulfil their responsibilities. The consultation closed on 10 December 2025 and the results are awaited. This article explores the effects of BSAIA 2025, s 48 in practice and considers some of the issues raised in the consultation. Written by Sajida Hussain, legal director at Addleshaw Goddard.

Home Office revises all principal Sponsor Guidance documents

On 6 March 2026 the Home Office brought into force version 03/26 of the principal sponsor guidance documents within the ‘Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors’ collection, together with consequential amendments to the route-specific guidance for Skilled Workers. The changes affect Part 1: Apply for a licence, Part 2: Sponsor a worker, Part 3 (compliance and enforcement), Appendix D (record-keeping guidance) and the ‘Sponsor a Skilled Worker’ guidance, and also see the introduction of a new standalone and expanded Glossary. There is now extensive cross-referencing across all documents to that centralised source of definitions. Across the suite of guidance, the concept of a ‘genuine vacancy’ or ‘genuine employment’ has been removed and replaced with the newly defined term ‘eligible role’. This definition, now embedded in the Glossary and incorporated expressly into the other guidance documents, requires that the role must exist or be reasonably anticipated, meet all route-specific requirements including skill level and salary thresholds, comply with wider employment legislation and remain appropriate to the sponsor’s business throughout the period of sponsorship. References to assessing whether a vacancy is ‘genuine’ have been systematically replaced with consideration of whether the work meets the definition of an ‘eligible role’ and refusal, suspension and revocation provisions have been redrafted accordingly. Other changes include Parts 1 and 3 now making explicit that sponsorship is voluntary, that a licence is granted at the discretion of the Home Office and creates no enforceable right and now stating that enforcement action may be taken on the basis of ‘reasonable suspicion’ of non-compliance rather than established breach. Further details of the changes will follow.