Court of Appeal considers the Immigration Rules

10 Oct 2018

Public Law and Judicial Review

The Court of Appeal has transcribed (on 9 October 2018) its judgment in an immigration appeal heard on 27 June 2018. The court had been asked to determine what “time spent studying” meant in para.245ZX(h) of the Immigration Rules. The appellant argued that it meant time spent actually studying, and relied on the fact that the Secretary of State had apparently conceded the point in a test case, on the Certificate of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) showing that the appellant was entitled to enrol on the course at a later date than specified, and on the plain meaning of the words. The Secretary of State sought to rely on a subsequent amendment to the Rules which clarified that he had meant “time spent with leave to study”; alternatively, he asserted that it would be unworkable for the relevant words to mean anything other than what was shown in the CAS.

The Court of Appeal agreed with the Secretary of State’s alternative case: when measuring “time spent studying” the only relevant factor is what the CAS says the dates of study are. The judgment is available here.

Riccardo Calzavara acted for the Appellant.