There are a lot of changes in the immigration laws recently that have affected most of the applications for immigration since the end of 2020. It has also changed things for those who applied to legalize their stay in the UK forever by applying for indefinite leave to remain. One of the changes made are in the criminal convictions, now there are more strict rules regarding immigration for people with prior records of criminal convictions. The applicants will need to access their cases, get information about criminal laws and discuss with expert immigration lawyers how the criminal convictions will be impacting their immigration application. In this blog, we will discuss in detail how to deal with different criminal conviction scenarios while applying for immigration.
Type of criminal offences that shall be considered
The criminal offences that may result in a custodial sentence will be on top of the consideration list while the immigration application is being reviewed by the authorities. These convictions don’t need to result in necessary convictions. Every case will be dealt with separately and the decision will be made keeping in mind what is stated in the UK immigrant laws.
There are few convictions that might have non-custodial sentences or out of court settlements that might negatively impact your immigration application. These convictions include detentions, fines, penalties, disorderly conduct, warnings, community sentences and more.
In case of even minor offences where the applicant received out-of-court disposals (such as fines, community orders, or suspended sentences) certain factors like several offences and the time at which the crime was committed might lead to rejection of your immigration application in case the applicant is considered a repetitive offender.
Multiple Offences
Any individual who is convicted of offences multiple times, even though minor offences that he received non-custodial or out-of-court disposals in a short period, convicted of convictions that are serious or have there is an increase in seriousness or has rap sheet long enough to be considered a demonstration of clear disregard of the law is dealt under the scenario of persistent offending.
The decision regarding the application of a “persistent offender” will be made on the basis of whether it will be in the public interest to refuse the immigration application of the person and the other factor taken into consideration will be the private/family life right of the person that was established in the UK.
Disclosure of Criminal Records
The law is quite clear regarding the need of disclosing the record of any previous offences despite the fact of how long ago and the country they occurred.
In case of failure to provide the Home office with any such record will be considered as an act of deception and will ultimately lead to the rejection of your immigration application.
Some categories of visa applications require you to provide criminal record certificates from the country you are currently residing. For more information regarding criminal record certificates, you should contact the best UK immigration lawyers.
Permanent settlement in the UK
The related guidelines mentioned under the title ‘Grounds for refusal – criminality’ were made public to update about the changes made in December 2020 policy in regards to how having a criminal conviction will affect your immigration application decision.
Mainly the decision on the application for indefinite leave taken by Home Office is based on the length of sentence imposed by the court, the impact of the offence committed and what offence depicts regarding the character of the applicant and his desire for UK immigration in regards to the Public interest and danger to National security. The decision to deport the person if the Home Office deems fits.
Criminal offences leading to Mandatory refusal
Following are the scenarios that lead to mandatory refusal of your immigration application.
- Convictions leading to 4 years of imprisonment sentence.
- If the time served was less than 12 months but fewer than seven years have passed since the sentence concluded
- Any non-custodial offence was committed by the applicant less than 24 months before the submission of the application
Hope this article helped you in getting to know all about the laws regarding criminal convictions and immigration. We highly recommend that you hire an experienced immigration attorney to get things done perfectly to avoid any complications in case you already have a criminal conviction.
Immigration for regular immigrants itself is a very hectic ordeal if you’re not familiar with the process, with a criminal conviction it can become much more complicated so contact a Criminal laws immigration lawyer to get things in the best way.