Recently in Emigration Law Category

A man a is currently on the run from the UK Border Agency after being caught in a sham marriage to an EU national so that he could continue to live in England.

Moments before he was due to be sentenced, Harinder Singh fled from Newcastle Crown Court after his lawyer told him he would most likely face imprisonment.

Mr Singh, from India, paid Svetlana Kozlovskaja, from Lithuania, £5,000 to marry him so that he could avoid deportation.

More than 100,000 migrants from Eastern Europe will be able to claim benefits in the UK after safeguards put in place seven years ago must be scrapped in May 2011.

The Labour government introduced the safeguards when it opened its doors to citizens of the then new EU member states seven years ago. They were intended to protect the benefits system from possible abuse. The government feared an influx of migrants from the poorest countries who would take advantage of the welfare system in the UK.

The safeguards meant migrants from eight Easter European countries could not claim jobseekers' allowance, housing benefit, or council tax benefit unless they had worked continuously for twelve months.

Former James Bond actor Sean Connery, now aged 80, and his wife Micheline Roquebrune are scheduled to appear in court in Marbella today on corruption charges.

The charges relate to Connery's 1998 sale of a mansion in the Costa del Sol for a reported Ä6.4m (£5.6m).

Following the sale of the property, developers constructed a four-story 72-unit luxury apartment building on the site.

The municipal government in Marbella claims planning permission was "restricted to five family homes". They also say the owners of the land made a tidy Ä53m profit on the development and therefore owe Ä2.7m in unpaid taxes.

They've dubbed the investigation into the development Operation Goldfinger, in honour of the 1964 Bond classic in which Connery starred.

If you're an EU citizen, you have the right to live, work and study in any of the 27 EU member states plus the 4 nations in the European Free Trade Association. As this article shows, however, there are a number of conditions attached to your right to reside elsewhere in Europe.

Conditions depend on your status

It is important to recognise that the conditions placed on your right to live in another European country will depend on your status.

For example, if you are a student, unemployed, or want to retire in an EU country in which you have never worked, you must have sufficient financial resources and health insurance to ensure you do not become a social security burden.

These conditions do not apply, however, if you retire in a country where you worked previously.

Note also that if you are unemployed, you have the right to live in another EU country for a 'reasonable period' of time - generally 3-6 months - in order to look for a job.

No matter how long you have to look for a job, however, you cannot be asked to leave the country if you can prove that you are still seriously looking for a job and that you have a real chance of finding one.

[Continued from As An EU Citizen, Can I Live Anywhere In Europe? (Part 1)]

Right to refuse residence on public order and health grounds

If your actions constitute a serious threat to public order, security, or health, your right to reside in another country may be restricted. If an EU country takes any decision in relation to your residence on these grounds, you must be told the reasons for the decision. You must also be given sufficient time to prepare a defence and submit an appeal.

Five year uninterrupted residence

After five years of uninterrupted residence, EU citizens and their family members acquire a permanent right of residence, which can no longer be subject to any conditions.

Right to vote and stand for elections

Every EU citizen has the right to vote and stand as a candidate in elections in the country where he or she has a right of residence, under the same conditions as nationals of that country.

Right to an education

As EU citizens, you and your children are entitled to study in any EU country under the same conditions as nationals of that country.

Child students

During Thursday night's televised leadership debate, Nick Clegg repeatedly asked David Cameron to answer the following question on immigration:

- "Would your cap on the number of immigrants entering the UK have any impact on people coming here from the EU? Yes or no?"

David Cameron successfully ducked the question once or twice, but eventually responded, albeit rather hastily:

- "Yes, yes, it would be affected by transitional controls..."

In so answering, Mr. Cameron seemed to suggest that he could limit the number of EU citizens coming to the UK through "transitional controls" applied to the so-called A8 countries (i.e., Czech Republic; Estonia; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Slovakia; and Slovenia).

Pursuant to EU law on free movement of workers, however, these transitional arrangements will automatically expire on the seventh anniversary of the countries' accession to the EU.

60% of people considering buying property overseas indicate a preference for Spain.  A number of expats have been duped into buying property, however. In one case, nine British landowners in Almeria stand to lose their homes over defective building licences.

This has prompted the government to take steps to secure better protection to UK citizens living in or considering moving to Spain.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled against 13 expat pensioners seeking to have their UK state pensions rise in line with inflation, bringing to an end a titanic eight-year court battle.

1.1 million UK pensioners live abroad. 565,000 reside within the European Union or 15 other countries, including the USA, with whom there is a reciprocal agreement to "inflation-proof" pensions.

545,000 pensioners, however - spread across 150 other countries, including Australia, Canada, and South Africa - had their pensions frozen at the level at which they started to draw them in their country of residence.

According to BBC News, this saves the UK government at least £500 million a year.

The latter pensioners say they deserve equal treatment.  After all, they argue, they paid their National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in exactly the same manner as other pensioners.

Take the case of Annette Carson, 69, for example, who moved to South Africa in 1990. After emigrating, she continued making full NICs and on retirement in 2000 began to receive pension payments.

While pensioners in the UK now receive a basic state pension of £95.25 a week, however, Ms. Carson's remains frozen at the level it was ten years ago - namely £67.50 a week.

The oldest expat pensioners retired in the early 1970s and receive as little as £6 a week; those who retired in the early 80s receive about £30 a week; and those from the early 90s get about £50 a week.

Responding to Michael Ashcroft's non-dom admission earlier this week - which came just minutes before a Cabinet Office disclosure on the subject - Peter Mandelson accused the billionaire Belizean of trying to "steal the election" yesterday, and called on the Conservative Party to repay all money donated by him.

Mr. Mandelson also renewed his demand for an inquiry by the Lords Appointments Commission into the "solemn and binding" undertaking made by the Conservative Party deputy chairman in 2000 to become a "permanent resident" of the UK as a pre-condition to receiving a seat in the House of Lords.

Mr. Ashcroft claims shortly after his peerage was announced the civil service agreed that he need only become a "long-term resident" of the UK to sit in the Lords.  That deal allowed him to remain non-domiciled for tax purposes and avoid paying an estimated £127m in UK taxes.

After much obfuscation, the deputy chairman of the Conservative party Michael Ashcroft has finally admitted he is not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes.

Despite George Young's recent admission on Newsnight, many senior Tories had continued to insist that Ashcroft was a UK domicile.

This week the Court of Appeal court ruled a multi-millionaire living in the Seychelles was liable to pay UK taxes estimated at about £30 million.

Robert Gaines-Cooper, 72, has not spent more than 91 days in the UK in any tax year since 1976.  But the court ruled this had no bearing on his tax status.

The court heard that Mr. Gaines-Cooper owns a house in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire; keeps a collection of paintings, classic cars and guns there; and that his second wife and son have lived on the estate for some time.  Moreover, his son went to an English school in 2002.  He also had his will drawn up under English law.

Married to a successful wheeler-dealer?  Does he or she have an opportunity to work abroad?  

Well, after a recent High Court ruling, you might want to reconsider any plans to accompany him or her overseas...

The Telegraph reports British national Sara Pell cannot divorce her husband Duncan in the UK because the couple were living abroad at the time their marriage collapsed.

The furore surrounding Tory billionaire benefactor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft ratcheted up another notch this week after the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, George Young, told BBC Newsnight the peer is indeed a non-domicile for tax purposes. 

Significance?

As already highlighted on this blog, Michael Ashcroft has funnelled millions of pounds to the Tories through the corporate vehicle Bearwood Corporate Services.  This money is helping bankroll the party's election campaign in marginal constituencies up and down the land.

Under UK law political parties can only accept donations from those registered to vote in this country or from companies "carrying on business" here.  Bearwood stands accused of operating as a front to circumvent this rule.

Moreover, the Guardian alleges Ashcroft has not only failed to declare all his business interests to parliamentary authorities, he has also failed to fulfil the terms under which he received a peerage in 2000.

The Observer reports Belize has failed to abide by a global accord to improve international transparency and exchange of information on tax.

Anyone who has visited Belize City, the country's capital, for more than a few hours knows it's a pretty lawless place.  Drugs and murder have ravaged the city and brought it to its knees.

But Belize itself is a country of contrasts: while there's terrible poverty and endemic gang crime in the capital, there's also incredible wealth.  Billionaires, including Conservative party benefactor and deputy chairman Michael Ashcroft, flock there to take advantage of the glorious sunshine, paradise cayes, and low tax rates.

Who is Michael Ashcroft?

Ashcroft has bankrolled the Tories for the best part of three decades.  Yet it would seem he's spent most of that time in Belize.  Not only does he own significant property interests there, he's also the chairman of the country's biggest bank.

In 2000, Ashcroft was granted a seat in the Lords after promising to return to the UK and pay UK income tax.  It remains unclear, however, whether he ever fulfilled that pledge.

The Financial Times reports Britain's super-rich are preparing to flee the country in hordes.

The reason?  In April, the top rate of personal income tax will increase to 50% for earned income above £150,000 a year.

A poll of bankers, accountants, independent financial advisers and head-hunters by international law firm Withers reveals that three quarters of respondents were "likely or somewhat likely" to move abroad in the next 12 months.  Moreover, almost 70% said they would move both their family and their business abroad.