Immigration Solicitors

Immigration and public law director and solicitor Vinita Templeton of Duncan Lewis Solicitors is instructing Anthony Metzer QC and Sarah Pinder of Goldsmith Chambers in lodging a claim for judicial review on behalf of a group of eight Commonwealth Veterans (“the Claimants”) against the Secretary of State for Defence (SSD) and the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD).


The Claimants challenge Home Office and Ministry of Defence (MOD) practices which include failures to follow their own guidance and duties with regard to Foreign and Commonwealth HM Forces personnel at discharge, impacting hugely on the Claimants’ rights to reside in the UK. The Claimants are seeking a declaration that these failings and breaches occurred as a result of serious and systemic administrative errors, resulting in illegality, and that they should therefore be entitled to Indefinite Leave to Remain (‘ILR’) free of charge. They also seek a declaration that other veterans who have already returned to their country of origin who were subject to the same historic injustices, should be given an opportunity to apply for Indefinite Leave to Enter (‘ILE’).

Additionally, the Claimants seek a declaration that charging veterans and their families Home Office application fees is unfair, discriminatory and contrary to the Armed Forces Covenant. These extortionate and thereby unaffordable application fees for ILR have left the Claimants in a prolonged state of limbo.


On 14th August 2020, the judicial review claim was served. The grounds claim among other things:

1. Systemic failures by the SSD and SSHD in failing to inform the Claimants in writing of their immigration status changing upon discharge; failing to cancel their ‘exempt’ status and to follow the set procedures contained in the guidance relied upon.


2. The SSHD’s guidance on how to treat those whose exemption stamps were not cancelled and setting out the factors considered as part of its discretion to grant ILR outside the Immigration Rules is unclear and the SSHD’s practices are demonstrably unfair.


3. The SSHD’s failure to exempt Foreign and Commonwealth veterans and their families from paying settlement application fees is unfair, discriminatory and contrary to the express terms of the Armed Forces Covenant.

1. Foreign and Commonwealth HM Forces personnel become exempt from immigration control upon enlistment until they are discharged from the Forces.


2. The Immigration Rules permit Foreign and Commonwealth citizens discharged from HM Forces to apply for ILR on the basis of a minimum of four years’ service. All the Claimants served in HM Forces for between seven and twelve years and were discharged between 2009 and 2013. An application for permanent residence must however been made, within a period of two years from the discharge date, and a fee of £2,389 per person must be paid.¹


3. Fijians represent the largest proportion of Commonwealth recruits.²


4. There is a long military tradition in Fiji. Fijians joining British forces can be traced to 1917, when a group of 101 Fijian men and 6 European officers served as a Labour Corps unloading ships in Calais and Marseilles in France and Taranto in Italy. In 1961, 200 men and 12 women were recruited directly from Fiji and the Seychelles to fill critical shortages throughout the British Army. In 1998, the UK decided to admit Commonwealth recruits from their countries of origin. ³