Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration examines the Home Office's management of the curtailment of Tier 4 student visas
The second of two reports issued by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration last week examined the efficiency and effectiveness of the Home Office's management of the curtailment of Tier 4 student visas.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe report is here and the Home Office's response to the report is here.
According to the report, the Home Office curtailed the leave previously granted to almost 44,000 students in the years 2013 to 2015.
A student's leave to remain can be curtailed if, for example, they fail to enrol on their course, or if they have a pattern of unauthorised absences or early completion of their studies.
The Chief Inspector found that the creation of a dedicated Home Office Curtailment Team had resulted in significant progress in reducing the large volume of outstanding notifications that had built up by 2012, and that the Home Office was largely on top of new notifications. Security checks were carried out consistently and thoroughly, and a Decision Quality Framework had been introduced (in October 2014) that set clear expectations of caseworkers and monitored and measured performance.
However, the Chief Inspector identified a number of areas for improvement, including providing direct feedback to sponsors to clarify their reporting obligations and reduce the high levels of unnecessary notifications, and the time taken to progress notifications to the point where a consideration of curtailment was made.
The report made the following nine recommendations:
1. Find a workable solution to providing Tier 4 licensed sponsors with direct feedback on the quality of their SMS notifications, with a view to achieving a significant reduction in the number of unnecessary notifications submitted each year.
2. Maintain a record of the quality assurance of the sifting process for SMS notifications in order to evidence its effectiveness in ensuring that cases are not being incorrectly sifted 'out' as not requiring consideration for curtailment or any other action.
3. Ensure that the assurance regime for Tier 4 curtailment covers the correct application by caseworkers of all relevant Immigration Rules and Home Office guidance (including the UKVI Operating Mandate), and that it informs the training and individual feedback provided to caseworkers;
4. Publish service standards for the curtailment consideration process that:
• take account of the 10-day deadline imposed on licensed sponsors for the submission of SMS notifications; and
• drive the efficient use of resources.
5. Issue clear instructions to caseworkers in relation to the closing of cases, and the referral of cases to issuing Entry Clearance Officers for cancellation, based on Advance Passenger Information (API) indicating that a Tier 4 student has departed the UK, or the absence of an API record of an individual in possession of a Tier 4 visa having entered the UK, and ensure that instructions are followed consistently.
6. Treat cases that attract a curtailment not pursued (CNP) decision because the individual is an overstayer, or has a period of leave remaining that is shorter than their permitted period of grace and curtailment would have no practical effect, in the same way as curtailed cases.
7. Take the necessary steps to identify and locate those individuals amongst the c.71,000 curtailment not pursued (CNP) cases decided between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2015 who have remained in the UK illegally, with a view to effecting their removal.
8. Review the flow of cases referred to Capita to eliminate cases bouncing back as unworkable, including those that should have been closed based on Advance Passenger Information (API) and those curtailed cases where the period of grace has not expired when referred.
9. Review whether the priority currently given to Tier 4 curtailed cases within the Immigration Enforcement national prioritisation matrix is appropriate.