RETURNING RESIDENTS
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The amendments to paragraph 58 of the Rules clarify
drafting and confirm the longstanding meaning of the
provision. They will not change policy or practice.
The amendments are necessary in the light of a Tribunal
Determination, which did not follow a previous court
judgment and showed that the previous drafting could be
improved.
The provision is, and has always been intended to enable people who live here to go abroad for up to two years before
coming back to live here. It has never been intended to
allow people to perpetuate settled status by visiting once every two years.
Immigration Officers will be given instructions to emphasise
that practice need not change. A person seeking readmission
as a returning resident within two years of having had settled status here should normally be readmitted without further enquiry.
Background Note
Under paragraph 58 of HC 388 (the previous Immigration Rules) a
returning resident was to be admitted for settlement on
satisfying the immigration officer that he had indefinite leave to remain when he left and that he had not been away for longer than 2 years. The intention and our consistent interpretation of this provision was that "when he left" meant "when he last
left" : it was never envisaged that a person could claim to be a returning resident on the basis that at some time in the past
he had had indefinite leave to remain if this status had
subsequently been superseded by one or more grants of limited leave. This construction was expressly upheld by the Immigration Appeal Tribunal in Akinrujomu, and by implication by the High
Court in ex. p. Tolba. A differently constituted Tribunal
declined to follow these authorities in Calfos. The first of the
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