October 22, 2024 by admin
Using Subject Access Requests (SARs)
One powerful tool we regularly use to help people navigate the UK’s complex immigration system is a Subject Access Request (SAR). This allows individuals to request personal information held about them by organisations, including government bodies like the Home Office. Anyone has the right to make a SAR; it is free and doesn’t require legal expertise.
At HMSC, we make several SARs each week to support our immigration advice and casework. Here are three key areas where SARs play a crucial role in our work:
1. Understanding complex immigration histories
Our visitors often have intricate immigration histories. They may have entered the UK on various visas, had multiple interactions with immigration authorities, and sometimes have lost important documents. By submitting SARs, we can get more accurate and comprehensive historical records directly from the Home Office. This allows our legal advisors to piece together each migrant’s unique story accurately and ensure cases are handled with the necessary documentation.
2. Informing legal steps
For visitors submitting a fresh asylum claim or challenging a Home Office decision, understanding previous interactions – including submissions and disclosures – is crucial. SARs provide access to past correspondence, interview transcripts, and decision documents. This information informs our strategy and ensures that any new applications or appeals are accurate, well-grounded and evidence based.
3. Evidencing continuous residence
One common requirement in some immigration applications is proving continuous residence in the UK. See for example our blog on making 20-year applications. Many visitors may not have kept meticulous records of their time in the country. SARs enable us to retrieve official records that can help demonstrate their continuous and uninterrupted life in the UK, which is essential for applications long residence applications. This might include requesting medical from GPs or National Insurance records from the DWP.
The challenges we face
Dealing with the Home Office presents several challenges. Legally, the Home Office must respond to SARs within one month, or notify if an extension is needed. However, in practice, they frequently exceed this timeframe without proper notifications, causing significant delays. When they do respond, the Home Office often provide only partial records with missing documents, requiring follow-up requests for complete records. This has no lawful basis under GDPR and only serves to complicate our casework.
Outside of putting pressure on our capacity, these delays and incomplete responses can severely impact our visitors. Uncertainty about their immigration status prevents people from making informed decisions about their future or taking steps to regularise their status. This leads to prolonged periods of anxiety and instability, placing a strain on their mental health. Undocumented migrants or those with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) face prolonged periods of destitution and homelessness.
These systemic Home Office’s failures have real life consequences. For example, one visitor we supported had issues with their Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) and was wrongly informed they had no right to work despite having Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). A SAR revealed the error was completely due to a fault in the Home Office system. However, it took over three months to receive this SAR, during which time the individual was left destitute and homeless.
Despite such challenges, SARs are a valuable tool for accessing your own personal data. Understanding how to make a SAR can help take control of your information, which is especially useful in complex areas like immigration. For more information on SARs, see the links below:
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