Lin & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

The Claimants are Chinese nationals. The first Claimant is married to a British citizen, Mr Zhenliang Huang, and the second is their son aged 24. Their evidence is that they have lived in the United Kingdom since March 2018.

As is well known, the United Kingdom left the European Union at 11pm on 31 January 2020 (“Brexit”). There was then a transitional period until 11pm on 31 December 2020 during which EU law continued to apply (“the Transitional period”). However at this point EU rights to free movement, other EU derived rights relating to immigration, and the 2016 Regulations, were revoked by paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 1 to the Immigration and Social Security Co-Ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020.

On 19 December 2023, the Claimants submitted online applications for indefinite leave to remain (“ILR”), or settled status, under the EUSS on the basis that they had been resident here for more than five years. However, their applications were refused on 13 September and 22 October 2024 respectively, on the grounds that they had not used the appropriate (paper) form to make their applications and that, in any event, the FMQBC route under the EUSS had closed to them with effect from 8 August 2023. There was also no provision for out of time applications.

Proceedings for judicial review of the Defendant’s refusals of their applications were issued by the Claimants on 17 December 2024 and, on 20 October 2025, Mr Benjamin Douglas-Jones KC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) gave permission on the papers in relation Grounds 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the Claimants’ Grounds of challenge. He refused permission on Ground 3.

Ground 4, which is that it was unreasonable for the Defendant to refuse to consider the Claimants’ applications after the 8 August 2023 deadline. In particular, the Claimants had no reason to believe that their EEA residence permits would not be accepted as proof of lawful residence and that their leave to remain would cease to be valid for the purposes of claiming ILR/settled status. The requirement that applicants submit their applications in paper form was also unreasonable as the form was not provided to them when requested because the FMQBC route was closed to them.