Who am I? - We are the Skill Migrants Alliance, fighting for 1.6 million workers, businesses, vulnerable individuals, and employers across the UK.

Summary - The Government is proposing to retrospectively extend our settlement route from 5 years to 10 or 15 years. This breaks the promise made to us when we arrived, trapping families in financial uncertainty.

Call to action - We are raising funds to fight back legally. Please contribute and share this page now!

What are we trying to achieve? - We aim to stop these unfair retrospective changes and ensure the Government honours the legitimate expectation of a 5-year route given to us when we arrived.

What is the next step in the case? - We have instructed top-tier firm Kingsley Napley LLB and a King's Counsel (KC) to provide an expert legal opinion and issue a formal letter of claim against the Home Office.

Kingsley Napley brings together leading expertise in both Public Law and Immigration law - the key specialist areas that this situation needs - supported by a network of specialist barristers. This combination ensures that they can offer comprehensive advice and representation, tailored to our objectives and the practical realities of the situation. Their approach will be to consider the legal and political considerations in tandem.

Public Law: They are a leading public law team in the UK, consistently top-ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners (one of very few solicitors in the country who hold this distinction). They are recognised for their "exceptional capabilities" and "enormous strengths'' acting on behalf of public and private sector clients. The lead partner, Sophie Kemp, is regularly referred to as one of the leading public law solicitors in the country, and the lead Associate, Sahil Kher, has recently been described in the leading directories as a “public law superstar of the future”. They are well-placed to advise on the political and press aspects arising out of this case as well.

Immigration: The immigration team has also been top-ranked in the key directories for all aspects of business immigration, including all legislative and regulatory changes to do with workforce mobility, visas, work permits. They are known for providing strategic advice on UK and global immigration and citizenship solutions and often advising in the most complex of cases. Nick Rollason, the head of the team, is regularly consulted by the UK immigration authorities on proposed changes to UK immigration rules and policy and is a regular press commentator, conference speaker and contributor to immigration publications.

The team have considerable experience of coordinating major policy challenges against Government– most recently, coordinating and bringing a challenge against the Government’s Private Schools VAT policy which affected over 500,000 pupils in the UK. Kingsley Napley supported the Independent Schools Council in identifying 12 claimants to represent the diversity of the sector, and managed the high-profile litigation (including supporting on the communications and campaigning).


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How much we are raising and why? - We are raising an initial £25,000 to fund these immediate legal costs.

Thank you for your support.