Stuart Clark on Immigration & Family Law

I recently undertook a secondment at Fragomen LLP one of the world's leading specialist immigration lawyers. It was useful in very many ways; most interestingly bringing together two disciplines which complement each other: international family law and immigration.

They raise two questions: (1) what impact can a party's immigration status have in family proceedings? (2) how do family law considerations impact on a party's immigration status?  I refer to a couple of issues but there are many other ways in which the two areas intertwine.

Jurisdiction & Habitual Residence

I wrote previously about the race to court in divorce jurisdiction disputes. Notwithstanding whether proceedings were issued in England & Wales first in time the immigration status of the parties can impact on jurisdiction. The assertion that one or both parties are habitually resident and/or domiciled in this jurisdiction for a divorce could be undermined by their immigration status or the details of any original or pending immigration application. A temporary Visa may not be conclusive for establishing one of the jurisdictional grounds but it could...

Read the full article here.