Suspended sentences and automatic exclusion: the UK’s tougher immigration rules

Dating isn’t an area I would ordinarily advise on as an immigration lawyer. But if you embark on a holiday romance this summer, before tackling the tricky question of whether you’ve entered relationship territory yet, you may want to ask your date about criminal records. I don’t mean their taste in music. From now on anyone who isn’t British, Irish or settled in the UK and has ever received a suspended sentence of a year or longer can expect their UK visa refused or revoked, regardless of how long ago or where the crime took place.

This dating example isn’t intended to trivialise legislation that will ban many from this country for life. It illustrates the bizarre cruelty of changes to the Immigration Rules implemented on 26 March which will unnecessarily turn people away and tear families in the UK apart. 

There is no transitionary provision to protect those already in the UK. These changes to the Immigration Rules and guidance threaten existing relationships, even if a conviction is historic and even if someone was originally granted a visa to live here in full knowledge of that conviction. You could be four years into a five-year spouse visa, just months away from settling with your beloved, and now face the prospect of being torn apart when you apply to settle.

The changes are in line with the Sentencing Act 2026 removing provisions that previously excluded suspended sentences from counting as a period of imprisonment for the purposes of defining a foreign national offender. A sentence of a year, whether suspended or not, would mean automatic liability for deportation - a framework for excluding people from the UK that is significantly more draconian than the threat of mere administrative removal. 

Even tax or driving offences may mean a lifetime ban

To put this in context, Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire was recently handed a 15-month suspended sentence by a Greek court over a brawl in Mykonos in 2020 - arguably a very British rite of passage - which if he wasn't British (or Irish) and wanted to join a football team or a loved one living in the UK would now preclude Harry forever. Again, I don't wish to trivialise the England and Manchester United footballer's fracas. This is just to point out how devastating a minor past misdemeanour may now be for those wishing to make a life for themselves in the UK.

Unveiling this change, which has gone unreported among a spate of other recent draconian immigration proposals from the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood said: “coming to the UK from overseas is a privilege, not a right. Any foreign national with a history of crime and violence is not welcome. If you pose a risk to our country, you will be refused entry or removed.”

I wouldn’t wish to name names, but a quick google search of “suspended sentence” and talent from the worlds of sport, cinema, music, business, the arts and other sectors, reveals many celebrated figures who certainly don’t “pose a risk to our country” yet our Home Secretary would now preclude from even visiting the UK due to suspended sentences over tax or even driving offences. 

This restriction expands on other recent changes to Part Suitability – the framework in the UK Immigration Rules for refusing and cancelling people’s permission to be in the UK or settle - with major consequences for family members such as children, parents, spouses and partners. Previously, a criminal sentence between 12 months and four years didn’t generally stop you eventually joining UK family after 10 years. Since last November, any conviction with a prison sentence of 12 months or more means mandatory refusal for those wishing to join loved ones in the UK, no matter how long has elapsed. 

Now even if an offence only warranted a suspended sentence, this would still mean a lifetime ban. This has the farcical effect of putting someone who served a custodial sentence of 11 months in prison (a discretionary ground for refusal) in a better position than someone with a suspended sentence of 12 months which was never activated (now a mandatory ground).

But surely there are exceptions?

There may be exceptions to refusals on the grounds of criminality where a conviction abroad is for something that would not be criminalised in the UK – for example – a criminal sentence for homosexuality or membership of a trade union. The problem is these types of convictions by despotic regimes rarely state the actual reason for the conviction. So, a conviction for homosexuality may be presented as a conviction for “obscenity and public disorder” or something equally misleading.

In rare cases, for some applicants, such as those who aren’t subject to a deportation order, there may be arguments for an exception to be made outside UK Immigration Rules. For instance, if there are very strong Article 8 family life human rights grounds. However, such cases are complex and expensive, with uncertain prospects. The government has also hinted that it wants to make further changes to how judges decide Article 8 cases and seems keen to limit judicial independence in this area.

Why are they doing this?

This is just one of a raft of controversial measures that the Home Secretary is currently risking a rebellion among Labour colleagues to implement. This Autumn she promises to make many people’s path to settle in the UK more protracted, precarious and expensive. Many organisations have warned that the hurdles Shabana Mahmood proposes in her “earned settlement” review will prejudice women, children and those on lower-salaried jobs, harming their ability to make a life for themselves here. 

Among her proposals is an insistence that a “clean criminal record” will be necessary to settle in the UK – suggesting something even more draconian may be intended. We have already had worried calls from clients whose kids may have been involved in a minor infraction which would not have ruined their life prospects before, but which might do now in a way that is completely inconsistent with our rehabilitation-driven justice system.

UK net migration is plummeting rapidly since its post-pandemic peak. A raft of measures by this government and its Conservative predecessors make many increasingly unwelcome on our island. Each measure has drastic consequences for someone’s life. Added together, they create the kind of hostile environment and precarity in people’s lives that led to the cruelty of the Windrush Scandal. What’s more, such legislation will put off many immigrant talents, including those with the fancy footwork to be the next Harry Maguire, from wanting to grace our shores, if indeed they are still able to.

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