Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012

Immigration: victims of domestic violence and residence cards

29 (1) Civil legal services provided to an individual (“V”) in relation to a residence card application where V—

(a) has ceased to be a family member of a qualified person on the termination of the marriage or civil partnership of the qualified person,

(b) is a family member who has retained the right of residence by virtue of satisfying the conditions in regulation 10(5) of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/1003) (“the 2006 Regulations”), and

(c) has satisfied the condition in regulation 10(5)(d)(iv) of the 2006 Regulations on the ground that V or a family member of V was the victim of domestic violence while the marriage or civil partnership of the qualified person was subsisting.

General exclusions

(2) Sub-paragraph (1) is subject to the exclusions in Parts 2 and 3 of this Schedule.

Specific exclusion

(3) The services described in sub-paragraph (1) do not include attendance at an interview conducted on behalf of the Secretary of State with a view to reaching a decision on an application.

Definitions

(4) In this paragraph—

• “domestic violence” means any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (whether psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between individuals who are associated with each other (within the meaning of section 62 of the Family Law Act 1996);

• “family member” has the same meaning as in the 2006 Regulations (see regulations 7 and 9);

• “family member who has retained the right of residence” has the same meaning as in the 2006 Regulations (see regulation 10);

• “qualified person” has the same meaning as in the 2006 Regulations (see regulation 6);

• “residence card application” means—

  (a)

  an application for a residence card under regulation 17 of the 2006 Regulations, or

  (b)

  an application for a permanent residence card under regulation 18(2) of the 2006 Regulations.