Immigration needs of care leavers: A UK lawyer's handbook on immigration, nationality and leaving-care duties

Immigration needs of care leavers is a free, practitioner-focused handbook on the immigration, nationality and leaving-care needs of care-experienced young people in the United Kingdom. It sits at the junction of two complex systems — immigration and nationality law on one side, and local authorities' leaving-care duties under the Children Act 1989 and the Care Act 2014 on the other — and is written for immigration lawyers and advisers, social workers, personal advisers and others supporting looked-after children and care leavers.

The handbook covers status routes, British citizenship and registration, suitability and grounds for refusal, appeals and protection from removal, age assessment, support and accommodation where there is no recourse to public funds, and the differences across the devolved nations. Its 44 chapters combine concise statements of the law with operational workflows, evidence checklists and templates, supported by a Table of Legislation, tables of authorities and signposting appendices.

The law is stated as at 20 January 2026. This first edition is distributed free of charge as a pro bono resource under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. Corrections and feedback: hleb@fairgo.org.uk