The Immigration Service has withdrawn a decision to revoke the visas of a number of foreign nationals on national security grounds.

It comes as the court had been due to sit in private to consider the lawfulness of the decision notices.

Doleance claims - a legal action challenging the lawfulness of an official decision - had been issued by Zhijun Sun, Lingyan Liu, and Wei Wang and his family, seeking a review of the Treasury Minister’s decision to curtail their immigration status.

Their visas were revoked in May last year under immigration rules relating to national security.

The claimants’ continued presence in the island and UK had been deemed ‘not conducive to the public good’ - although they have never been informed of the exact reasons.

A public interest immunity hearing had been listed for March 31, when Deemster Andrew Corlett would have been given the full details behind closed doors.

Neither the claimants and their lawyer nor the media would have been allowed to attend the hearing.

But the hearing will now not take place after the Immigration Service withdrew the decision notices on March 19 and made further proposals relating to each claimant’s visa status.

As a result, Deemster Corlett has paused the doleance proceedings for a period of six weeks.

He said he was doing so ‘to allow the parties to engage in discussions as to the final disposal of these proceedings’.

At the end of the six weeks the parties will either file an agreed consent order disposing of the doleance claim in full, or file an order with directions dealing with any remaining issues still in contention.

Although the claimants, who had all been resident on the island for several years, have never been told the exact reasons why their visas were revoked, they were supplied with limited further information in September.

This indicated that ‘some or all’ of the reasons appear to relate to King Gaming, which was raided in 2024 as part of a fraud and international money laundering investigation.

The court previously heard that the then Treasury Minister, Dr Alex Allinson, had signed a memorandum removing the claimants’ right of appeal in the interests of national security.

Advocate Winston Taylor, representing all the claimants, argued the decision notice failed to address human rights considerations and was therefore unlawful.

He said the latest development was ‘productive’.

The Wangs remain on the island after being placed on immigration bail, but the other claimants are not.

Zhijun Sun was chief executive of fintech company Blackfridge, which had its financial services licence temporarily suspended by the island’s regulator in January last year.

He moved to the island in 2021-22 but is now in St Lucia, where he had been on business when he was notified he had not been given leave to extend his Isle of Man visa.

Lingyan Liu, who came here in 2022-23, had been in the Far East when her immigration status was rescinded and was not allowed to return.

Mr Wang was an investor in Blackfridge.

He and his wife deny any wrongdoing or involvement with King Gaming or its associated companies.