Stay in or return to the UK

Applications to stay or return to the UK

There may be immigration applications available to you depending on your circumstances and providing you meet the eligibility requirements. An overview of some of the applications are provided below. However, these can be complex applications, so we suggest you seek legal advice to consider the best options for you.

• Returning Resident application – if you have been away from the UK for 2 or more continuous years and you have lost your status, although you were previously granted Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of strong ties in the UK, your current circumstances, and the reasons you have lived outside the UK. 
• No Time Limit (NTL) application – if you were granted indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK (and you have not lost this due to absence from the UK) and you continue to be eligible for settlement, however you were not provided with a physical biometric residence permit (BRP) because you were issued with a vignette in your passport. EU citizens on the EU Settlement Scheme will not be eligible to apply for an NTL BRP, unless Indefinite Leave to Remain was obtained before the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.
• Private life application – application to stay in the UK based on your private life if you are already living in the UK.
• Private life (long residence) – if you have been living in the UK continuously for at least 20 years, with private life ties you have established here.
• Leave outside the Rules – discretionary leave if your circumstances do not fit within the Immigration Rules and there are compelling or exceptional circumstances. 
• Very significant obstacles - if you have not been living in the UK continuously for at least 20 years, but you can demonstrate you would experience very significant problems living in the country you would return to, by meeting the ‘very significant obstacles’ test. This is a very high threshold to satisfy, for example, it would not be enough to explain that you do not have any family or friends or that you would not be able to get a job in the country you would return to.
• Home Office concessions – for children born in the UK who have lived here for at least 7 years who can apply for indefinite leave to remain under a Home Office concession. Young adults between 18 and 24 years old, who arrived in the UK as a child, can apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK after 5 years of staying in the UK when they have been granted permission to stay based on their private life or on family grounds.

If you have insecure or unclear immigration status and you are unsure of your rights and entitlements in the UK, you may be vulnerable to immigration enforcement which could in the worst scenario lead to removal from the UK. We advise you to seek legal help on how to regularise your status in the UK.