Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support visa holders unable to return to their home countries as a result of covid-19 restrictions whose visas have expired.

The Home Office is currently operating a concession which allows visa holders unable to return to their home country as a result of COVID-19 restrictions to request ‘Exceptional Assurance’.

Exceptional Assurance provides short-term protection against immigration action or future consequences after leave has expired. If their visa conditions allowed them to work, study or rent accommodation they may continue to do under this concession.

Exceptional Assurance is not a grant of leave. It is a means to protect those who are unable to leave the UK due to COVID-19 restrictions and not to facilitate travel, other than to return home.

Information on our current concession can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-uk-visa-applicants-and-temporary-uk-residents