Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to extend leave to remain to Afghan Chevening Scholars whose visas are due to expire within the next 12 months.

Under Pathway 1, vulnerable and at-risk individuals who arrived in the UK under the Afghan evacuation programme have been the first to be settled under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). This includes those Chevening scholars who were evacuated, and those who were notified by the UK Government that they had been called forward or specifically authorised for evacuation, but were not able to board flights and have subsequently arrived in the UK.

Individuals on the 2020/21 and 2021/22 Chevening programmes who were in the UK and did not meet the eligibility requirements for ACRS Pathway 3, which includes Chevening alumni at risk, were granted Indefinite Leave to Remain outside of the Rules, alongside their immediate family members who were also already in the UK.

Chevening awards were offered to Afghans resident in safe third countries for the academic year 2022-23. It was made clear to applicants that the scholarship is not an offer of resettlement and that the usual Chevening policy would apply, including the requirement to leave the UK at the end of their scholarship.