Applying in the UK

The terms ‘leave to enter/remain’ and ‘permission to enter/stay’ are used interchangeably. The word ‘permission’ replaces ‘leave’ in the Immigration Rules for simplified routes, but the former term is still used in other categories of stay and the relevant legislation.

In-country applications

A person subject to immigration control in the UK is generally required to make an application in the UK if:

  1. they wish to stay beyond the date their current leave/permision expires, including when they are eligible for settlement (indefinite leave to remain)

  2. their circumstances change so that they no longer meet the requirements of their current immigration route and wish to remain in the UK in a different route

  3. they wish to change their immigration route, or

  4. they wish to regularise their immigration status, eg they have overstayed their previous leave or entered the UK illegally

Where a person already has leave to enter or leave to remain, any application to extend, reduce or otherwise alter this leave is termed under the Immigration Rules an application to ‘vary’ their leave.

In-country applications are decided by the Home Office

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Latest Immigration News

Conservatives announce plans to withdraw from the ECHR and abolish the Immigration Tribunal

The leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch MP, announced at the party conference on 5 October 2025 that the next Conservative election manifesto will contain a commitment to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repeal the Human Rights Act 1998. This follows the completion of an advice document by the Shadow Attorney General, Lord Wolfson, which looked at whether remaining signed up to the Convention would constrain a future Conservative government in the following areas: making a ‘stringent’ border policy possible; protecting soldiers from ‘vexatious’ legal claims, especially over Northern Ireland and overseas operations; placing blanket restrictions on foreign nationals in terms of social housing and benefits; setting mandatory sentences for serious crimes and banning ‘disruptive’ protests; and delivering infrastructure and energy projects without extensive human rights and climate-based litigation. In his separate address to the conference, the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp MP, asserted that current judicial interpretations of the ECHR impede effective border control and the deportation of foreign offenders. He also announced that, following withdrawal, the party proposed to legislate for a Borders plan that would prohibit all asylum and other claims made by those entering the UK unlawfully, including those arriving by small boats. Such individuals would be removed immediately to their country of origin, or, where that is not possible, to a designated safe third country such as Rwanda, within one week of arrival.

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