Home Office extends visas for those effected by COVID-19

25 Mar 2020 01:29 PM

Foreign nationals who cannot return home because of the pandemic will be able to extend their visas.

Recently (24 March 2020), the Home Office announced that it will extend the visas of people unable to return to their home countries due to COVID-19. Foreign nationals whose UK visas expire after 24 January 2020 and are unable to leave the UK because of travel restrictions or self-isolation related to COVID-19 will have their visas extended to 31 May 2020.

The UK’s digital tech sector employs a significant proportion of international talent to complement its domestic workforce, and techUK had been lobbying for this change to give businesses, individuals and their families certainty.

Individuals must contact the Coronavirus Immigration Team via email (CIH@homeoffice.gov.uk) to update their records. techUK will continue to call on the Home Office to make this an automatic process – giving peace of mind to individuals whilst lessening the burden on the Home Office.

The Home Office has also temporarily expanded the in-country switching provisions to help those who want to apply for visas to stay in the UK long-term.

Home Office guidance can be found here.

techUK will continue to provide updates when new Government guidance becomes available, please visit our COVID-19 Information Hub for further details and also reach out to us at covid19.taskforce@techuk.org.