Due to the COVID-19 cause, there has been changes and updates on the immigration law and practice, along with diagnosis and treatment information provided from NHS. Here are the list of summaries updated on the 27th Feb by the UKVI.
UKVI have updated the changes of immigration law and practice caused by COVID-19 disease. The summary of the updates as below but it may become rapidly out of date. Learn more about the government response to coronavirus on GOV.UK.
No charges will be made in the diagnosis or treatment of coronavirus (COVID-19). This applies to everyone, including anyone living in the UK without permission:
- No charges apply to testing for COVID-19, even if the result is negative, or to any treatment provided for COVID-19 if the result is positive or up to the point that it is negatively diagnosed. The same is true of most other infectious diseases.
- No immigration checks are required for overseas visitors that are known to be only undergoing testing or treatment for COVID-19.
At time of writing, that guidance had not been updated to cover other nationalities. Senior Home Office officials told the Home Affairs committee of MPs on 18 March that it soon would be, on the general principle of “no disadvantage to individuals”. On 17 February 2020, the Home Office unilaterally conferred leave to remain to Chinese citizens whose visas had or have an expiry date between 24 January 2020 and 30 March 2020. The Home Office has also announced a concession to allow Chinese nationals currently on a Tier 2 (Intra-company Transfer) visa to switch in-country to a Tier 2 (General) visa. Normally such a switch would require a fresh application for entry clearance to be made from abroad.
Due to travel restrictions because of coronavirus some individuals may be facing uncertainty in relation to the expiry date of their current visa or leave to remain in the United Kingdom. The Home Office understands that in many cases this is because of circumstances outside of the control. Most people in the UK whose immigration status is affected by the coronavirus outbreak will get an automatic extension of their visa until 31 March 2020.
Some Tier 4 students or Tier 2/5 employees may be prevented from attending their studies or employment due to illness, they need to serve a period of quarantine or the inability to travel due to travel restrictions caused by coronavirus. Sponsors do not need to report student or employee absences related to coronavirus which they have authorised.
Sponsors do not need to withdraw sponsorship if they consider there are exceptional circumstances when:
- a student will be unable to attend for more than 60 days
- an employee is absent from work without pay for four weeks or more
Decisions on whether to withdraw a student from their studies or terminate an employment are for sponsors to make. The Home Office recognises the current situation is exceptional and will not take any compliance action against students or employees who are unable to attend their studies/work due to the coronavirus outbreak, or against sponsors which authorise absences and continue to sponsor students or employees despite absences for this reason. The Home Office will keep this under review, especially if the length of absences mean a potential repeat of period of studies become necessary.
(Within the UK)
If the applicant has Coronavirus symptoms and should be self-isolating, the applicant should not attend for the appointment and email admin.ukvas@soprasteria.com. The fee will be refunded and it is reported to the Home Office.
(Outside the UK)
Some of VFS centers are closed affected by COVID-19. UKVI stopped the priority service in some countries. There is no word on how the potential knock-on effects will be dealt with. There might be the delayed decision or some kind of concession.
The Home Office has also stopped issuing naturalisation and registration certificates. The process of becoming a British citizen is not legally complete until the person has attended a citizenship ceremony. Some local authorities are calling off citizenship ceremonies such as Kingston Council, Westminster Council and Hackney Council. Updated schedules will be updated.
The tribunals allowed Judges to extend times and postpone of hearing including immigration. Judges are encouraged to decide cases on the papers where possible (with consent of parties) and the possibility of decision making on the papers without hearing is possible.
If the person has any queries related to coronavirus, including questions about urgent, compelling, compassionate case, contact immigration COVID 19 helpline.
Telephone: 0800 678 1767 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) Calls are free of charge.
Email: CIH@homeoffice.gov.uk
Due to Data Protection Regulations, visa holder or applicant can only speak about their specific query.
We will update the immigration news related to COVID-19 as soon as UKVI
updates.