Renewal of the immigration concession for Syrian nationals
13 February 2014
The Government has renewed the immigration concession for Syrian nationals for another year, until 28 February 2015. This concession gives greater flexibility to Syrian nationals who are in the UK on a visa, by offering them more ways to extend their stay in the UK.
If you are a Syrian national and your permission to stay in the UK (leave to remain) is about to expire, or has expired in the last 28 days, and you wish to stay in the UK this concession means that there are two options available to you:
Extend your visa
If you are here on a visa for a limited period you can ask for this to be extended for the same length of time as you were originally granted. For example, if you have a 6 month visit visa, you may be given permission to stay for a further 6 months.
Switch into a different visa category in the UK
Normally you would be required to leave the UK to switch to another visa category. Under this concession you may apply to switch from inside the UK.
There are restrictions on which categories you can apply to switch into. You cannot switch into any settlement routes.
You must apply whilst your current visa is valid or within 28 days of it expiring and pay the correct fee applicable for that route. You must also meet the requirements of the category that you are applying under.
If there are any documents which you would normally be expected to provide, but you cannot because of the conflict in Syria, then you should explain why in your application.
Syrian nationals are also advised to monitor the travel advice for Syria, and make arrangements to return only when it is safe to do so.
Details of the concession and exceptions can be found on the right hand side of this page guidance and in the written ministerial statement on the GOV.UK website.
Source:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...ria-concession
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