Asylum

Refugee status in the UK to be reviewed every 30 months

5th March 2026 By Zoe Olawore

From 2 March 2026, the Home Secretary introduced a major change to the UK’s asylum system: refugees will no longer receive an automatic five year grant of protection. Instead, they will be required to renew their permission to stay every 30 months or apply for a visa route available to other authorised migrants. This marks a significant departure from the previous framework, under which individuals granted refugee status, typically received five years of leave after which they could apply for indefinite leave to remain.

The new approach applies to adults and accompanied children who claim asylum on or after 2 March 2026. People who have already submitted an asylum claim and unaccompanied children are currently exempt from the rule changes, so both groups will continue to receive five years of protection. Even so, the government has signalled that the policy for unaccompanied children may evolve, noting that it is still considering “the appropriate long term policy for this group.”

Under the reformed rules, if the Home Office determines that a person’s country of origin is now safe, their protection will not be renewed, and they will be expected to return to their country of origin. Those who wish to remain in the UK will need to apply for alternative visa routes, such as work or study visas.

These reforms also have consequences for family reunion: the government has confirmed that family reunion applications remain paused while new rules are developed to ensure that financial and integration requirements align with those applied to British citizens sponsoring family members.

Concerns have been raised about the compatibility of these changes with the UK’s international obligations. Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, has warned that the reforms appear to be in conflict with Article 34 of the Refugee Convention, which requires states to facilitate the “assimilation and naturalisation” of refugees as far as possible.

If you would like further advice on how these changes may affect you or your family, please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com to arrange a consultation with one of our team.

Staying in the UK: Legal Pathways for International Students

16th September 2025 By Alison Hunter

The Home Office has recently raised concerns about the number of students claiming asylum at the end of their student visas.

From January to June 2025, around 14,800 asylum applications were made by students, accounting for 13% of all claims. In response, the Home Office launched a campaign warning students and their families about the consequences of overstaying visas or submitting meritless asylum claims, including sending out text messages to those coming to the end of their student visas.

However, it’s important to know that there are still lawful ways for international students to remain in the UK after their studies.

Graduate Visa: Your First Step

After completing your course, students can apply for a Graduate visa, which currently allows you to stay and work in the UK for up to two years if you have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. If you have a doctoral qualification, you can stay for up to three years. (The Home Office has recently announced that this period will be reduced to 18 months but has not stated when this change will take place, nor whether this will apply to doctoral students as well). During this period on a graduate, you could consider seeking employment with a licensed sponsor to then allow you to transition to a Skilled Worker visa.

Skilled Worker Visa: Building Your Career

The Skilled Worker visa is a great option for those who find employment with a licensed sponsor. This visa offers long-term options for settlement and professional development in the UK. However, it is important to talk early to any potential employer about sponsorship as it entails significant costs and administrative burdens for the employer.

Global Talent Visa: For the Exceptionally Talented

If you have demonstrated exceptional achievement in fields like science, engineering, humanities, medicine, digital technology, or the arts, the Global Talent visa could be your pathway. This route does not require a job offer and provides greater flexibility for building a career in the UK.

Seek Legal Advice

Given the complexities of obtaining immigration status after being a student, you may well find it beneficial to seek legal advice to navigate the UK immigration system, not only to solve your immediate immigration situation, but also to plan longer term for the future. Despite the unwelcoming rhetoric from the government in relation to students at the moment, it is likely that there will also be pathways for students to work in the United Kingdom after their studies. We can guide you on the best visa options, help prepare necessary documentation, and ensure compliance with Home Office regulations.

For further advice, contact us at 020 7401 6887 or email contact@gryklaw.com.

The ongoing issue of sole responsibility

11th July 2024 By Katie Dilger

For well over 60 years, the immigration rules have contained the “sole responsibility” rule. This states that, where a child is seeking to join just one parent in the UK, the UK-based parent must have “sole responsibility” for the child. The rule applies to most immigration categories that provide for children, including the rules for the non-British children of British citizens and the dependents of Skilled Workers.

Home Office guidance states that:

“Sole parental responsibility means that one parent is unknown or has abdicated or abandoned parental responsibility, and the other parent is exercising sole control in setting and providing the day-to-day direction and care for the child’s welfare.”

In the absence of sole responsibility, there must be “serious and compelling reasons” for a child to be granted leave to join just one parent. Broadly, the long-standing guidance on this said that the circumstances had to be exceptional when compared to other children living in the relevant country, i.e., a very high test.

These rules cause issues for many families, including separated parents who co-parent and those who move to the UK to start work and set up the family home before their children apply to join them.

In October 2023, new guidance was published which applies to most immigration categories, save children falling under the family migration routes, i.e. the children and stepchildren of British citizens and settled people. The new policy supports the sole responsibility rule, but there is no reference to circumstances needing to be exceptional for there to be “serious and compelling reasons”. Instead, the guidance lists other factors that a caseworker should consider. These include whether there are good reasons why the other parent is not coming to the UK and parental consent.

Initially, the policy appeared to be a significant step forward. However, as yet, there appears to be little change in practice and refusals continue in reliance on factors that are said to indicate that serious and compelling reasons do not exist. Over the years, there have been various articles in the press which have highlighted the hardship that the rule causes and these have continued into 2024 as fresh generations find themselves in difficult situations.[1]

If you are affected by the sole responsibility rule and would like expert legal advice, please do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@gryklaw.com or on 020 7401 6887.

[1] For example, see ‘Inhumane’ Home Office denying visas to children of migrant health workers | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian

What is going on with the UK’s asylum system?

16th June 2023 By Imogen Simpson

If you have been keeping up with immigration news, you will know that asylum has been a hot topic in recent years, with various policy announcements, press releases and parliamentary acts and bills being debated. With all these changes, it can be hard to keep track of the process of claiming asylum, and refugees and their families can understandably be left wondering: ‘what is going on?’

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022

The UK government passed the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (hereafter referred to as the NABA) on 28 April 2022, which introduced an overhaul of the asylum system. The NABA made several amendments to immigration and nationality law. The key change to the asylum system enforced by the NABA was that recognised refugees whose asylum claims were made on or after 28 June 2022 would be categorised into one of two groups: ‘Group 1’ or ‘Group 2’ (the ‘differentiation’ policy). Refugees falling into ‘Group 1’ under the NABA were those who had come directly to the UK from a country or territory in which their life or freedom was threatened and had presented themselves to the authorities without delay. If a refugee did not meet these requirements, they would be considered under ‘Group 2’. If a refugee was classed as a ‘Group 2’ refugee they would be granted temporary refugee permission to stay for 30 months without any direct route to settlement, rather than the standard grant of five years’ permission to stay for ‘Group 1’ refugees, who are eligible for settlement after five years. ‘Group 2’ refugees’ family members would also have a higher threshold for being able to join their refugee family member in the UK through the refugee family reunion process.

It is no surprise that the NABA was met with a great deal of backlash, particularly from immigration practitioners who knew all too well how much backlog there already was in the asylum system. In an attempt to ‘crack down’ on migrants entering illegally to claim asylum, the Home Office had inadvertently formulated a plan that would create more work for them in the long run.

The Illegal Immigration Bill

The government has since published the Illegal Immigration Bill (hereafter referred to as the IIB), which will seemingly undo the changes to asylum made by the NABA. In a statement made by Robert Jenrick, the Minister of State for Immigration, on 8 June 2023, it was announced that the government would ‘pause’ their differentiation policy in the next package of changes to the Immigration Rules in July 2023. It was also stated that any refugees who had been granted status under ‘Group 2’ would be contacted to have their status aligned with ‘Group 1’ refugees, meaning they would be granted five years’ permission to stay, at the end of which they may be eligible for indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

This comes off the back of the United Nations Refugee Agency’s report on asylum screening in the UK, which identified an alarming number of issues with the asylum system, including inaccurate interview record keeping and concerns with the treatment of refugees being detained. One of the key issues identified in the report was the excessive delays in the asylum system. Undoubtedly, the work the Home Office will need to do to ‘undo’ the mess created by the NABA will worsen delays.

However, there is some potentially good news for applicants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Sudan, who may benefit from a ‘streamlined processing model’, in which positive decisions can be made on claims from refugees from these countries without the need for a substantive interview, where a claim was made before the introduction of the IIB on 7 March 2023. The Home Office has stated that they will not refuse an application without giving the applicant an opportunity to interview. While there are some criticisms of the policy, which requires applicants to complete a detailed questionnaire in place of the interview, it represents a positive step to process more straightforward claims without an interview, which should speed up decision-making.

Where does this leave things?

The Home Office has made it clear that they intend to clear the old backlog of asylum cases by the end of 2023, so we would hope that those who have been waiting a long time for their application to be processed will receive a decision on their case by the end of the year. Whether the Home Office will be able to meet that target, in light of the size of the backlog and the administrative time and effort which will be spent on undoing the differentiation policy is another matter entirely. Those who have already received a ‘Group 2’ decision should wait to be contacted about their status being upgraded to the standard refugee permission to stay.

However, the intention of the Home Office is to deter illegal immigration, including where an individual has entered the UK illegally but is still recognised as a refugee. For these individuals, they can expect to be returned to a ‘safe country’, which could even include Rwanda as discussed previously by our own Elena Musa.

Unfortunately, this focus on deterring even genuine asylum seekers from coming to the UK has distracted the Home Office from a serious problem which has been growing for years, which is the huge backlog of undecided asylum claims. We hope that the decision to undo the differentiation policy and focus on clearing the backlog this year will end the long delays asylum seekers are experiencing.

If you or someone you know needs advice on their asylum claim, we would be happy to help. Please contact us on 0207 401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.