To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2022 to Question 115898, on Visas: Afghanistan, what proportion of people who arrived from Afghanistan in 2021 have been given indefinite leave to remain; and whether she plans to extend limited leave to enter in the event that the process of confirmation of Indefinite Leave to Remain status concludes before all those who are eligible have been granted that status.
Answered on
14 March 2022
The Home Office is in the process of supporting people evacuated from Afghanistan to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
The data on those granted ILR is not currently available, but once published we will direct individuals to the publication. Once applications have been lodged, as they have in the vast majority of cases, individuals are issued with a letter confirming they have extant leave to remain in the UK pending their grant of Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Those already relocated to the UK under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) will be able to apply free of charge to convert their temporary leave into indefinite leave to remain.
Those resettled through the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will receive fee-free indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK. They will be able to apply for British citizenship after five years in the UK under existing rules and subject to the appropriate fee.
In light of the success of our evacuation efforts, we plan to exceed our initial aim to resettle 5,000 through ACRS in the first year.