Discretionary Leave to Indefinite Leave

[fimboz]

I write to the home office requesting clarification about when to apply for indefinite leave to remain as a freedom of information request. My letter was as follows:

Please can you categorically confirm whether the time during which the Home Office takes to process an
application is considered as part of the 6 year continual period required to apply for ILR( under the
transitional arrangements) as shown in the example below:

The first 3 yrs DLR granted in March 2011 following a refusal of an asylum claim. An in-time
application to extend is submitted in February 2014. The Home Office subsequently grant an
extension in August 2015 quoting 3 yrs DLR starting from August 2015 to expire August 2018.

In the above scenario, the Home Office have taken 1yr and 6 months to conclude the case, therefore, does
this period count towards the 6 yrs and therefore ILR application can be submitted after February 2017?

Dear

Thank you for your e-mail of 28 December 2016. Your request has been handled as a request for information
under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000. You have requested the following information:

Please can you categorically confirm whether the time during which the Home Office takes to process an
application is considered as part of the 6 year continual period required to apply for ILR( under the
transitional arrangements) as shown in the example below:

The first 3 yrs DLR granted in March 2011 following a refusal of an asylum claim. An in-time
application to extend is submitted in February 2014. The Home Office subsequently grant an
extension in August 2015 quoting 3 yrs DLR starting from August 2015 to expire August 2018.

In the above scenario, the Home Office have taken 1yr and 6 months to conclude the case, therefore, does
this period count towards the 6 yrs and therefore ILR application can be submitted after February 2017?

HOME OFFICE RESPONSE

Further to your question, please note the published Discretionary Leave policy guidance can be found by
accessing the following link;

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... /Discretio
nary_Leave_2__v7_0.pdf

Section 8 states as follows;

Any leave accrued whilst waiting for a valid application for further leave to be considered, may count towards
the required period of leave for settlement, providing the application was made in time and leave was
automatically extended in accordance with section 3C(2) of the Immigration Act 1971.

In relation to the example provided, in line with the published policy, please note the 1 yr 6 months would
count towards the 6 years providing the application was made in time and leave was automatically extended in accordance with section 3C(2) of the Immigration Act 1971. Furthermore, an individual can apply for settlement once they have accrued 6 years’ continuous leave (under the transitional arrangements) but a settlement application will only be considered up to 28 days before their existing DL expires. Just because they meet one of the criteria, does not mean we are obliged to consider any settlement application earlier.

What does this mean in light of the last two sentences