Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the application process for the Ukraine Extension Scheme.

The Ukraine Extension Scheme (UES) enables Ukrainian nationals already in the UK with permission to enter, or stay, to be eligible to continue their stay in the UK. To qualify for the UES an applicant must either hold permission to be in the UK on or between 18 March 2022 and 16 November 2023, or have previously held permission to be in the UK which expired on or after 1 January 2022. Those who have been granted permission by 16 November will have until 16 May 2024 to submit an application under the scheme.

The Home Office routinely keeps application processes under review to ensure a positive user experience, optimal efficiency, and a robust application of the Immigration Rules.

The Home Office continues to work closely with our European counterparts, including the Ukrainian Government, and keeps the future of our schemes and any future need for extension to the existing 36 months’ leave under review, in line with developments of the situation in Ukraine.

We are also mindful that permission will start to expire, for the first arrivals under our Ukrainian schemes, from March 2025, and their need for certainty beyond that point to help them to plan ahead.