Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether time within the UK built up under the NHS visa extension can be used for meeting time threshold requirements for Indefinite Leave to Remain applications.

In April last year the Government introduced the automatic visa extension for those working for the NHS and independent healthcare providers. This scheme extended the visas of eligible workers for 12 months.

The majority of those who have benefitted from this scheme are on visas which have a route to settlement, such as Skilled Worker and its predecessor Tier 2 (General).

For those on a route to settlement, this period of 12 months will count towards the time they need to complete to qualify.