Refugees: Afghanistan

(asked on 19th October 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 59602 on Refugees: Afghanistan, what provision his Department has made for undocumented people applying to join family who are recognised refugees in the UK and are unable to travel within Turkey to attend a visa application centre; if he will make it his policy to allow those people to apply online and provide biometric details on arrival in the UK; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Robert Jenrick Portrait
Robert Jenrick
This question was answered on 28th October 2022

An individual must, in most circumstances, provide their biometrics, in the form of a facial image and fingerprints, when applying for a visa or a biometric immigration document before they come to the UK. This is to ensure we can confirm their identity and fix them to it, and to conduct background security checks to establish whether they pose a threat to public safety. Anyone who is unable to travel to a visa application centre to enrol their biometrics can contact UKVI to request we defer or waive the requirement for them to provide their biometric information. Officials will not normally defer or waive the requirement to provide biometric information, unless their circumstances are so compelling as to make them exceptional. We would ordinarily expect an applicant who is in a country with a visa application centre, such as Turkey, to be allowed to travel within that country to complete their application.

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