Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to ensure that visa applicants receive responses from her Department within an appropriate timeframe.

The Home Office is currently prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We are communicating directly with customers that applications for study, work and family visas are taking longer to process at this time. Staff are being redeployed to these visa routes. We also continue to onboard and train more staff, as we approach the expected summer surge in visa applications including to study in the UK.

Where there are extremely compassionate or compelling circumstances (for example, a medical emergency), the Home Office will consider expediting specific cases. However, the bar for this is high and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.