The UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) has now suspended services due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic where it has announced that it plans to resume activities after six weeks.
If you have an immigration application pending for leave to remain, indefinite leave to remain or British citizenship, unfortunately, you will not be able to submit your biometric information at this time.
The good news is that Sopra Steria, the official partner for UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) has confirmed that all biometric appointments that were scheduled to take place during these weeks will automatically be changed and rescheduled for after six weeks of the original date of appointment. So, if you have an application pending, you do not need to manually re-book your appointment and can check your new date by signing into your UKVCAS account. Moreover, if you are unable to attend the appointment on this new date you can cancel it online and receive a full refund. Please note that the appointment booking system is not functional at this time therefore you will not be able to manually re-schedule your appointment until the online booking system reopens at some stage in the future.
The Home Office issued a guidance statement last week and confirmed that all foreign nationals whose leave has expired after 24 January 2020 will be granted a visa extension until 31 May 2020 but to recieve this you will need to contact the Home Office directly with further details, for more information about this, click here.
Our legal team in London will keep you updated on how the COVID-19 situation unfolds in coming weeks and months and how it further impacts the UK immigration system. Please note that the situation is subject to change at very short notice and we will do our best to inform you of all changes as they take place.
We would also like to inform you that we are open for business as usual during our normal working hours of 9:30 – 17:30.
Our official position regarding the impact of the COVID-19 virus is that the safety and well-being of our staff and clients is, and always has been our top priority and we have a robust offline strategy in place that can be used to continue our work remotely during this current state of affairs.
Contact our team of Top Immigration Lawyers
If you are one of our existing or new clients who is seeking legal advice at this time, please contact our office in London on +44 (0) 207 269 9590 or email us at info@gulbenkian.co.uk to find out more about how we can arrange meetings with you remotely over the next few weeks or months.
