On March 12, 2025, the UK government published a statement of changes in immigration rules (HC 733). Within those changes are changes to the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme (UPE), which opened on February 4, 2025.
What to Expect
- The government is making some minor changes to UPE to extend the validity requirements further. This will include bringing into scope children under 18 who were granted leave to enter the UK outside the immigration rules so they could join or stay with their parents who already held Ukraine scheme permission.
- Going forward, a change to the Homes for Ukraine scheme guidance that was published on January 31, 2025 will enable eligible parents to sponsor their children to come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine route. However, making this change to the UPE requirements now will enable children who have already been granted leave outside the rules in these circumstances to align their status with their parents by enabling them to apply to UPE when their current permission is due to expire.
- There will also be some minor drafting changes to the eligibility rules for UPE to better reflect the existing policy intention.
- Changes are also being made to the Homes for Ukraine (HfU) scheme, to include the “approved sponsor” requirements for eligible minors in both validity and eligibility sections of the rules.
- This will enable decision makers to determine applications which do not have an approved sponsor.
- The definition of parent will be aligned across HfU and UPE, so it is consistent with the wider immigration system. A requirement is being introduced that parents who wish to be joined by their children in the UK under the HfU scheme must be lawfully resident in the UK.
- Finally, changes to the immigration rules were laid in November 2024 (HC 334) to end the use of “permission to travel” (PTT) letters on the Ukraine schemes from February 13, 2025, onwards. The rules currently allow PTT arrivals to vary their permission in country within six months of their arrival. As there will be no further PTT arrivals from February 13, 2025, no one will be able to vary their permission in this way from August 13, 2025 onwards. This provision is being removed from the rules from that date, as it will no longer be required.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
Erickson Immigration Group will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more news is available. Please contact your employer or EIG attorney if you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions.