What overstaying means
You overstay when you stay in the UK after your permission has run out and you have not made a valid application to extend it in time. Overstaying is a breach of immigration law. It does not make you a criminal, but it ends your right to work, rent and use many public services, and it counts against you in every later application.
Is your application in time
If you make a valid application before your permission expires, your existing permission is generally treated as continuing until the application, and any appeal or administrative review, is decided. This is sometimes called section 3C leave. If you apply after your permission has expired, there is no such protection, you are an overstayer, and you risk being removed. A short overstay can be disregarded in some cases: an application made within 14 days of your permission expiring, where there was a good reason beyond your control, is not treated as made by an overstayer. You should never plan on it.
The re-entry bans
A previous breach of immigration law can lead to a mandatory refusal of a later application for entry clearance or permission to enter, for a set period. Under the suitability rules the periods are:
| What happened | Refusal period |
|---|---|
| You left voluntarily, at your own expense, after a breach | 12 months |
| You left voluntarily at public expense, within six months of being told you must go | 2 years |
| You left voluntarily at public expense, more than six months after being told you must go | 5 years |
| You were removed at public expense, or used deception in an application | 10 years |
A short overstay is not treated as a breach if you leave the UK voluntarily at your own expense. For an overstay that began on or after 6 April 2017, the limit is 30 days or less. For an overstay that began before that date it was 90 days or less. See re-entry bans for the full rules, the other kinds of breach, and the periods that do not count. Whether a ban applies to a family or private life application, or a protection claim, depends on the rules for that application, so take advice before you assume either way.
Deception is different
A finding of deception, such as a false document, a false statement or a false claim in a past application, carries the longest ban, and it can affect applications for settlement and citizenship long afterwards. If you have been accused of deception, take advice before you respond to the Home Office. Admissions made without advice can be hard to retract.
Your options if you have overstayed
- Leave voluntarily and apply from abroad. Often the safest course for a short overstay, because it can avoid or limit a ban. Whether it is wise depends on how long you overstayed and how you left.
- Apply from inside the UK on human rights grounds. If you have a family or private life here, for example a partner, a child or long residence, you may be able to make an application for permission to stay. It carries a right of appeal if refused. See human rights and private life applications.
- Apply under a route that allows you to stay, such as long residence or a protection claim, where the facts fit.
- Regularise your position before enforcement. If the Home Office has already issued a notice of liability to removal, time is short and the choices narrow.
Do not ignore the Home Office
If you receive a letter saying you are liable to removal, or a notice of an immigration decision, note the date and contact us at once. Appeal rights, where they exist, run for a few days only. See immigration appeals.
