What will happen if I forget to register with the Police or miss the deadlines?

06 Apr 2022, 11 mins ago

Registration with the police is a condition of many types of visa for certain foreign nationals over the age of 16 years old who come to the UK for more than 6 months.

The requirement to register should be clearly stated in your letter of approval and/or on your visa vignette or biometric residence permit.

Usually, those required to register must do so within seven days of entering the UK, and any changes that require registering (such as an extension of leave, switch of immigration status, marital status, address or passport change) must also be registered within seven days of the change.

To register, you will need to go to your local police station, or if you live in an area of London covered by the Metropolitan Police, you need to register at the Overseas Visitor’s Records Office (“OVRO”).

Covid-19

To register at OVRO you need to book an appointment. However, the OVRO is currently encountering serious delays due to “a high volume of customers requiring police registration and strict social distancing measures in place”. At the moment the next available appointments are in 2023.

The OVRO has confirmed that “No penalty action will be taken as a result of earlier appointments not being available.” as long as you have booked an appointment via the OVRO online booking portal, which was launched in April 2021.

In addition, the OVRO has further confirmed that “If you have further changes, whilst waiting to attend your appointment, we advise you that you wait to report these at your appointment. This is a temporary measure while we clear a backlog of appointments. Please do not create multiple accounts or submit multiple forms as this could further delay your registration.”

Consequences of not registering

If you are required to register with the police and you do not do so, or you do not update your Police Registration Certificate, you will be in breach of your visa conditions and your visa could be curtailed or you could be refused future visas. If you are unsure whether or not you need to register with the police, please refer to our published blog

If you have been unable to register because of a lack of available appointments, you should keep evidence that you have an appointment booked in the future.

If you have failed to make attempts to register in the past or during your most recent grant of leave, you may want to take advice on the potential impact on your visa.

How Gherson can assist

Gherson has extensive experience in all aspects of UK immigration law. If you have any queries relating to the blogs published, or are interested in talking to us about your specific circumstances, please do not hesitate to contact us for advice, send us an e-mail, or alternatively, follow us on TwitterFacebook, or LinkedIn to stay-up-to-date.

The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please do not hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.

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