The UPE scheme: 18 months, a 90-day window and one decisive day

The Ukraine Permission Extension scheme turns on one date above all others: the day your current permission runs out. Apply the day before and you keep the right to work, to rent and to claim benefits. Apply the day after and you lose all three until a decision is made, even if that decision eventually goes your way.

What does the scheme give you?

Eighteen months of further permission to live in the UK, for Ukrainian nationals and their family members who already hold permission under one of the Ukraine schemes.

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When that first period of UPE permission comes to an end, you may be eligible for a second extension of a further 24 months. Applying is free either time.

Who can apply?

Only someone already granted permission under one of the other Ukraine schemes: the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine), the Ukraine Family Scheme or the Ukraine Extension Scheme.

You may also be eligible if you previously held permission under one of those schemes and now hold a different valid visa, or if you were granted leave outside the Immigration Rules in certain specified circumstances.

Two conditions are absolute: you must be in the UK when you apply, and you must have been living in the UK or the Islands — Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man — since you were granted permission or arrived under the Ukraine schemes. A non-Ukrainian national applying as a partner will generally need to remain in an eligible relationship with a Ukrainian national.

When should you apply?

The window is the 90 days before your current permission expires, and the rule is the same for a first and a second UPE application.

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Applying too early can mean the application is rejected, but that does not stop you submitting another one inside the 90-day window — it is free.

The point that removes the usual worry: applying at any moment inside the window does not shorten what you get. Any remaining valid permission is added to the new grant.

What happens if you are late?

The application has to go in before your current permission expires. Apply after that, and even if UPE is granted later, you lose your entitlements to work, to rent and to receive benefits for the period until a decision is made.

More than that: any public funds paid to you during that period — certain benefits, for instance — may have to be repaid.

Where the application was submitted on time and the decision simply comes after the old permission has run out, none of this applies. Which is why the exact end date of your current permission is worth knowing in advance; it is visible in your UKVI account.

What do you need to prepare?

Before applying: create a UKVI account and have access to your eVisa; update the account with the identity documents you will use, such as your passport, and do this before you make the application rather than during it; and keep your passport and any expired biometric residence permit card to hand, as it may be required.

In the application itself you will need to prove your identity, confirm you are in the UK at the time of applying, confirm that you have held permission under a Ukraine scheme, give information about your accommodation in the UK, and give information about any time spent living outside the UK or Ukraine since you were granted permission.

What about children born in the UK?

A child born in the UK after 18 March 2022 to a Ukrainian national parent holding permission under the Ukraine schemes can also be included under UPE.

You can apply as soon as the child is born, provided you have the documents required for an under-18 application. UPE permission lets the child travel in and out of the UK.

And one point easily lost in the first weeks after a birth: without valid immigration status, NHS treatment charges may apply to the child three months after they are born.