Discretionary leave: caseworker guidance
Immigration staff guidance on discretionary leave.
Documents
Details
UK Visas and Immigration staff guidance on the circumstances in which it may be appropriate to grant discretionary leave.
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Updates to this page
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Clarified the pause on certain cases.
Update history
2026-07-23 10:59
Updated the discretionary leave guidance, a full list of changes can be found in the guide.
2025-03-25 17:25
Clarified the pause on certain cases.
2024-05-30 09:00
Updated sections on modern slavery cases, further leave, and curtailing discretionary leave (DL). A full list of changes can be found in the guidance.
2024-03-08 15:06
Updated page as we are pausing ‘Temporary Permission to Stay considerations for Victims of Human Trafficking or Slavery’ decisions for cases which, in light of VLT (Vietnam) vs SSHD [JR-2023-LON-001944], would require a KTT Discretionary Leave consideration.
2023-03-22 16:24
Removed out of date policy equality statement on discretionary leave.
2023-03-16 00:15
Guidance updated to implement caselaw and general update.