Extend your current UK visa before it expires, so your lawful residence remains continuous.
Your visa has an expiry date on it, and you have probably been thinking about that date for a while. Here is the single most important thing on this page: apply before it passes. Apply one day late and you are an overstayer. That is not a technicality. It can break the continuous residence you have been quietly building towards settlement, it counts against future applications, and in some situations it leads to a re-entry ban. Applying in time protects all of it. The second most important thing is this. You do not need every document in your hand before you start. People wait, gathering paperwork, telling themselves they will do it once the file is complete, and the date arrives. Start with what you have. A missing document can be chased. A missed deadline cannot.
This is a general guide only; we confirm your exact position at the free consultation.
A free consultation to confirm your timing and the requirements
A checklist tailored to your route
Preparation of the extension application, with a review before submission
Your approval before we submit
Support with submission, plus ongoing updates
You apply from inside the UK, before your current permission runs out, usually under the same route you are already on. You have to meet that route's requirements again — meeting them once does not carry over automatically, and this is where people are caught out.
If your application is valid and made in time, your existing conditions continue while it is being decided. This comes from section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, and it is the reason you can normally carry on working or studying during the wait, even though the date on your card has passed. Your employer can confirm your right to work through the Home Office employer checking service rather than relying on the expired card.
That protection has limits worth understanding. It only exists if the application was valid and in time. It ends if you withdraw the application. And it is lost entirely if the application is rejected as invalid, which is why something as mundane as the wrong fee, an unpaid surcharge or a missed biometrics appointment matters far more than it looks like it should.
Leaving the UK while an in-country application is pending will normally withdraw it and end that protection. If you have travel booked, tell us before you apply, not afterwards.
Extensions look routine, which is precisely why they catch people. These are the problems we see most often.
If your visa has already expired, do not wait to see what happens. There are limited provisions for an application made shortly afterwards where there is a good reason, but they are narrow and the position gets harder with time. Speak to us as soon as you can.
You may already have been quoted for this, and if so the number probably worried you. Published market rates for immigration applications commonly run from £1,500 to £3,500, and most firms bill by the hour, which means what you are told at the start is an estimate rather than a price. Many charge for the initial consultation on top of that.
Our fee is £500. Fixed. The same whether your extension is straightforward or turns out to have something complicated buried in it, and the same if the Home Office asks for more information halfway through. Our consultation is free, and if the honest answer is that you can do this yourself, we will tell you.
The Home Office charges are separate from ours: an application fee, and the health surcharge covering the extra period you are applying for. Priority and super-priority services are usually available for in-country applications at additional cost, which can be worth paying if you have travel planned or a start date waiting. All of these are government figures and they change, so we give you the current numbers for your route instead of printing something here that ages badly. Our cost calculator lets you build the total yourself, and every element of our own pricing is set out on the fees page.
Extending is not always the right move. Sometimes switching route serves you better, and sometimes you are closer to settlement than you realised and should be preparing for that instead of paying for another extension first.
Switching inside the UK is permitted between many routes, though not all of them, and some switches restart a clock you would rather not restart. Time spent on one route does not always count towards settlement on another. Before you extend by default, it is worth half an hour working out where each option actually leads.
What we look at is straightforward. Which route you are on now. When it expires. What has changed since you were last granted permission. How much time you have spent outside the UK. And where you want to be in three years. Then we tell you whether extending, switching or applying for settlement fits best — including in the cases where the answer means less work for us.
As early as the rules for your route allow, and always before your current permission expires. Do not leave it to the final week. If an application is rejected as invalid there needs to be time left to correct it, and in the last few days there is not.
Yes, provided you made a valid application before your leave expired. Your existing conditions continue under section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 until the application is decided. That remains true even though the date on your card has passed.
Generally yes, on the same conditions as your current permission, as long as your application was made in time. Your employer can confirm this through the Home Office employer checking service rather than relying on your expired card.
Leaving the UK will normally withdraw a pending in-country application and end your section 3C protection. If you have travel planned, tell us before you apply so the timing can be looked at properly.
Speak to an adviser immediately rather than reading around it. There are limited provisions where an application is made shortly after expiry for a good reason, but they are narrow and the position gets worse the longer it is left. This is genuinely time-critical in a way most immigration questions are not.
It should not, as long as your status stays continuous and you remain on a route that counts towards settlement. Breaks in status and moves onto routes that do not count are what cause the damage, and both are avoidable when they are spotted early.
Often yes. In-country switching is permitted between many routes, though not all, and some switches restart the qualifying clock for settlement. We look at whether extending or switching serves your longer-term plan better before you commit to either.
It varies by route, and by whether you use a priority service. The Home Office publishes current processing times and those move. We tell you what applies to your application, and whether paying for priority is worth it in your circumstances.
Book your free 30-minute consultation for a straightforward, honest assessment of your matter.