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Leave Outside The UK Immigration Rules - ICS Legal

At ICS Legal we acknowledge that not all applications may fall within the Immigration Rules. On this note, the Home Office may under the current immigration concessions exercise their discretion to grant leave to remain to a person even though the person does not meet the criteria of the Immigration Rules, Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave.

If the Home Office makes a decision by exercising their discretion, to grant leave outside of the Immigration Rules also known as LOTR, this will be based other than leave on family and private life, medical or protection grounds.

Further, the Home Office may grant leave to enter or remain in any other particularly compelling circumstances. The type of leave to be granted in these kinds of cases will be “leave outside the Rules” although this will probably be very rare. In all cases, you must not fall under the general grounds of refusal as set out on Part 9 of the Immigration Rules.

The intention is that, wherever possible, the majority of applications that fall outside the Immigration Rules will now be considered within the Humanitarian Protection and Discretionary Leave criteria. However, it is still likely that a small number of applications the Secretary of State or an Immigration Officer may exercise discretion and grant leave to someone who does not meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules, or the Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave criteria, as well as a general discretion to grant such leave.

Where a person does not qualify for leave under the Rules or the Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave policies, any other leave to enter or remain must only be granted under a further category of ‘Leave Outside the Rules (LOTR)’ – although such instances are likely to be rare.

As Immigration Laws and procedures are constantly changing, ICS Legal knows the importance of having an experienced legal team to help you navigate the complex systems of immigration laws quickly and effectively. Call us today on 0207 237 3388 to speak to one of our Immigration Lawyers.

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Leave Outside the Immigration Rules

It has always been possible to grant someone limited or Indefinite leave to enter/remain outside the Immigration Rules. Where it is not possible to grant leave under the Immigration Rules or to grant asylum or Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave, any other leave to enter or remain outside the Immigration Rules must be granted under a further category ‘Leave Outside the Rules’ (LOTR).

The only two circumstances where it will be necessary to consider granting LOTR will be in mainly non-asylum and non-protection cases:

where someone qualifies under one of the immigration policy concessions;
or for reasons that are particularly compelling in circumstance.

Period of leave to remain granted under LOTR

This type of leave to remain is not supposed to lead to indefinite leave to remain to stay; however, this does depend on a person’s circumstances. The initial grant of leave to enter or remain may be granted for a period of 30 months however there is no specific ruling in this category for leave to be granted for that period.

In most cases, you are likely to be granted for a short period, a one-off period of leave. For example, you hold a student visa however you cannot apply for a new CAS due to the University not granting one, therefore you need a few more months to complete your studies, and then the Home Office may grant you a short period of leave to remain in the UK to complete your studies.

Another example can be that you have entered the UK as a visitor and a family member requires your help for a temporary basis, the Home Office may consider granting leave based on this as well. In all cases, we advise that you take legal advice prior to considering lodging an application under this category.

Conditions on your LOTR status

As this category is not a residence permit with a view to settling in the UK, your conditions on the visa will not permit you to claim public funds, no work, and no study. It is very unlikely you will be permitted to undertake those activities unless you place your reasons to be allowed and this will be given due consideration by the Home Office.

Applying for indefinite leave to remain under LOTR

First of all, unless you have applied for indefinite leave to remain to be granted under the LOTR concessionary policy law, it is likely that all grants are with a view for you to leave the UK prior to the expiry of this leave to remain.

The Home Office does not expect you to submit an extension application unless your circumstances have changed or that you need more time prior to departing from the UK. Where you lodge an application for indefinite leave to remain, this will be considered however both your evidence and legal representation will need to set out the reasons why this status should be granted.

For the Home Office, to be granted indefinite leave to remain is regarded as a privilege and not an automatic right for entitlement. In most immigration categories, a person must complete a period of limited leave to remain prior to lodging an application for indefinite leave to remain. However, if your application falls in a category whereby it would be unlawful not to grant you indefinite leave to remain, then the Home Office may consider granting you.

Taking legal advice from a UK Immigration Lawyer

At ICS Legal, we value our clients and always put you first. We listen to you carefully, explaining how we will prepare your application and what merits the application will have including all risks associated with that.

By using our knowledge and experience, we prepare a good immigration application. We are passionate about providing successful outcomes on all our applications we submit including the legal advice we provide.

In doing this, we create and build strong & long-lasting relationships with our clients that are primarily built on trust.

We believe a good UK Immigration Lawyer is approachable, innovative, and open, with your best interest at the heart of what we do. To get more information speak to one of our Lawyers on 0207 237 3388 or you can email us your inquiry at info@icslegal.com. You can also complete our contact form by clicking here, and one of our Immigration Lawyers will get in touch with you.

Related FAQ's

We specialise in Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, British Nationality Law & European Law (post Brexit).

Our Lawyers provide honest, trusted legal advice and exceptional service to all our clients. In return, we would expect all our clients to treat our professionals with courtesy and respect.

ICS Legal provides our clients with initial advice, to program management and compliance services - bringing in value to what we deliver.

Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.

There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.

Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.

Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.

The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.

We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) - at the highest level which is Level 3 with JRCM licence.

IAA which is the rebrand of OISC is the UK Government Regulated Body and it is a criminal offence if someone is providing Immigration advice without being regulated by the IAA.

Please visit our regulatory bodes page to find more information of government and other agencies which we listed by. Click here.

Your Lawyer would take some background information regarding yourself. Relevant questions would be asked to ascertain whether your case can be handled by our team.

You will also be able to ask questions, understand what is required to meet the Immigration Rules, Nationality Law and EU Law where relevant.

Should we be able to provide assistance, your case worker will give you a customer care letter whereby it would outline the service agreement and the cost associated.

After each consultation we aim to provide a consultation report which would outline what was discussed, the action plan and what to do next.

We have a procedure in place for ensuring client confidentiality.

We keep the affairs of our clients and all information relating to our clients confidential, except where we are compelled to disclose information by reason of a legal or regulatory obligation.

A customer care letter from us will ensure that we outline the service we would be providing, it would also provide a break down of the costs associated so you can rest assure that there are no hidden charges and that fees do not go up unless changes are made (i.e. Home Office fees etc).

We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents.

We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.

Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors.

Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.

Yes, we do. ICS Legal other than fixed costs, offer our client's priority services in what we do including retainer services.

As a private legal firm, we want to ensure we can provide the service you want. Our fees are very competitive and that is why we do not provide a No Win No Fee service as we do not feel the need to over charge our clients with such schemes.

With us, you will know exactly what we would be charging.

The fees are to be paid through cash or bank transfer.

Home Office, third party including other costs not charged by us, will be confirmed when that is possible and are subject to changes.

Our commitment to our clients is that we will update you every time we get an update from the Home Office. The waiting period can be a very daunting time as decisions can be life changing however the Home Office do set some guidelines on waiting times, but we intend to keep you updated throughout the process.

No, and this is the same even if you use a no win no fee service, it would be impossible for anyone to guarantee a successful application. The likelihood of an application being successful can be given based on previous cases or success rates, however we do not operate such a policy of selling our services based on previous applications.

We aim to ensure that this service is not used by any of our clients, but there are times where even with the best possible applications are unsuccessful. As we take our clients cases personally, we would like to provide a helping hand. We have designed an aftercare service whereby if your case fails, then your case worker would be able to help you look at other formalities of staying in the UK should you have valid leave still remaining or help you make an out country application. Please note should you require appealing on your matter, we can only deal with the initial appeal and your application will be straight away referred to an advisor who deals with representations.

It is vital that all our clients can provide honest feedback, we would encourage this and this helps us to become better on our service delivery.

No, we do not offer any services to find work or sponsorship.

When you instruct ICS Legal, we will set out the scope of work. This will tell you the work we have agreed to complete and set out the charges.

This means, we will tell you the services that are covered by the fixed costs work which we would set out in our email to you and the Client Care Letter (CCL).

1. Our Terms of Business (TOB) can be found by clicking here.

We are transparent in the ways we work. Please note, as you are buying professional legal advice, its important you understand our terms of working and what is being offered.

ICS Legal operating model is line with how law firms operate - however please note each firm have their own process and policies.

If you are unsure of what the scope of the work is or require more tailored advice & help, please email us at info@icslegal.com. We value our client's feedback.

Leave Outside The UK Immigration Rules - ICS Legal

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