SECTION 3C LEAVE AND HOW TO PROVE IT
What is section 3C leave?
If you make an in-time application to extend your limited leave to remain, your leave (and the conditions attached to it, such as your right to work or right to claim public funds) is extended automatically under section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, until the application and any appeal is decided. However, the Home Office does not routinely provide people with proof of that. That has caused people on section 3C leave real difficulties if they are asked by employers or landlords for example, for proof of their status or their right to work or rent, and they are unable to do so.
The RAMFEL & Adjei case establishes that people on section 3C leave have a right to digital proof of their status, so that they can demonstrate that they have this status and these rights to others, including their employers, landlords, the DWP, the DVLA and so on. The judgment by Mr Justice Cavanagh on 7 June 2024 gave the reasons for that. You can read that judgment here. On 27 June 2024 the court made an order declaring that the SSHD’s failure to do this was unlawful. That means that they now have to put that right. The Order and reasons given by the court are here. The SSHD asked for effect of the judgment to be paused while they tried to pursue an appeal but the Judge refused this.
What does this mean for you?
If you are a person on section 3C leave, you should now be able to obtain a digital way of proving that status from the Home Office.  You can do this when applying to extend or vary your existing leave or applying for indefinite leave to remain. We hope that this will mean you can show employers, universities, landlords and others who may need to check your immigration status what your status is and what rights you have attached to it.
How can I obtain this proof?
We have no information yet about how the Home Office intends to implement this judgment. We suggest that individuals make requests for digital proof of their 3C leave status (such as an eVisa) to the Home Office by either: 

1. Requesting it in a letter that is submitted to the Home Office with your fee waiver or the main immigration application to extend your leave to remain/apply for indefinite leave to remain.  Or
2. If you have already made your application, by writing to the team in the Home Office which is processing your application. We have prepared a template letter, which can be accessed here.

If you do not receive a response within that timeframe and you are unable to prove your section 3C leave status, you can contact RAMFEL or the lawyers at Bhatt Murphy solicitors who represented RAMFEL and Ms Adjei to see if they can help:

RAMFEL – [email protected]
Janet Farrell – [email protected]
Fiona O’Brien – [email protected]

Please note, we will be updating this page as we obtain more information so please do check back for developments.

Have a listen to the 'Migrant Moods' podcast on Spotify, to hear young migrants reflecting on this win!

Keir Starmer is the new Prime Minister and we will have a Labour government for the first time in 14 years. Like many, we were underwhelmed with Labour’s manifesto pledges on immigration and asylum, but we hope they prove us wrong.
One thing is certain, they are inheriting an almighty mess, with chronic processing delays, never-ending backlogs, rampant maladministration, poor decision-making, staff shortages and unnecessary bureaucracy. This of course affects the people stuck in the system the most, with lives put on hold, livelihoods threatened and the ability to truly establish yourself in the UK, if you manage to make it here, massively undermined.
Even if the new government has the best of intentions, it will be a huge amount of work to even begin fixing this mess. Here though are six quick fixes they can take in their first 100 days in office.
1. Introduce a fee waiver for the bereaved partner concession
The last government charged grieving widows of British citizens nearly £3,000.00 to stay in the UK. Nothing better evidenced how obscene UK visa application fees have become than pricing grieving widows, primarily women, out of immigration status.
After RAMFEL’s client and the Public Interest Law Centre took the government to court to challenge this, they eventually conceded and agreed to introduce a fee waiver for this concession. However, this was not done before parliament dissolved for the election, despite 11 MPs writing to former Home Secretary James Cleverly urging him to push this through.
This fee waiver needs introducing now. 
2. Start processing asylum claims again
The Illegal Migration Act effectively introduced a refugee ban, with the government no longer processing asylum claims. The people affected are now in permanent immigration limbo, never to be removed but also never given visas and allowed to work. The Refugee Council estimate that at the end of the year, 115,000 people will be in this position.
Labour committed to abandoning the inhumane Rwanda scheme, and they must start immediately processing the paused asylum claims fairly and efficiently. Otherwise, yet another backlog will develop, government expenditure on housing people who aren’t allowed to work will balloon and most importantly these people will be unable to start rebuilding their lives.
3. Give people on 3C leave proof of their status
In case you missed it, RAMFEL recently won a landmark case potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people. This concerned the government’s failure to provide proof of immigration status to people on “3C leave”, leaving them at the mercy of Theresa May’s “hostile environment”.
This is really simple: the new government should immediately comply with the High Court’s judgment and issue people on 3C leave digital proof of their status.
4. Commit to simplifying and expanding the family reunion process
​The family reunion system as it stands does not offer a meaningful or effective safe route for the majority of refugees with strong UK family ties. Our report, Safe Routes to Nowhere, sets out five clear steps to start fixing these problems and greatly reduce the need for those seeking safety and family reunification to undertake dangerous journeys to these shores.
The new government should immediately commit to making the family reunion scheme more accessible and expansive and then start the process of overhauling and improving the existing framework.
5. Commission a review of the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) policy
The NRPF policy pushes families into destitution. It is cruel and punitive and massively reduces families’ future prospects, either by forcing parents to make extreme sacrifices or work hours greatly exceeding the standard 35 per week. This harms the children involved just as much as the parents.
The courts have found the policy unlawful 5 times in the last 5 years. Rather than continued tweaking each time it is found unlawful, the government should review the policy’s impact on those on family and private life visas and the broader impact on local authorities and British society.
6.Grant refugees the right to work whilst their claims are processed
81% of the public support granting asylum seekers the right to work, yet the previous government refused to allow this. Not only is it popular with voters, but it makes fiscal sense when the UK has staff shortages in many sectors and is spending millions a day housing asylum seekers who have no way of supporting themselves.