For many people still in the asylum system, the news this week has felt confusing and unsettling. The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has made several speeches and announcements which follow after months of different proposals, speeches and consultations. Even for us working in this environment every day, it can be difficult to follow what is and isn’t law. 

On 2 March 2026, the Home Secretary announced that the refugee protection will be reviewed every 30 months (you can read it here too). Then on 5 March 2026, alongside another speech, the Home Office published a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 1691). A statement of changes describes what is changing in the Immigration Rules, and when those changes take effect.

At the same time, the government has also introduced a Statutory Instrument (SI) affecting asylum support (housing and money). A Statutory Instrument is a set of legal rules made by the government under powers in an existing Act of Parliament. It is a different kind of legal change from the Immigration Rules, and it often has its own start date.

The latest Statement of Changes includes many other changes (including visas and English language requirements), but in this blog we focus on the changes that affect people in the asylum system, and what they mean in practice.

Free Movement have produced an very detailed explainer aimed at legal professionals and caseworkers on the full extent of all the changes which you can read here.

Changes to protection status 

If you are granted refugee status after claiming asylum or after making a fresh claim (further submissions) on or after 2 March 2026, you will usually be given 30 months (2.5 years) permission to stay on the protection route. The same change also applies if you are granted humanitarian protection (HP) after an asylum claim (or further submissions) made on or after 2 March 2026. 

If your asylum claim or further submissions were made on or before 1 March 2026, the Rules keep the minimum 5 years grant for refugee status and humanitarian protection.

For example: 

• Someone claims asylum on 20 February 2026, but gets a decision granting refugee status (or Humanitarian Protection) on 10 June 2026 – they should be granted at least 5 years’ leave to remain because their claim date is before 2 March.
  
• Someone claims asylum on 2 March 2026 and is granted refugee status (or Humanitarian Protection) on 10 June 2026 under the new rules they should be granted 30 months’ leave. 

The rules say that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) will still be given 5 years leave to remain. This means that if you were under 18 when you claimed asylum and you were alone (without a parent or legal guardian), you should still be given 5 years, not 30 months. This also applies if you turned 18 while waiting, but you would have been classed as a UASC if the decision had been made earlier.

If you need to extend your permission to stay (“further permission to stay”), the rules say you should apply within the last 28 days before your leave is due to end. 

Settlement on the protection route (SET(P)) 

Settlement means permanent status in the UK. It is also called indefinite leave to remain (ILR). It is not automatic and you have to apply. There has been a lot of discussion about settlement recently, as the Government wants most people to wait 10 years before they can apply for settlement (instead of 5), with some exceptions. The details of this were part of the “earned settlement” consultation which ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026. These proposals are NOT yet law. 

The Immigration Rules still say you may be eligible for settlement on the protection route if you have been on a protection route for at least 5 years with refugee status, or humanitarian protection (HP).

What changes with the new 30-month grants

Under the new rules, adults who claim asylum on or after 2 March 2026 will be granted 30 months of refugee status / humanitarian protection (HP) instead of 5 years. This means many people will need to extend and renew their status at least once (to get a second grant) to reach 5 years before they can then apply for settlement. 

The latest changes to the rules adds a new rule (STP 4.2) which says that when the Home Office considers a settlement application on the protection route, it will normally do “a safe return review”. A safe return review is a check on whether your personal circumstances, or the situation in your country of origin have changed in a way that could mean your refugee status / humanitarian protection (HP) could be cancelled (revoked) or not renewed. This rule is due to take effect on 8 April 2026.

The safe return review is not new in practice. The Home Office has already been doing these reviews at settlement stage under its caseworker guidance. The change now puts the review process into the Immigration Rules, which matters because the Rules are the official public framework for decisions. In other words, everyone can see it written in the rules now and it is harder for the Home Office to treat this step as optional .

Further Submissions (fresh claims)

Further submissions are an opportunity to give new evidence on your asylum claim to the Home Office and ask for a new decision on your right to stay in the UK based on this new evidence. The Home Office has now added “validity requirements” which you must meet on the day you make further submissions. 

From 8 April 2026, you can only make further submissions if you are in the UK, your asylum claim was refused or withdrawn / treated as withdrawn and you must have no appeal pending and no other ongoing protection claim/appeal (including at the Home Office, First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal, or other High Courts). 

If these validity requirements are not met, the Home Office may reject the further submissions as invalid and not consider them at all.

The Rules also say you must normally attend an in-person appointment at a Service and Support Centre (SSC) to make further submissions.

The Government has also added new rules that make it easier for the Home Office to end your further submissions. This is called being “treated as withdrawn” (treated as stopped/ended). This can happen if a person does not keep in contact, leaves the UK before a decision is made, misses reporting events or an interview, or does not respond to requests for information. It should not happen if the person can show within a reasonable time that this was outside their control, for example because they were in hospital.

These rules will begin on 8 April 2026. 

Asylum support 

Alongside the Immigration Rules changes, the government has also changed some asylum support rules through separate regulations.

From 27 March 2026, illegal working is now specifically listed in the asylum support regulations as a reason the Home Office may suspend or stop support. Before this change, if the Home Office believed someone was working, it might argue that they no longer needed asylum support because they had money coming in, or that they were not following the support rules. It matters that this rule is now in the regulations because the Home Office has a clearer and more direct legal basis to rely on it when stopping asylum support.

From 2 June 2026, the Home Office says wider asylum support changes are planned. One important change is that support moves from a duty to a power. In simple terms, a duty means the Home Office must provide support if the legal conditions are met. A power means the Home Office can provide support, which may give it more choice about whether support continues. The Home Office’s own guidance says this is intended to make support more conditional, but we still need to see how this will work in practice.

Important: these changes do not mean support will stop for everyone. But they do mean the Home Office is giving itself clearer and broader powers to stop support in some situations. We expect more detail to emerge through updated Home Office guidance and practice.

Permission to work 

People seeking asylum are still not allowed to work as a general rule. Some people can apply for Permission to Work if they have been waiting 12 months or more for an initial decision (or for a decision on further submissions) and the delay is not their fault.

For people who are granted Permission to Work, the government is changing the type of jobs they are allowed to do from 26 March 2026. Until now, Permission to Work was limited to jobs on the Immigration Salary List. Under the new Rules, that restriction is replaced so from 26 March 2026, a person with Permission to Work can only take a job that is listed in Appendix Skilled Occupations and is assessed as RQF Level 6 or above (graduate-level roles) on the Skilled Worker Route. 

This is an important difference. It is not the case that both lists will be available. The new Rule replaces the old Immigration Salary List restriction with a different test based on graduate-level or professional roles. Examples of jobs that may fall within this level include roles such as engineers, architects, teachers and doctors. The skill level is about the job itself, not whether the person personally holds a degree.

In practice, this change may not make work easier to access, and may in some cases be more restrictive. That is because many jobs that were previously on the Immigration Salary List were below RQF Level 6, whereas the new rule is limited to jobs at RQF Level 6+. The roles now allowed are often jobs that require recognised qualifications, professional registration, strong English, and longer recruitment processes.

If you are granted Permission to Work you still cannot simply take any job, and other restrictions continue to apply – for example you cannot be self-employed or set up a business.

These changes will start from 26 March 2026.

Important: If someone applied for Permission to Work before 26 March 2026, their application should be decided under the old rules.

Family returns (another consultation) 

On 5 March 2026, the Home Secretary announced that there will be another consultation on the government’s suggested approach to family returns for families with children who have no legal right to remain in the UK. The statement says the current family returns process is meant to maximise voluntary departure and minimise enforcement, but that the government will enforce removal where a family does not leave voluntarily. 

The Home Secretary also described a pilot offering higher “incentive payments” for a small number of asylum seeking families (up to £10,000 per person, capped at £40,000 per family) as part of encouraging voluntary return.

This is a consultation, so the proposed changes and proposals and not an actual change yet. The Home Office already has an existing Family Returns Process (FRP) guidance, with stages that start with supported/assisted return and can move toward enforcement.

Actions you can take if you are in the asylum process or supporting someone in the asylum process 

1. Keep your key dates and documents safe
   When you get any Home Office decision, check the end date on the decision letter and/or eVisa, and save a copy. Keep copies, including electronic copies, of any documents that show your status, reporting conditions, and support.
   
2. Set reminders early
   If you have limited leave, set reminders well in advance (for example 3 months before your leave ends). The Rules often say applications should be made in the last 28 days before leave expires but it is important to start preparing much earlier.
   
3. Get your files from the Home Office by making a Subject Access Request: A Subject Access Request (SAR) is a request you make to get your personal information from an organisation.  Making a SAR can be a good first step to collect information and documents before a new application, appeal, or other legal step. Your SAR should confirm your immigration history (applications/decisions) – check what the Home Office records say about entries/exits, enforcement contact, or notes, understand what’s on file if you’re challenging a decision. A SAR lets you ask what information they hold about you, how they use it, and who they share it with. You can read more about how to make a SAR here.
   
4. Create a timeline. List every grant of leave (start/end dates), applications and decisions, any appeals, and all trips outside the UK. Add key basics you may need later, like addresses you’ve lived at and your work/volunteering history.
   
5. Check your dates carefully. If your records are messy, incomplete, or you don’t trust what you have, a Subject Access Request (SAR) to the Home Office can help you confirm what they hold about your immigration history and decisions.
   
6. Protect yourself if you are making further submissions
   If you are planning further submissions, keep your contact details updated, reply to Home Office requests, and keep proof of everything you send. Missing appointments or losing contact can cause serious problems under the new “validity” and “withdrawn” rules
   
7. Make a safety plan in case of detention or enforcement. Talk it through with people you trust, agree what to do if something happens, and write down key contacts and next steps. You can read more about your rights and options in our Key Guides on Immigration Detention here, and Reporting and Immigration Raids here.
   
8. Build your support network. Find a community of people who can support you (friends, neighbours, community groups, faith groups, or local organisers) and talk about your concerns. You don’t have to face this alone.
   
9. Stay informed from reliable sources. There are lots of things that we still don’t know. Be careful where you get your information. You can sign up to the Right to Remain newsletter here.

A note about the Toolkit updates
We are a small team, and several Toolkit pages will need updating to reflect these changes. We will update resources as soon as we can. In the meantime, the practical steps above remain broadly accurate.