Last updated: 30 March 2026

Removal from the UK

You may be at risk of removal from the UK if you do not have – or have not applied for – leave to remain (immigration status). You are also at risk of removal if your asylum or immigration application has been refused. You are at risk of removal if you had limited leave to remain in the UK and it has now expired.

For information on deportation following a criminal sentence, see the section below.

If the Home Office decides to remove you from the UK, you may get more than one notice. These can include a notice of liability to remove, a notice of intention to remove, and a notice of departure details. The notice period is usually at least 5 working days. This is the time when you should not be removed. In some cases, especially some port cases, the rules can be different.

The notice may also include ‘notice of departure details’ (such as the details of the flight that the Home Office intends to remove you on), but this is not always the case. 

The Home Office guidance on notice periods for enforced removal includes more information here. 

When you cannot be removed from the UK

You should not be removed from the UK if you have an ongoing asylum claim (this means you are waiting for a decision from the Home Office). However, if the Home Office has decided your asylum claim is “inadmissible” because you travelled through another country, you may be at risk of removal.

You should not be removed from the UK if you are appealing a refusal of your immigration application or asylum claim. This only applies if you have a right to appeal within the UK. If your case has been categorised as a “non-suspensive appeal” case you can be at risk of removal even if you have an appeal pending. Read more about appeals on the Appeal page of the Toolkit.

You should not be removed if you have made valid further submissions and the Home Office has not yet decided whether they amount to a fresh claim. But there are now rules about when further submissions are valid. Usually, the person must be in the UK, must already have had their asylum claim refused or withdrawn, must have no asylum, protection or human rights appeal still ongoing, and must follow the Home Office process for making further submissions, including attending an in-person appointment at a Service and Support Centre. If the Home Office says the further submissions are not valid, it may refuse to consider them. The Home Office can also treat further submissions as withdrawn if the person stops contact with the Home Office, leaves the UK, misses important appointments without a good reason, or does not reply to requests for information. Read more about fresh claims on the Fresh Claim page of the Toolkit.

You should not be removed from the UK if you have an injunction preventing removal. Read more about injunctions here.

There are situations when judicial review proceedings (even without an injunction) may stop a removal taking place. Read more here.

You should not be removed from the UK if it would compromise your human rights, or breach the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention, or the European Convention on Human Rights.

Challenging a removal

If you have been notified that you are to be removed from the UK, check the ‘Who cannot be removed from the UK’ section above to see if the Home Office is allowed to do this in your situation. If you are in one of the situations mentioned above, you or your lawyer need to provide evidence of this to the Home Office and request that the attempt to remove you is stopped.

If there are asylum or human rights grounds that mean you need to stay in the UK at the time of a decision to remove you, and you have not already informed the Home Office of these or made an application, you need to do so as soon as possible. Read the Asylum, Human Rights and If You Have Children pages of this guide to see if these may be relevant to you, and how to apply.

There may be other reasons you can challenge your removal, such as if other legal proceedings are ongoing in other areas of law, or if the proper procedure for removal has not been followed.

If there are legal reasons – such as those described in this section – that mean you should not be removed from the UK, and the Home Office has ignored or refused a request to cancel your removal, you may need to consider an injunction to try and stop the removal from happening. Read more about injunctions here.

Deportation after a criminal sentence

If the Home Office has made a deportation order in your case, you should be given notice of your deportation arrangements. This should follow the notice period rules explained in the Removal from the UK section above.

The deportation rules are now very strict. A person who is not British and not Irish can be liable to deportation if:

• they have been given a prison sentence of at least 12 months
• from 22 March 2026, they have been given a suspended sentence of at least 12 months. A suspended sentence means the person does not go to prison immediately, but must stay out of trouble and follow rules set by the court. If the suspended sentence was given before 22 March 2026, this change does not apply
• the Home Office says deportation is “conducive to the public good”, which means  removing the person is better for society or public safety.

In some cases, a spouse, civil partner or child under 18 who is not British and not Irish can also be liable to deportation because of a deportation order made against a family member. But the Home Office must still consider whether deportation would breach human rights or refugee law.

The rules also say that the public interest requires deportation where a person has been convicted of an offence that caused serious harm, or is a persistent offender. Here, public interest means the law starts from the position that deportation should usually happen because the Home Office says it is better for society or public safety. A persistent offender means a repeat offender who has shown a pattern of offending over time.

It is important to know that the rules are stricter if the person has been sentenced to 4 years or more. If this is the case , the person  must show very compelling circumstances, meaning very strong reasons, why deportation would be wrong in their case. If the sentence is less than 4 years, deportation may still be stopped if one of the legal exceptions applies, or if there are very compelling circumstances.

There are two main exceptions. A person does not need to meet both. They may be able to rely on the private life exception or the family life exception.

The private life exception may apply if:

• the person has lived in the UK lawfully for most of their life
• they are socially and culturally integrated in the UK, which means the UK is where their life is rooted
• there would be very significant obstacles to living in the country they would be deported to, which means very serious difficulties in starting life there.

The family life exception may apply if the person has a real and ongoing relationship with a child or partner who meets the rules. In legal language, this is sometimes called a “qualifying child” or “qualifying partner”. Deportation must also be “unduly harsh”, which means the effect would be extremely hard, not just upsetting or difficult.

For a child, this may apply if:

• the person has a real and ongoing parental relationship with the child
• the child is a British citizen or has lived in the UK continuously for at least 7 years before the deportation decision
• the child is living in the UK when the deportation decision is made
• it would be unduly harsh for the child to move to the country where the parent would be deported
• it would be unduly harsh for the child to stay in the UK without that parent.

For a partner, this may apply if:

• the relationship is real and ongoing
• the partner is British or settled in the UK
• the partner lives in the UK
• the relationship did not begin when the person was in the UK without permission or when their immigration status was precarious, which usually means they only had temporary permission to stay
• it would be unduly harsh for the partner to move to the country where the person would be deported
• it would be unduly harsh for the partner to stay in the UK without them.

If deportation would go against the UK’s duties under the Refugee Convention or the Human Rights Convention, a deportation order should not be made. Even if the Home Office says the rules are not met, a judge may still decide that deportation would be a disproportionate breach of the person’s Article 8 right to private and family life.

EU/EEA nationals

Some people from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, and some of their family members, can still be at risk of deportation after a criminal conviction. The rules can be different depending on when the offence happened. The rules can also be different depending on whether the person has rights protected by the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) or the Withdrawal Agreement. The Withdrawal Agreement is the Brexit agreement that protects some rights of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members who were already living in the UK before 31 December 2020

If the offence happened before 11pm on 31 December 2020, the Home Office may need to use the older EU law test. This means it must look at whether deportation is justified on grounds of public policy, public security or public health. This was usually a higher threshold, which means a harder test for the Home Office to meet, than the normal UK deportation rules.

If the offence happened after 11pm on 31 December 2020, the Home Office will usually use the normal UK deportation rules instead.

A person may still have extra protection or appeal rights if:

• they have settled status
• they have pre-settled status
• they have another right protected by the EUSS or the Withdrawal Agreement
• they have a valid EUSS application or an appeal that has not finished yet.

The Home Office says a person should usually not be removed while an EUSS appeal is still ongoing. Removal should usually only happen once appeal rights are exhausted, which means the appeal has finished or the deadline to appeal has passed. Sometimes the Home Office may say the case is certified. This means it has used a legal power that can change the normal appeal process.

Read more about Pre-Settled and Settled Status on our EEA nationals page.

Challenging a deportation

There is no longer a right to appeal the decision to deport you.

If at the time of a decision to deport you, there are asylum or human rights grounds that mean you need to stay in the UK and you have not already informed the Home Office of these or made an application, you need to do so as soon as possible.

Read the Asylum, Human Rights and If You Have Children pages of this guide to see if these may be relevant to you, and how to apply.

Around the time of the decision to deport you, you will be issued with a Section 120 “one-stop notice”. On this form, you must state any reasons for why you have not already told the Home Office why you need to stay in the UK. You need to make sure you send the form back by the date specified on the one-stop notice. If you miss the deadline, make sure to mention your reasons for why you are sending it late. It is very important for your case to try and send it back in time. Read our Toolkit page on Section 120 notices, and how to respond to one here. 

If you do not mention asylum and human rights reasons you need to stay in the UK on the one-stop notice (see above), and then make an asylum or human rights application, the Home Office may certify your application, meaning you will not have a right to appeal a refusal.

If this happens to you, you may have the option of a judicial review. Read more about judicial reviews on the Judicial Review page of the Toolkit.

If your claim based on a need for protection (asylum) or human rights is refused, you might have the right to appeal that refusal. Read more about appeals on the Appeals page of this guide.

Exceptional legal aid funding 

Unless your claim is based on asylum or Article 3 (freedom from torture or degrading treatment) human rights grounds, your deportation case will not be eligible for Legal Aid funding. 

However, you may be able to apply for exceptional legal aid funding if you believe your human rights would be breached if you do not get access to legal aid. 

The organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees has a guide to applying for exceptional case funding in deportation cases, which you can access here.

The Public Law Project also has a guide about exceptional case funding, which you can access here.

Now read: Judicial Review page