Guidance

Discretionary leave: caseworker guidance

Immigration staff guidance on discretionary leave.

From:
UK Visas and Immigration
Published
24 June 2013
Last updated
25 March 2025 — See all updates

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Discretionary leave

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Details

UK Visas and Immigration staff guidance on the circumstances in which it may be appropriate to grant discretionary leave.

We paused ‘Temporary Permission to Stay considerations for Victims of Human Trafficking or Slavery’ decisions for cases which, in light of VLT (Vietnam) vs SSHD [JR-2023-LON-001944], would require a KTT Discretionary Leave consideration.

The Court of Appeal judgment, SSHD v S & VLT [2025] EWCA Civ 188, has now been handed down and this temporary pause remains in place while we consider our position, in light of this latest judgment, where there are deportation proceedings.

Updates to this page

Published 24 June 2013
Last updated 25 March 2025 show all updates

  1. Clarified the pause on certain cases.

  2. Updated sections on modern slavery cases, further leave, and curtailing discretionary leave (DL). A full list of changes can be found in the guidance.

  3. Updated page as we are pausing ‘Temporary Permission to Stay considerations for Victims of Human Trafficking or Slavery’ decisions for cases which, in light of VLT (Vietnam) vs SSHD [JR-2023-LON-001944], would require a KTT Discretionary Leave consideration.

  4. Removed out of date policy equality statement on discretionary leave.

  5. Guidance updated to implement caselaw and general update.

  6. Updated discretionary leave guidance.

  7. Updated guidance on granting discretionary leave.

  8. Policy equality statement added.

  9. Updated guidance.

  10. First published.

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