How to Contact the Home Office

UK Visas and Immigration publishes one contact number with different options, a set of online forms, and a complaints procedure with fixed timescales. It also publishes a clear list of what its staff will not answer. This guide sets out all of it.

Checked 18 February 202610 min readWritten by the Rowan Editorial Team

Section: Costs, English & General
Reading time: 10 min
Last checked: 18 February 2026
Source: The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
Rowan does not: Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.

In short

One number: 0300 790 6268. Option 2 from inside the UK, and for citizenship and nationality questions from anywhere. Option 1 from outside the UK for visa enquiries.
From outside the UK, GOV.UK says calls cost 69 pence per minute on top of network charges, and an email query costs £2.74.
There is no application tracker, and staff cannot tell you when a decision will come or whether it will succeed.
Check the published processing times before contacting UKVI. It will contact you if a decision takes longer than usual.
Complaints have three stages, each with published timescales, and must be about something that happened in the last 3 months.

There is one UKVI contact number, 0300 790 6268, and which option you press depends on where you are calling from and what you are asking about. Calls and email enquiries from outside the UK are charged. There is no application tracker, and GOV.UK says contact centre staff cannot tell you when you will get a decision or whether an application will succeed. This guide covers the numbers, the hours, the charges, the online forms, the complaints stages, and MP enquiries.

Start With the GOV.UK Contact Tool

UKVI does not publish a single list of numbers. It publishes a guided tool, Contact UK Visas and Immigration for help, which asks where you are contacting from and what you need, then gives you a phone number, an online form, or a page that answers the question without contact at all. The details below are what that tool gives, but the tool is the source: routes change, and it is worth stepping through it for your own situation.

What Contact Centre Staff Will Not Answer

This is worth reading before you spend money on a call. GOV.UK says contact centre staff cannot give you advice about your personal circumstances. Its own examples are that they cannot tell you:

which visas you can apply for, or what to apply for
when you will get a decision
whether your application will be successful

GOV.UK adds that they cannot check your application before you submit it, and points people who need that kind of help towards a registered immigration adviser or Citizens Advice.

Phone: Inside the UK

Number: 0300 790 6268 — select option 2
Hours: Monday to Thursday, 9am to 4:45pm; Friday, 9am to 4:30pm. Closed on UK bank holidays
Cost: GOV.UK links to its standard call charges page rather than quoting a rate for this line

The same number and option covers general immigration enquiries, questions about extending or switching, and questions about how long a decision is taking — though on that last one GOV.UK repeats that staff cannot tell you when the decision will come.

Phone: Outside the UK

Number: +44 (0)300 790 6268 — select option 1 for visa enquiries
If you cannot dial UK 0300 numbers: +44 (0)203 875 4669
Hours (English): Monday to Friday, 24 hours. Closed on UK bank holidays
Cost: GOV.UK says calls cost 69 pence per minute on top of your standard network charges

GOV.UK publishes separate hours for other languages, all excluding UK bank holidays and all in UK local time: Arabic, Sunday to Thursday 5am to 1pm; Cantonese, Monday to Friday 1am to 9am; French, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm; Hindi, Monday to Friday 4am to midday; Mandarin, Monday to Friday 1am to 9am; Russian, Monday to Friday 6am to 2pm; Spanish, Monday to Friday 1pm to 1am.

Citizenship and Nationality Questions

These go to the same number on option 2, whether you are inside or outside the UK:

Number: 0300 790 6268, or +44 (0)300 790 6268 from abroad — select option 2
Hours: Monday to Thursday, 9am to 4:45pm; Friday, 9am to 4:30pm. Closed on UK bank holidays

GOV.UK says a citizenship decision usually comes within 6 months, that you will be told before 6 months have passed if yours will take longer, and that UKVI cannot track the progress of your application before the 6 months has passed. There is an online form for use once both of these are true: the decision has taken longer than 6 months, and you have not been contacted about the application.

Two things GOV.UK routes elsewhere: the Life in the UK test is booked and cancelled online, and the citizenship ceremony is organised by your local council, not by UKVI.

Online Forms and Email

There is no general email address for UKVI. The contact tool ends in an online form for some enquiries, and the reply comes by email.

For enquiries from outside the UK, GOV.UK states the charge on the form itself:

A query costs £2.74. You are not charged for follow-up emails about the same enquiry
You get a reply within 5 days, except on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and UK public holidays
If nothing arrives within 5 working days, GOV.UK asks you to check your spam or junk folder before contacting UKVI again

GOV.UK also lists things you do not usually need to contact UKVI about at all: replacing a biometric residence permit with an eVisa, replacing a visa sticker in a passport, or telling UKVI that your name, address or travel document has changed — those have their own online services. See our guide to viewing and proving your immigration status.

There Is No Application Tracker

Nothing on GOV.UK lets you watch a Home Office decision move through the system. What it publishes instead is:

Processing times for applications inside the UK and waiting times for applications outside the UK
A promise that UKVI will email or write to you when a decision is made, and separately if the application will take longer than usual

Before contacting UKVI about a delay, GOV.UK asks you to check two things: that it has taken longer than the published time, and that UKVI has not already contacted you — including in your junk or spam folder.

If you applied through a visa application centre overseas, the commercial partner that took your biometrics may offer its own status page. That shows where your documents are, not where the decision is.

Contacting Your MP

A Member of Parliament can write to the Home Office on behalf of a constituent. The Home Office caseworker guidance on MP enquiries sets a 20 working day service level for replying to the MP.

What a letter needs to be useful:

Find your MP on the UK Parliament find your MP service. An MP acts for the people in their own constituency, so it has to be yours
Give your full name, date of birth, nationality, the application reference number, the date you applied, and the published processing time for that application type
Say what has already happened: dates of any contact with UKVI and what you were told
Your MP's office writes to the Home Office and passes the reply back to you

See our MP help guide for what to put in the letter.

Making a Formal Complaint

The UKVI complaints procedure is for complaints about service or professional conduct, where the incident happened within the last 3 months. GOV.UK says it will not respond to progress enquiries sent through the complaints form, so a delay on its own is not what this route is for.

Complaint. Made online, or by post to Complaints Allocation, Customer Correspondence Hub, 4th Floor, 2 Ruskin Square, Dingwall Road, Croydon, CR0 2WF. GOV.UK says: “We will investigate your complaint and reply to you within 20 working days.”
Review. If you are not satisfied, you can ask for an independent review. A response should be provided within 20 working days of receipt.
Independent Examiner of Complaints. This must be raised within 3 months of receiving the review response.

Complaints alleging serious professional misconduct are handled differently: GOV.UK says it aims to respond within 12 weeks. After the stages above, GOV.UK says you may be able to raise the matter with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which is normally reached through an MP.

Next Steps

Step through the GOV.UK contact tool for your own situation first: it often ends at a page that answers the question, which costs nothing. If you are calling from outside the UK, note the per-minute charge and have the reference number, passport number and date of birth in front of you before you dial.

Related guides:

Questions and answers

What is the UKVI phone number?

There is one number, 0300 790 6268, with different options. From inside the UK you select option 2; the line is open Monday to Thursday 9am to 4:45pm and Friday 9am to 4:30pm, excluding bank holidays. From outside the UK you dial +44 (0)300 790 6268 and select option 1; the English-language line is open Monday to Friday, 24 hours, and is closed on UK bank holidays. Questions about British citizenship or nationality go to option 2 whether you are inside or outside the UK. If you cannot dial UK 0300 numbers, GOV.UK gives +44 (0)203 875 4669.

Does it cost anything to contact UKVI?

From inside the UK, standard call charges apply. From outside the UK, GOV.UK says calls cost 69 pence per minute on top of your standard network charges, and an email query through the online form costs £2.74, with no charge for follow-up emails about the same enquiry.

Can I email the Home Office about my visa?

There is no general email address. GOV.UK routes you through the contact tool on its 'Contact UK Visas and Immigration for help' page, which ends in either a phone number or an online form depending on what you are asking about. Replies to the online form come by email.

Can I track my application?

No. There is no online tracker for a Home Office decision, and GOV.UK says contact centre staff cannot tell you when you will get your decision. It also says UKVI will email or write to you when a decision is made, and separately if the application will take longer than usual. Before contacting UKVI, GOV.UK asks you to check the published processing times and to check your spam folder.

What can contact centre staff not do?

GOV.UK is explicit: contact centre staff cannot give you advice about your personal circumstances. They cannot tell you which visas you can apply for, when you will get a decision, or whether your application will be successful, and they cannot check an application before you submit it.

Can my MP help with my visa application?

A Member of Parliament can write to the Home Office on a constituent's behalf, and the Home Office caseworker guidance on MP enquiries sets a 20 working day service level for replying to the MP. An MP referral is also the usual route to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman once the UKVI complaints stages are exhausted.

This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.

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