Biometrics for a settlement application

How It Works

After you submit the online application on GOV.UK, you book an appointment with UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS), which has service points across the UK. It is a required step for settlement, which GOV.UK calls indefinite leave to remain, applied for from inside the UK. GOV.UK is explicit that there is no fee for giving your fingerprints and photo.

For general information on biometrics, see our biometrics guide and biometrics fee guide.

Booking Your Appointment

Two different things are often run together here. One is the appointment; the other is how fast the Home Office decides.

• The appointment. GOV.UK says what you pay at UKVCAS depends on the type of service point and whether you need extra services: an out-of-hours or weekend appointment, or a next-day or same-day slot if your application is urgent. GOV.UK publishes no prices for these, so Rowan quotes none. A faster appointment is not a faster decision.
• The decision. That is bought from the Home Office separately. The priority service costs £500 and gives a decision within 5 working days for most visa and settlement applications. Super priority costs £1,000 and gives one by the end of the next working day, or 2 working days if your identity was verified at a weekend or on a bank holiday. Each family member applying with you pays the same again. Super priority is not available for citizenship applications.

See our visa fees guide.

What to Bring

GOV.UK names three things:

• A printed copy of your appointment confirmation, with its QR code. GOV.UK asks for it printed, not on a phone.
• Your passport or travel document.
• Any supporting documents you have not already uploaded online.

The requirements the application itself rests on — the Life in the UK test and, on most routes, the English language requirement — have to be met before you apply, not at this appointment.

At the Appointment

1. You check in with your printed confirmation.
2. Your identity is checked against your passport.
3. Your fingerprints and photograph are taken.
4. Documents are scanned, or verified if you uploaded them beforehand.

GOV.UK says plainly that you will not get a decision on your application at the appointment. If an application is refused, see our guide to a refusal.

After the Appointment

GOV.UK says you will usually get a decision within 6 months of providing your fingerprints and photo — not 8 weeks, a figure that belongs to some in-country visa extensions. Until the decision arrives you must not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. See our processing time guide.

You will not be sent a card. Biometric residence permits are gone: GOV.UK says all of them have now expired and been replaced by eVisas, which are digital records of your status held in a UKVI account. You prove your status with a share code, which lasts 90 days and can be used as many times as you need within it. An expired biometric residence permit can still be used to sign in to that account for 24 months after the expiry date printed on it, or until 31 December 2026, whichever comes first.

Can I Keep My Passport?

Documents are scanned at the service point rather than kept, so in the usual case your passport goes home with you. GOV.UK does not publish a blanket rule on this, and practice can differ by service point, so the appointment confirmation from UKVCAS is what to read.

Settlement is also the step before naturalisation for most people. See our guide to applying for British citizenship.

Questions and answers