Your rights while you wait for a decision

If you applied for settlement before your permission expired, section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 keeps your status lawful while the Home Office decides. This guide sets out when it applies, what conditions carry over, when it ends, and when it can be cancelled.

Checked 13 March 202610 min readWritten by the Rowan Editorial Team

Section: Costs, English & General
Reading time: 10 min
Last checked: 13 March 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

Section 3C applies automatically where a valid application was made before the existing permission expired.
The existing conditions carry over, including restrictions on the type of work and hours. It does not allow a new job the old permission did not allow.
Home Office guidance says section 3C leave will end if the person leaves the UK.
An employer can check the right to work through the Employer Checking Service, which issues a Positive Verification Notice.
It can be cancelled, but only for breach of a condition or for deception, and cancellation is discretionary.

Section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 extends existing permission where a valid application to vary it was made before it expired and the permission runs out before a decision. The conditions of the old permission carry over unchanged, including any restrictions. It ends on a decision, on withdrawal, when appeal and administrative review time limits run out, and on leaving the UK.

How Section 3C Works for ILR

Section 3C leave is a statutory protection that kicks in automatically when you apply to extend or vary your leave to remain before your current visa expires. For ILR applications, this means your existing leave continues on the same conditions while the Home Office processes your application.

You do not apply for it. The Home Office guidance lists five conditions, all of which have to be met:

you have limited permission to enter or stay in the UK;
you apply to the Home Office to vary that permission (an application to extend, or to settle, is such an application);
the application is made before the permission expires;
the permission expires without the application having been decided; and
the application is neither decided nor withdrawn.

Two things follow, and both catch people out. Section 3C does not extend permission where the application was made after the existing permission had already expired. And an invalid application does not create section 3C leave at all: the Supreme Court confirmed this in Mirza in 2016.

There is a repair mechanism for validity. Where an application is invalid and a fee has been paid, even the wrong fee, the Home Office writes out and gives a single opportunity to correct the omission, with 10 working days to respond. If the missing item arrives in time, the application is treated as valid from the date it was first made — so section 3C leave runs from the date the earlier permission expired, even though the correction came later. If it does not arrive, there was never a valid application, and no section 3C leave.

You Cannot Make a New Application While on It

Section 3C(4) says a person may not make an application to vary their permission while that permission is extended by section 3C. Section 3C(5) allows the existing application to be amended at any time before it is decided, and that amendment has to be a valid application in its own right. Where the amended application carries a higher fee, the difference has to be paid.

The guidance gives an example: someone with an outstanding points-based extension application who then applies on the family route has amended the first application rather than made a second one. The higher family route fee has to be paid before the amended application is valid, and the original application is no longer considered.

Your Rights on Section 3C Leave

The guidance is precise about this: a person on section 3C leave "remains subject to the conditions attached to their extant leave unless the conditions of their leave are varied by the Secretary of State". Nothing is added and nothing is taken away.

Work: Someone whose permission allowed employment may continue to work as before. The guidance adds: "Any restrictions on the type of employment allowed or the number of hours they can work will still apply." So a Skilled Worker can continue working for their sponsor in the sponsored role; section 3C does not permit starting a different job that the existing permission did not allow, and a student's term-time hours cap continues to apply.
NHS access: Your NHS access continues as before.
Renting: Your right to rent continues. Landlords can verify via the Landlord Checking Service.
Banking: Your bank accounts remain accessible.

Leaving the UK Ends It

The Home Office guidance says so in terms, twice: "Section 3C leave will end if the person leaves the UK", and, on abandoned appeals, "section 3C leave will end when a person leaves the UK in any event".

The reason is in the statute. Section 3C extends permission to remain. It is not permission to enter, so it cannot be used to come back through the border, and it does not restart on return.

Advice about an individual application, including its timing, is regulated work in the UK. It can be given by a solicitor or by an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority; our guide to immigration solicitor costs sets out what that costs.

When Section 3C Leave Can Be Cancelled

Section 62 of the Immigration Act 2016 added a power to cancel section 3C leave, in force since 1 December 2016. The guidance says it may be cancelled where a person has either:

failed to comply with a condition attached to their leave; or
used deception in seeking leave to remain, whether successfully or not.

It adds that section 3C leave "cannot be cancelled for any other reason", and that the other general powers to curtail permission do not apply to it. Cancellation ends the leave immediately, and with it the conditions that came with the old permission, including any right to work.

The power is discretionary. The guidance tells caseworkers they must not cancel automatically, must not cancel simply because they are refusing the application, and must weigh how material the breach or deception was to the refusal. Where children in the UK are affected — for example where a parent's section 3C leave is what allows them to work — caseworkers are told to consider the effect on the child's welfare and whether cancellation would be proportionate. The burden of proving a breach or deception is on the Home Office, on the balance of probabilities.

If the Application Is Refused

Section 3C leave does not stop at the refusal. It continues during any period when an in-country appeal could be brought and while an appeal is pending, and during any period when administrative review could be sought and while it is pending.

Some details from the guidance that matter in practice:

Administrative review time limits are 14 days for a person not in detention and 7 days for a person in detention. If no review is sought in time, section 3C leave ends at the end of the last day it could have been.
An appeal that is out of time does not extend section 3C leave. If the Tribunal later grants permission for it to proceed, the guidance says section 3C leave resurrects from the date the notice of appeal was lodged, not the date the extension of time was granted.
Onward appeals count. Where a First-tier Tribunal decision can be appealed onwards, permission must be sought within 14 days of the written reasons, so there is normally a further 14 days of section 3C leave after that decision arrives. An appeal to the Supreme Court does not extend section 3C leave.
Making a fresh application ends it. Where an administrative review is pending and a fresh application is submitted, the review ceases to be pending the day before, and section 3C leave comes to an end.
Section 3C leave does not arise from an appeal right alone. If a person did not have section 3C leave in the first place, being entitled to an in-country appeal or an administrative review does not create it.

Proving Your Status

Section 3C leave is not a grant of permission with its own document, so there is no eVisa or card that shows it. It is checked by third parties through Home Office services:

the Employer Checking Service, for the right to work, which issues a Positive Verification Notice to the employer;
the Landlord Checking Service, for the right to rent.

The application confirmation from the GOV.UK settlement application service and any correspondence from the Home Office are the record of when the application was made, which is the fact section 3C turns on.

Processing Times and Section 3C

GOV.UK says a settlement decision usually comes within 6 months of the biometrics appointment, and that the earliest an application can be made is 28 days before the qualifying period is complete. Processing times vary by route, and priority and super priority services are available on some. Section 3C covers the whole of that wait, provided the application was valid and made in time.

The Home Office guidance on section 3C and 3D leave sets all of this out, with worked examples.

Next Steps

The two facts that decide whether section 3C applies are the date the application was made against the date the old permission expired, and whether the application was valid. The one thing that ends it early, by the guidance's own words, is leaving the UK.

Related guides:

Questions and answers

Does section 3C leave protect me while waiting for settlement?

Where a valid application was made before the existing permission expired, and that permission expires before the application is decided, section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 extends the existing permission until the application is decided or withdrawn. The Home Office guidance says its purpose is to prevent someone who applies in time from becoming an overstayer while they wait.

Can I travel while on section 3C leave?

The Home Office guidance states it without qualification: "Section 3C leave will end if the person leaves the UK." Section 3C extends permission to remain, not permission to enter, so it does not survive a departure and returning does not restore it.

Can my employer continue to employ me on section 3C leave?

The guidance says a person on section 3C leave remains subject to the conditions attached to their existing permission unless those conditions are varied. Someone whose permission allowed employment may continue to work as before, and any restriction on the type of work or the number of hours still applies. It does not permit starting a new job that the existing permission did not allow. An employer can check this through the Home Office Employer Checking Service, which issues a Positive Verification Notice.

How long does section 3C leave last?

Until the application is decided or withdrawn, and then through any period in which an in-country appeal could be brought or is pending, or an administrative review could be sought or is pending. The time limit for seeking administrative review is 14 days, or 7 days for someone in detention. If no appeal or review is sought in time, section 3C leave ends at the end of the last day it could have been.

Can section 3C leave be taken away?

Yes, in two situations. Section 62 of the Immigration Act 2016 gave the Home Office power, from 1 December 2016, to cancel section 3C leave where a person has failed to comply with a condition attached to their permission, or has used deception in seeking permission to stay, successfully or not. The guidance says it cannot be cancelled for any other reason, that the power is discretionary, and that section 3C leave must not be cancelled simply because an application has been refused.

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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