One Arrangement Survived and One Was Wound Up: the Common Travel Area and the Settlement Scheme
The United Kingdom belongs to no regional free movement arrangement, and it has not since 2020. What it has is older and narrower. Section 1(3) of the Immigration Act 1971 provides that arrival on a local journey from the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland is not subject to control under the Act, and names those places together with the United Kingdom the common travel area. Section 3ZA, inserted on 31 December 2020 immediately before the Brexit transition ended, goes further for people rather than journeys: an Irish citizen does not require leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom unless they are deported, excluded on conducive-to-the-public-good grounds, or excluded under certain international instruments. An Irish citizen therefore lives and works here without permission of any kind, and needs none to be renewed. For everyone else from the European Economic Area and Switzerland, free movement ended and what replaced it is not a route but a wind-up scheme. Appendix EU grants indefinite leave or five years' limited leave to people who were already here before the end of 2020 and to a defined set of family members joining them. The deadline for applying was 1 July 2021, and an application after it is valid only where the Secretary of State is satisfied there are reasonable grounds for the delay.
At a glance
- Membership of the European Union, the EEA or Schengen
- None. Entry is governed by the Immigration Act 1971 and the Immigration Rules made under section 3(2) of it
Read from the Act itself. No Union instrument governs entry here, which is why the common visa list that covers the other European countries in this corpus does not reach this one.
- The Common Travel Area
- The United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland, by section 1(3) of the Immigration Act 1971
The subsection defines the term as well as creating the exemption, and the exemption can be withdrawn from any of those places by order.
- Leave needed by an Irish citizen
- None, under section 3ZA(1) of the Immigration Act 1971, unless deported, excluded as conducive to the public good, or excluded under section 8B
The exception at section 3ZA(5) withdraws the section 1(3) protection as well in those cases.
- When the Irish citizen provision was inserted
- 31 December 2020, immediately before IP completion day
Textual amendment F1 on the section 3ZA page: inserted by the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020, the same Act that ended free movement.
- Status granted by the EU Settlement Scheme
- Indefinite leave to enter or remain, or five years' limited leave where the indefinite requirements are not met
Paragraphs EU2 and EU3 of Appendix EU. Five years' limited leave is what is commonly called pre-settled status.
- Continuous residence for indefinite leave
- A continuous qualifying period of five years
The conditions table at paragraph EU11A of Appendix EU uses that period for a joining family member, and the same five-year period runs through the conditions for other applicants.
- Deadline for applying
- Before 1 July 2021, or later where the Secretary of State is satisfied there are reasonable grounds for the person's delay
The entry for 'required date' in the Annex 1 definitions table of Appendix EU.
- When the deadline became a validity requirement
- For applications dated on or after 9 August 2023
Paragraph EU9(e) of Appendix EU. Before that date a late application was considered; after it, one made outside the required date is rejected as invalid under paragraph EU10.
- Whether an EEA or Swiss citizen can use Appendix EU to move here now
- Only as a joining family member of a relevant sponsor. The scheme has no provision for a new arrival with no pre-existing connection
Paragraph EU1 limits the Appendix to EEA citizens and their family members and the family members of a qualifying British citizen, and the required date rules close the ordinary routes into it.
Requirements
- For an Irish citizen: nothing. No leave is required to enter or remain
- For an EEA or Swiss citizen relying on Appendix EU: residence here before the end of the transition period, or status as a joining family member of a relevant sponsor
- For an application under Appendix EU after 1 July 2021: reasonable grounds for the delay, accepted by the Secretary of State
- For any other EEA or Swiss citizen: an ordinary route, on the same terms as any other nationality
In detail
Two arrangements that are easy to confuse and work nothing alike
The Common Travel Area is a statutory exemption from immigration control, decided by the United Kingdom in its own Act, mirrored by Ireland in its own law, and resting on no treaty that either country could enforce against the other. It has survived every change to British immigration law since 1971 and it survived Brexit. The EU Settlement Scheme is the opposite in every respect: it exists because a treaty obligation had to be discharged, it is in the Immigration Rules rather than in an Act, it had a deadline, and it was always meant to end. Reading the two together gives the shape of the country's relationship with its neighbours - permanently open to one of them on terms nobody writes down, and closed to the rest with a transitional scheme for the people already caught inside.
What an Irish citizen actually has
Section 3ZA says an Irish citizen does not require leave. That is a stronger position than the one Appendix EU grants, because there is nothing to apply for, nothing to evidence and nothing that can lapse through absence. It is also narrower in one way worth noticing: it attaches to Irish citizenship, not to residence in Ireland. A non-Irish national lawfully resident in Ireland gets a different and lesser benefit - exemption from the Electronic Travel Authorisation when travelling from within the Common Travel Area under ETA 1.3, recorded in the tourist-entry record - and still needs permission to live or work here.
The scheme is closing rather than open
Three features of Appendix EU mark it as a wind-up rather than a route. The deadline was 1 July 2021 and lateness is excused only on reasonable grounds. Since 9 August 2023 missing the required date makes the application invalid rather than refusable, which removes it from the ordinary appeal and review architecture. And the only category still genuinely open is the joining family member of a relevant sponsor, a person joining someone who was already here. An EEA or Swiss citizen with no prior connection to the United Kingdom has nothing in this Appendix and applies on exactly the same terms as an applicant from anywhere else - Appendix Skilled Worker, Appendix Student, Appendix FM.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«(3)Arrival in and departure from the United Kingdom on a local journey from or to any of the Islands (that is to say, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) or the Republic of Ireland shall not be subject to control under this Act, nor shall a person require leave to enter the United Kingdom on so arriving, except in so far as any of those places is for any purpose excluded from this subsection under the powers conferred by this Act; and in this Act the United Kingdom and those places, or such of them as are not so excluded, are collectively referred to as “the common travel area”.»The British side of the Common Travel Area, and it is drafted as a statement about journeys rather than about people. A journey from Dublin is outside control; a flight from Dublin carrying a non-Irish passenger is still a journey from within the area.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official statute book of the United Kingdom, run by The National Archives. It serves every Act of Parliament and every UK statutory instrument, and for most of them it serves a revised text maintained by an editorial team rather than the text as enacted. One provision at a time is addressable: legislation.gov.uk/<type>/<year>/<number>/<section|regulation|schedule|article>/<n>, with /part/<n> under a schedule and /made for the original of a statutory instrument. That shape is what makes a statute book this size readable - section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 is 61,000 characters where the Act entire is unusable. Every provision page prints a status box stating the date to which it is up to date, a Changes to Legislation disclaimer, and, where there are any, a list of effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidation date is not an editorial date but the date of the request, so two provisions of the same Act read a day apart carry different cut-offs, and the cut-off must be taken from each page rather than from the Act. It carries no Immigration Rules: the Rules are laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and published by the Home Office, and nothing in them is on this site. Some instruments are served only as made, with no revised text at all, and the site says so on the page - the Driving Licences (Exchangeable Licences) Order 1984 is one, and its electronic text was contributed by Westlaw from the printed copy. Where a page lists outstanding effects, the text shown is known to be behind its own amendments, and where an amending provision was never commenced the page lists an effect that will never arrive: section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 carries effects from a 2009 Act whose amending provisions are themselves prospectively repealed. It is not a source for what a department does, for fees set administratively, or for any external document an instrument incorporates by reference.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(1)An Irish citizen does not require leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, unless subsection (2), (3) or (4) applies to that citizen.»The British side of the arrangement as it applies to people. There is no status to apply for, no document to hold and nothing to renew, which is a different thing from a residence right granted on request.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official statute book of the United Kingdom, run by The National Archives. It serves every Act of Parliament and every UK statutory instrument, and for most of them it serves a revised text maintained by an editorial team rather than the text as enacted. One provision at a time is addressable: legislation.gov.uk/<type>/<year>/<number>/<section|regulation|schedule|article>/<n>, with /part/<n> under a schedule and /made for the original of a statutory instrument. That shape is what makes a statute book this size readable - section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 is 61,000 characters where the Act entire is unusable. Every provision page prints a status box stating the date to which it is up to date, a Changes to Legislation disclaimer, and, where there are any, a list of effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidation date is not an editorial date but the date of the request, so two provisions of the same Act read a day apart carry different cut-offs, and the cut-off must be taken from each page rather than from the Act. It carries no Immigration Rules: the Rules are laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and published by the Home Office, and nothing in them is on this site. Some instruments are served only as made, with no revised text at all, and the site says so on the page - the Driving Licences (Exchangeable Licences) Order 1984 is one, and its electronic text was contributed by Westlaw from the printed copy. Where a page lists outstanding effects, the text shown is known to be behind its own amendments, and where an amending provision was never commenced the page lists an effect that will never arrive: section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 carries effects from a 2009 Act whose amending provisions are themselves prospectively repealed. It is not a source for what a department does, for fees set administratively, or for any external document an instrument incorporates by reference.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(5)Where subsection (2), (3) or (4) applies to an Irish citizen, section 1(3) does not permit the Irish citizen to enter the United Kingdom without leave on arriving in the United Kingdom on a local journey from any place in the common travel area.»Where the personal exemption falls away the journey exemption falls away with it, so an excluded Irish citizen cannot enter by way of the Common Travel Area either.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official statute book of the United Kingdom, run by The National Archives. It serves every Act of Parliament and every UK statutory instrument, and for most of them it serves a revised text maintained by an editorial team rather than the text as enacted. One provision at a time is addressable: legislation.gov.uk/<type>/<year>/<number>/<section|regulation|schedule|article>/<n>, with /part/<n> under a schedule and /made for the original of a statutory instrument. That shape is what makes a statute book this size readable - section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 is 61,000 characters where the Act entire is unusable. Every provision page prints a status box stating the date to which it is up to date, a Changes to Legislation disclaimer, and, where there are any, a list of effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidation date is not an editorial date but the date of the request, so two provisions of the same Act read a day apart carry different cut-offs, and the cut-off must be taken from each page rather than from the Act. It carries no Immigration Rules: the Rules are laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and published by the Home Office, and nothing in them is on this site. Some instruments are served only as made, with no revised text at all, and the site says so on the page - the Driving Licences (Exchangeable Licences) Order 1984 is one, and its electronic text was contributed by Westlaw from the printed copy. Where a page lists outstanding effects, the text shown is known to be behind its own amendments, and where an amending provision was never commenced the page lists an effect that will never arrive: section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 carries effects from a 2009 Act whose amending provisions are themselves prospectively repealed. It is not a source for what a department does, for fees set administratively, or for any external document an instrument incorporates by reference.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«S. 3ZA inserted (31.12.2020 immediately before IP completion day) by [Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020 (c. 20)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/2020/20 "Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020"),»The date and the vehicle. The Irish citizen's position was put on a statutory footing by the same Act that ended free movement, and on the same day, which is the clearest evidence that the two were decided together.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official statute book of the United Kingdom, run by The National Archives. It serves every Act of Parliament and every UK statutory instrument, and for most of them it serves a revised text maintained by an editorial team rather than the text as enacted. One provision at a time is addressable: legislation.gov.uk/<type>/<year>/<number>/<section|regulation|schedule|article>/<n>, with /part/<n> under a schedule and /made for the original of a statutory instrument. That shape is what makes a statute book this size readable - section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 is 61,000 characters where the Act entire is unusable. Every provision page prints a status box stating the date to which it is up to date, a Changes to Legislation disclaimer, and, where there are any, a list of effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidation date is not an editorial date but the date of the request, so two provisions of the same Act read a day apart carry different cut-offs, and the cut-off must be taken from each page rather than from the Act. It carries no Immigration Rules: the Rules are laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and published by the Home Office, and nothing in them is on this site. Some instruments are served only as made, with no revised text at all, and the site says so on the page - the Driving Licences (Exchangeable Licences) Order 1984 is one, and its electronic text was contributed by Westlaw from the printed copy. Where a page lists outstanding effects, the text shown is known to be behind its own amendments, and where an amending provision was never commenced the page lists an effect that will never arrive: section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 carries effects from a 2009 Act whose amending provisions are themselves prospectively repealed. It is not a source for what a department does, for fees set administratively, or for any external document an instrument incorporates by reference.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«EU1. This Appendix sets out the basis on which an **EEA citizen** and their family members, and the family members of a **qualifying British citizen**, will, if they apply under it, be granted indefinite leave to enter or remain or limited leave to enter or remain.»The scope of the scheme in one sentence. It is a scheme for EEA citizens and family members, not a route anyone else can use.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The department that lays the Immigration Rules before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and publishes them on gov.uk. The Rules - HC 395 as amended - are the operative law of almost every immigration route: the Acts set the framework and delegate, and what a person must actually satisfy is in an appendix. The consolidated appendices are served one per page under gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules, with an index page listing every Part and Appendix with a one-line description of each, which is the only published closed list of the routes that exist. Changes are made by a statement of changes laid before Parliament, and those are collected at gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-statement-of-changes.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: No appendix page carries a version date or an in-force date on its face. The only way to date the text is the statement of changes collection, which gives the most recent statement laid but not which appendix it touched, so a citation to an appendix can be dated only to "the consolidation current at or after HC <n> of <date>". The Rules are not enacted: Parliament may disapprove a statement but does not pass it, so this is a department publishing its own rules and the site is both the issuer and the only publisher of the consolidated text - there is no independent consolidation to check it against. A closed route is hollowed rather than removed: the headings for Tier 1 (Investor), Tier 1 (General) and retired persons of independent means still stand above paragraphs reading DELETED, so the presence of a heading proves nothing. It is not a source for departmental guidance, for fees, for sponsor licensing decisions or for the lists of endorsing bodies, approved tests and designated institutions that the Rules make load-bearing and publish elsewhere.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«EU3. The applicant will be granted five years’ limited leave to enter (where the application is made outside the UK) or five years’ limited leave to remain (where the application is made within the UK) where: 1. • A valid application has been made in accordance with paragraph EU9; 2. • The applicant does not meet the eligibility requirements for indefinite leave to enter or remain in accordance with paragraph EU11 or EU12, but meets the eligibility requirements for limited leave to enter or remain in accordance with paragraph EU14; and 3. • The application is not to be refused on grounds of suitability in accordance with paragraph EU15 or EU16.»Five years' limited leave is the fallback where the indefinite requirements are not met. The numbering and bullets inside the quotation are the list markup of the published page.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The department that lays the Immigration Rules before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and publishes them on gov.uk. The Rules - HC 395 as amended - are the operative law of almost every immigration route: the Acts set the framework and delegate, and what a person must actually satisfy is in an appendix. The consolidated appendices are served one per page under gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules, with an index page listing every Part and Appendix with a one-line description of each, which is the only published closed list of the routes that exist. Changes are made by a statement of changes laid before Parliament, and those are collected at gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-statement-of-changes.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: No appendix page carries a version date or an in-force date on its face. The only way to date the text is the statement of changes collection, which gives the most recent statement laid but not which appendix it touched, so a citation to an appendix can be dated only to "the consolidation current at or after HC <n> of <date>". The Rules are not enacted: Parliament may disapprove a statement but does not pass it, so this is a department publishing its own rules and the site is both the issuer and the only publisher of the consolidated text - there is no independent consolidation to check it against. A closed route is hollowed rather than removed: the headings for Tier 1 (Investor), Tier 1 (General) and retired persons of independent means still stand above paragraphs reading DELETED, so the presence of a heading proves nothing. It is not a source for departmental guidance, for fees, for sponsor licensing decisions or for the lists of endorsing bodies, approved tests and designated institutions that the Rules make load-bearing and publish elsewhere.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«(e) It has been made by the **required date**, where the date of application is on or after 9 August 2023; and 6. (f) The applicant, if they rely on being a joining family member of a relevant sponsor and where the date of application is on or after 9 August 2023, is not a **specified enforcement case**.»A deadline turned into a validity requirement. From 9 August 2023 an application outside the required date is not refused on its merits, it is rejected as invalid under paragraph EU10.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The department that lays the Immigration Rules before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and publishes them on gov.uk. The Rules - HC 395 as amended - are the operative law of almost every immigration route: the Acts set the framework and delegate, and what a person must actually satisfy is in an appendix. The consolidated appendices are served one per page under gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules, with an index page listing every Part and Appendix with a one-line description of each, which is the only published closed list of the routes that exist. Changes are made by a statement of changes laid before Parliament, and those are collected at gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-statement-of-changes.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: No appendix page carries a version date or an in-force date on its face. The only way to date the text is the statement of changes collection, which gives the most recent statement laid but not which appendix it touched, so a citation to an appendix can be dated only to "the consolidation current at or after HC <n> of <date>". The Rules are not enacted: Parliament may disapprove a statement but does not pass it, so this is a department publishing its own rules and the site is both the issuer and the only publisher of the consolidated text - there is no independent consolidation to check it against. A closed route is hollowed rather than removed: the headings for Tier 1 (Investor), Tier 1 (General) and retired persons of independent means still stand above paragraphs reading DELETED, so the presence of a heading proves nothing. It is not a source for departmental guidance, for fees, for sponsor licensing decisions or for the lists of endorsing bodies, approved tests and designated institutions that the Rules make load-bearing and publish elsewhere.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«| required date | (a) where the applicant does not have indefinite leave to enter or remain or limited leave to enter or remain granted under this Appendix<br> (i) (where sub-paragraphs (a)(ii) to (a)(vii) and (a)(xi) below do not apply) the date of application is: <br> (aa) before 1 July 2021; or <br> (bb) (where the deadline in sub-paragraph (a)(i)(aa) above was not met and the Secretary of State is satisfied by information provided with the application that, at the date of application, there are reasonable grounds for the person’s delay in making their application) on or after 1 July 2021; or»The deadline and the only way past it, in the definitions table rather than in the operative rules. Quoted as the page publishes the table, pipes and line-break tags included.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The department that lays the Immigration Rules before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and publishes them on gov.uk. The Rules - HC 395 as amended - are the operative law of almost every immigration route: the Acts set the framework and delegate, and what a person must actually satisfy is in an appendix. The consolidated appendices are served one per page under gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules, with an index page listing every Part and Appendix with a one-line description of each, which is the only published closed list of the routes that exist. Changes are made by a statement of changes laid before Parliament, and those are collected at gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-statement-of-changes.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: No appendix page carries a version date or an in-force date on its face. The only way to date the text is the statement of changes collection, which gives the most recent statement laid but not which appendix it touched, so a citation to an appendix can be dated only to "the consolidation current at or after HC <n> of <date>". The Rules are not enacted: Parliament may disapprove a statement but does not pass it, so this is a department publishing its own rules and the site is both the issuer and the only publisher of the consolidated text - there is no independent consolidation to check it against. A closed route is hollowed rather than removed: the headings for Tier 1 (Investor), Tier 1 (General) and retired persons of independent means still stand above paragraphs reading DELETED, so the presence of a heading proves nothing. It is not a source for departmental guidance, for fees, for sponsor licensing decisions or for the lists of endorsing bodies, approved tests and designated institutions that the Rules make load-bearing and publish elsewhere.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Appendix EU is the largest document read for this country, and only its Purpose, its requirements paragraphs, paragraph EU9 and the 'required date' entry in the Annex 1 definitions table have been read. The eligibility conditions tables at EU11, EU11A, EU12 and EU14 run to many pages of conditions and have been read only far enough to see that they turn on a five-year continuous qualifying period.
Appendix EU (Family Permit), which is the travel document a joining family member uses, is a separate appendix and has not been read.
The Irish side of the Common Travel Area is recorded under Ireland, from Irish instruments. This record quotes only the British side, which is what section 1(3) and section 3ZA provide, and the two are not mirror images: Ireland legislates its position differently.
Section 1 and section 3ZA of the Immigration Act 1971 were read on legislation.gov.uk on 10 October 2026, each page stating it was up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before that date. Both pages also listed effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
The EU Settlement Scheme is not an origin group in this corpus and no group has been created for it. Where a reader's position depends on being an EEA or Swiss national, the answer is in Appendix EU itself and not in any grouping of countries.
- consolidatesImmigration Act 1971, section 1
The National Archives, legislation.gov.uk · consolidated to 2026-10-10
About this source
The official statute book of the United Kingdom, run by The National Archives. It serves every Act of Parliament and every UK statutory instrument, and for most of them it serves a revised text maintained by an editorial team rather than the text as enacted. One provision at a time is addressable: legislation.gov.uk/<type>/<year>/<number>/<section|regulation|schedule|article>/<n>, with /part/<n> under a schedule and /made for the original of a statutory instrument. That shape is what makes a statute book this size readable - section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 is 61,000 characters where the Act entire is unusable. Every provision page prints a status box stating the date to which it is up to date, a Changes to Legislation disclaimer, and, where there are any, a list of effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidation date is not an editorial date but the date of the request, so two provisions of the same Act read a day apart carry different cut-offs, and the cut-off must be taken from each page rather than from the Act. It carries no Immigration Rules: the Rules are laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and published by the Home Office, and nothing in them is on this site. Some instruments are served only as made, with no revised text at all, and the site says so on the page - the Driving Licences (Exchangeable Licences) Order 1984 is one, and its electronic text was contributed by Westlaw from the printed copy. Where a page lists outstanding effects, the text shown is known to be behind its own amendments, and where an amending provision was never commenced the page lists an effect that will never arrive: section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 carries effects from a 2009 Act whose amending provisions are themselves prospectively repealed. It is not a source for what a department does, for fees set administratively, or for any external document an instrument incorporates by reference.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesImmigration Act 1971, section 3ZA
The National Archives, legislation.gov.uk · consolidated to 2026-10-10
About this source
The official statute book of the United Kingdom, run by The National Archives. It serves every Act of Parliament and every UK statutory instrument, and for most of them it serves a revised text maintained by an editorial team rather than the text as enacted. One provision at a time is addressable: legislation.gov.uk/<type>/<year>/<number>/<section|regulation|schedule|article>/<n>, with /part/<n> under a schedule and /made for the original of a statutory instrument. That shape is what makes a statute book this size readable - section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 is 61,000 characters where the Act entire is unusable. Every provision page prints a status box stating the date to which it is up to date, a Changes to Legislation disclaimer, and, where there are any, a list of effects the editorial team has not yet applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its consolidation date is not an editorial date but the date of the request, so two provisions of the same Act read a day apart carry different cut-offs, and the cut-off must be taken from each page rather than from the Act. It carries no Immigration Rules: the Rules are laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and published by the Home Office, and nothing in them is on this site. Some instruments are served only as made, with no revised text at all, and the site says so on the page - the Driving Licences (Exchangeable Licences) Order 1984 is one, and its electronic text was contributed by Westlaw from the printed copy. Where a page lists outstanding effects, the text shown is known to be behind its own amendments, and where an amending provision was never commenced the page lists an effect that will never arrive: section 6 of the British Nationality Act 1981 carries effects from a 2009 Act whose amending provisions are themselves prospectively repealed. It is not a source for what a department does, for fees set administratively, or for any external document an instrument incorporates by reference.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- issuesImmigration Rules Appendix EU
Home Office (UK Visas and Immigration)
About this source
The department that lays the Immigration Rules before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 and publishes them on gov.uk. The Rules - HC 395 as amended - are the operative law of almost every immigration route: the Acts set the framework and delegate, and what a person must actually satisfy is in an appendix. The consolidated appendices are served one per page under gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules, with an index page listing every Part and Appendix with a one-line description of each, which is the only published closed list of the routes that exist. Changes are made by a statement of changes laid before Parliament, and those are collected at gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-statement-of-changes.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: No appendix page carries a version date or an in-force date on its face. The only way to date the text is the statement of changes collection, which gives the most recent statement laid but not which appendix it touched, so a citation to an appendix can be dated only to "the consolidation current at or after HC <n> of <date>". The Rules are not enacted: Parliament may disapprove a statement but does not pass it, so this is a department publishing its own rules and the site is both the issuer and the only publisher of the consolidated text - there is no independent consolidation to check it against. A closed route is hollowed rather than removed: the headings for Tier 1 (Investor), Tier 1 (General) and retired persons of independent means still stand above paragraphs reading DELETED, so the presence of a heading proves nothing. It is not a source for departmental guidance, for fees, for sponsor licensing decisions or for the lists of endorsing bodies, approved tests and designated institutions that the Rules make load-bearing and publish elsewhere.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source