Guidance

Discretionary leave: caseworker guidance

Immigration staff guidance on discretionary leave.

• From: UK Visas and Immigration
• Published: 24 June 2013
• Last updated: 23 July 2026 — See all updates

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Discretionary leave

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

We have temporarily paused consideration of settlement applications for applicants who were first granted Discretionary Leave (DL) under the Transitional Arrangements, who committed a criminal offence prior to their first grant of DL for which they were sentenced for 12 months imprisonments or longer.

This pause is due to ongoing litigation proceedings relating to the policy for that cohort (see judgment of Jimoh v SSHD [2026] EWCA Civ 643).

Published 24 June 2013

Last updated 23 July 2026 — Show all updates

1. 23 July 2026

   Updated the discretionary leave guidance, a full list of changes can be found in the guide.

2. 25 March 2025

   Clarified the pause on certain cases.

3. 30 May 2024

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

4. 8 March 2024

   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.

5. 22 March 2023

   Removed out of date policy equality statement on discretionary leave.

6. 16 March 2023

   Guidance updated to implement caselaw and general update.

7. 17 December 2021

   Updated discretionary leave guidance.

8. 2 June 2021

   Updated guidance on granting discretionary leave.

9. 14 December 2015

   Policy equality statement added.

10. 19 August 2015

    Updated guidance.

11. 24 June 2013

    First published.