Editorial policy

Immigration is an area where a wrong figure costs people real money and real time. This page sets out how we try to get it right and what you should still check yourself.

Sources

Our guides are built from primary sources only: the Immigration Rules and their appendices, the Home Office's published caseworker guidance, the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations, Statements of Changes and their explanatory memoranda, the British Nationality Act 1981 and the nationality guidance, and official statistics. Where a guide relies on a particular document it is linked at the end of the page. We do not source rules from other websites, forums or news reports, although we read them to see where people are confused.

Dates

Every guide shows the date the rules and fees on it were last checked against gov.uk, and the date the page was last changed. Fees are held in one place so that a change can be made across the site at once. If the review date is more than a few months old, treat the figures with caution and check the live gov.uk page before relying on them; we would rather you did that than trust us.

How often we review

Every guide is re-read against its sources at least twice a year, and in April when the fee regulations usually change. In between, we update guides when a Statement of Changes affects them and record the change on the rule-changes page. Proposed changes that are not yet in force are described as proposals, with the stage they have reached.

Information, not advice

Giving immigration advice in the UK is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority, and giving it without registration is an offence. We describe the rules in general terms and deliberately stop short of telling any reader what to do in their own case. Where a guide says what commonly causes refusals or what documents the rules require, that is a description of the rules, not advice on your application. When your facts are anything other than straightforward, a regulated adviser is the right next step and our guides say so.

Independence

We accept no payment from immigration advisers, law firms, test providers, employers or anyone else for coverage, listings or recommendations, and we do not run advertising. The only commercial relationship on the site is the Amazon affiliate link to books, such as the official Life in the UK handbook, which is disclosed where it appears and earns a commission on purchases. No one outside the publisher reviews or approves our content before it goes live.

Corrections

Errors are corrected as soon as we are aware of them and the page's updated date is changed. If a correction is material, meaning a reader who relied on the old version could have been misled, we say so on the page. Report anything you think is wrong through the contact form; we reply to every correction, whether or not we agree.

What we leave out

We do not cover asylum, deportation, detention or appeals in depth, because those areas need individual legal advice and general guides can do harm. We do not publish anything that would help someone deceive the Home Office. We do not reproduce real Life in the UK test questions; our practice questions are original and written from the handbook's topics.