Briefing: how to come to the UK from France under the UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme

This is a detailed explainer of the process for people in France to apply to come to the UK under the new UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme as set out in Appendix UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme and version 1 of the guidance “UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme” dated 7 August 2025.

This post is worth a careful read as there are likely to be some strategic decisions to be made to maximise prospects of success, particularly in relation to family groups and choosing the main applicant. I have also highlighted where I think things are still unclear or where I think there are potential problems with the scheme.

Separately, I have written a separate explainer of the UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme as a whole, as well as a short post notifying people when the expression of interest form went live.

How does the scheme work?

This is a free application and as successful applicants will be granted entry clearance for up to three months, the immigration health surcharge is not payable.

Stage one: expression of interest

It is a two stage process, first is the expression of interest stage. The expression of interest form went live on 7 August 2025 and is still live as I write this on 22 August 2025. I thought that the application form would only be available when an application window is open, but the guidance states that “Applications submitted outside of an application window will not be considered and must be rejected as invalid”, so it seems that it may be possible to submit the form even when the window is not open.

It is unclear at this stage how many applications the Home Office will allow through in an application window, nor do we have any idea what demand will be like. The guidance says that applications will be held by the Home Office until there is capacity for them to be considered (presumably meaning until the Home Office has sent some people to France).

Consideration of applications can also be paused to allow the Home Secretary to assess whether there is parity with the number of people being returned to France. During any such pause, new applications cannot be progressed to the entry clearance stage. Where applications are placed on hold, applicants will be notified “periodically”.

The guidance also refers to a total cap on the number of people transferred to the UK, which will equal the number of people removed from the UK during the pilot period. Once this cap has been reached no more applications will be considered. Any outstanding expression of interest applications at this time will be rejected as invalid and outstanding entry clearance applications will be refused.

Families 

Applications can be submitted as an individual or a family. The immigration rules define family group as “two or more applicants who are related to one another as a parent, child or partner, who have confirmed on their Expression of Interest application that they are applying with other family members.”

Where a family wants to apply together, the main applicant must submit their form first and the rest of the family then use the given family reference number on their own expression of interest form. The guidance says that this number must be sent by the Home Office to the applicant, indicating that it is not automatically generated for the applicant but only at the Home Office’s end.

The family must all submit their applications during the application window. If the application window closes without notice and only some of the family have been able to submit their applications, the family group will be put on hold, presumably until the next application window has opened and the rest of the family group able to submit their applications.

Each of the applications from a family will be considered separately but all family members will receive the same outcome. This means that if one family member does not meet the eligibility criteria then the whole family will be refused. This should be checked carefully before applications are submitted as changes to the family group in future expression of interest applications are not permitted unless the reason is a birth or death. An applicant who has previously applied as an individual cannot later apply as part of a family, and vice versa.

Evidence of the family relationship will need to be uploaded, this is likely to be a difficult requirement for many to meet. If one member of the family wants to withdraw their application, this can be done without affecting the rest of the family group.

Assessment of family connection 

The Home Office will carry out checks to confirm that a family is connected as claimed. First caseworkers will review the evidence provided by all the applicants in the family group. The guidance does acknowledge that:

You must be mindful of the difficulties that people may face in providing documentary evidence of their relationship. Those fleeing conflict zones or dangerous situations may not have had time to collect supporting documents and may not have realised they would be required. Country Policy and Information Guidance will give some insight into challenges that an individual may face in acquiring documents to provide evidence of their relationship to other members of their family group. It may also provide insight into the reasons why a couple could not live together in certain countries and the challenges around obtaining evidence of a relationship.

The guidance sets out what kind of evidence is preferable as well as a non-exhaustive list of what other evidence is acceptable. If the caseworker is not satisfied of the family connection following the evidence review then they will carry out a name match and naming convention check. The guidance states:

You must accept a naming match if:

• the applicant has a matching surname to an applicant who is their parent or partner
• the applicant has a nationality-specific naming convention match to an applicant who is their partner
• the applicant has a nationality-specific naming convention match to an applicant who is their parent
• the applicant has a matching surname or nationality-specific naming convention match to an applicant who has provided documentary evidence of a family connection to their parent, partner or child

Once the caseworker is satisfied of the family connection either following the evidence review or the name check, they will then carry out an age check to see if this raises any questions about the claimed family connection, for example someone who is applying as the child of another applicant must be at least 14 years younger than the youngest parent (who must be 18 year or older).

Proof of identity and nationality

Applicants must provide a “suitable identification document” and a recent photograph (within the last three months). Expired passports or national identity cards can be used if there is no valid document. The application form itself links to guidance on identity standards which explains what documents will be accepted.

The guidance states that:

Where the applicant does not have any documents which satisfactorily establish their identity and nationality, and they have not already provided a reasonable alternative or an explanation in their application, you must refuse their application. 

Location

Applicants must be in France when they submit their expression of interest form. The Home Office will check this by sending a geo-location request to all adults who have submitted an expression of interest form. It is important to get this bit right as if an application is rejected because the applicant was not in France, any future expression of interest applications will be void.

The request will be sent by email and to the applicants’ mobile number and will capture the current location at the time they respond to the request. Apparently it will not track the applicants location before or after that response. The applicant will receive confirmation that their location has been shared.

Selection process

The guidance explains that applications must be selected for consideration using a three stage selection process:

• Stage 1: high-grant and high-volume nationalities
• Stage 2: connection to the UK
• Stage 3: random selection of Expression of Interest applications

Applicants who meet either the high grant or the high volume nationality criteria will be considered first. If a person is a dual national then both nationalities must meet the criteria in order to be selected at stage one, otherwise they will be considered at stage three.

Both these criteria will be reviewed every three months following publication of the latest quarterly statistics. The guidance is silent on the position if the statistics release happens while an application is pending and because of changes in the figures a person no longer meets criteria which they did meet at the date of the application.

High grant nationalities

High grant is defined in the guidance as being where all of the following apply:

• at least 25 substantive asylum decisions on applications from individuals of the same nationality have been made in the most recent reporting quarter
• at least 100 substantive asylum decisions on applications from individuals of the same nationality have been made in the most recent reporting year
• at least 80% of substantive asylum decisions made in the most recent reporting year have been a decision to grant protection status in the first instance

I noticed that there was a large increase in the number of Palestinians crossing the Channel in the most recent quarter (April to June 2025) so I thought this would be an interesting example to look at how “high grant” is calculated. Excluding withdrawals and administrative outcomes (which I am assuming do not count as a substantive asylum decision), there have been 101 decisions reported by the Home Office for “Occupied Palestinian Territories” in this period, so the first requirement is met.

There have been 357 decisions in the year ending June 2025 and so the second criteria is also met. 90% of substantive asylum decisions resulted in a grant of protection status (either asylum or humanitarian protection). So here, all three criteria have been met, however, given most Palestinians are technically stateless, they will seemingly be barred from the scheme on that basis.  

It is not clear whether the Home Office will actually publish a list a list of high grant nationalities or if people (me, presumably) will be expected to dig through the statistics to try to figure it out.

High volume nationalities

As I noted in my write up of the most recent statistics, Afghan nationals will not meet the criteria of “high grant nationality” because the grant rate has plummeted from 96% to 40% in the year ending June 2025. However the alternative criterion is “high volume nationalities” which is focussed specifically on the number of people crossing the Channel.

This means the three nationalities with the highest number of arrivals by small boat. For April to June 2025 the three highest nationalities making the crossing were Eritreans (2,240), Afghans (1,455) and Sudanese (1,309). As I pointed out in this post, this means that Afghans will be prioritised in applications to come to the UK, only to face refusal of their asylum application once they are here (given how low current grant rates are).

Connection to the UK

“Connection to the UK” means an applicant who has previously been in the UK with leave for more than six months continuously in the past five years. They must not have overstayed or breached the conditions of their permission. This is a very narrow definition, it notably excludes those who have family in the UK, and it is difficult to see that there will be many people who succeed at stage two.

Prioritisation process

The stages are essentially a filtering process. Applications that meet that stage one will be chosen at random and checked against the validity requirements first. Those that pass that check will then proceed to stage two checks. Those who meet stage two will be prioritised for biographic checks against the Home Office systems.

Those who do not meet the stage two requirement will have to wait to see if there are enough stage two people to fill the available places. If there are still places left after stage two, then there will be random selection of people from the stage one group who have met the validity checks.

If there are still places left after the stage one group have all been considered, then stage three will be used to fill the remaining places. Yes it feels a little complicated but I think we will get used to it.

Biographic checks on the Home Office systems will be carried out on all applications that have been selected, before the application is progressed to the entry clearance stage. Where there are security concerns raised at this stage, the application may not be selected to progress to the entry clearance stage as a priority under stage one of the filter. Instead, the application will be considered at stage three.

For family groups it is only the main applicant who must meet each of the stages, although all family members will have validity checks carried out on their application. The validity requirements will include checks against the suitability and eligibility requirements in the immigration rules.

Once validity checks have been passed, the application can proceed to the entry clearance stage. Applications that are valid but not selected for the entry clearance stage will be held and can be selected at any time up until the cap limit is reached.

If the validity criteria are not met, the application will be rejected as invalid and applicants will be notified of the reasons.

Stage two: entry clearance application 

Successful stage one applicants will be notified of an appointment time and location to go and enrol their biometrics at a Visa Application Centre. Applicants will also need to take to physical copies of the identity documentation they provided when making the expression of interest application. The Home Office will submit the entry clearance application and make a decision on the application in line with Appendix UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme.

The suitability requirements at part 9 of the immigration rules will apply and the applicant must not have previously entered or arrived illegally in the UK. The eligibility requirements are that the applicant has not been granted international protection in another country since submitting their expression of interest form, or hold immigration status in France. People who have been officially recognised as stateless by another country are also excluded.

Evidence

The burden of proof is on the applicant and the standard of proof at both stages is the balance of probabilities. This means that applicants must evidence that it is more likely than not that they meet the requirements. Once an expression of interest application has been submitted, the guidance states that no further information or evidence can be provided.

Sensibly, documents do not need to be provided in English or with a certified translation. A point to monitor will be whether there is any disadvantage to those providing such evidence to the Home Office as, less sensibly, the guidance goes on to say “If a document is not in English and is not accompanied by certified translation, you should consider it where possible”, indicating that it may not be considered.

Void applications

The guidance explains that applications will be voided in the following circumstances:

A person’s Expression of Interest application will be void if:

• they have previously submitted an Expression of Interest application which was rejected because they were outside of France at the time they submitted their application
• they have previously submitted an Expression of Interest application and the stated family unit has changed between applications (unless the change is as a result of a birth or death in the family)
• an entry clearance application submitted on their behalf has previously been refused
• they have arrived in, or entered, the UK without permission since submitting that application
• they have made multiple Expression of Interest applications at the same time (and the other application will proceed, the Duplicate applications section provides more information)

An entry clearance application submitted on an applicant’s behalf will be void if:

• the applicant has not provided any required biometrics
• the applicant has arrived in, or entered, the UK without permission since submitting that application

 The guidance goes into more detail for each of the above bullet points.

Outcomes

Those who are successful will be granted entry clearance for up to three months, with no recourse to public funds and no ability to work or study. They must pass a fitness to travel medical assessment and travel to the UK will be arranged and applicants informed of the arrangements.

There is no right of appeal or administrative review against refusal of an application under the scheme, however judicial review may be an available remedy, depending on the circumstances.

Conclusion

The classification of this as a “safe and legal” route is despite the fact that those applying from France will have still made a lengthy and dangerous journey to get that far, and the fact that availability of places to go to the UK is entirely dependent on a person risking their life by crossing the Channel.

Given the dearth of “safe and legal” routes to come to the UK, I think this is where the Home Office will report the statistics for this route going forward, which may help bulk up those numbers following the closure of all of the Afghan resettlement schemes. We should see the first numbers in the November 2025 statistics release unless ad hoc figures are published sooner, in the meantime it will be useful to hear from anyone with experience of the process – do get in touch.