VisaAfghan ARAP applicants: check biometrics and family deadlines six months after April changes
A current deadline follow-up explains the remaining twelve-month window for eligible Afghan applicants, separate family submissions and the difference between eligibility and UK entry clearance.
Official source date: 2026-10-30
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
The April transition now needs a practical deadline check
Afghan citizens with existing UK relocation eligibility should check the dates in their ARAP letters as the scheme passes six months since its April 2026 procedural changes. Ministry of Defence guidance gives people sent eligibility letters before 28 April 2026 twelve months from that date to attend a visa application centre in a third country. This is a current deadline follow-up, not a reopening of ARAP to new principal applicants.
The MOD resource says later eligible principal applicants and immediate family members have twelve months from their eligibility letter, with additional family members working from their own letter. The required sequence includes providing family identity and relationship evidence, notifying MOD of planned travel, reaching a third country, supplying appointment information and attending the booked centre. Readers should identify their own letter date before arranging travel; not every family member necessarily shares the principal applicant’s timetable.
An eligibility letter is the first stage, not permission to enter
The Immigration Rules Appendix ARAP describes a two-stage process. MOD first decides eligibility; it then makes the Home Office entry-clearance or settlement application on the eligible person’s behalf. The rules require biometrics when requested and a passport or other evidence satisfactorily establishing identity and nationality. The principal applicant must be an Afghan citizen aged eighteen or over, and the original application must have reached MOD before the July 2025 closure.
Use the Appendix to understand which stage remains outstanding. An eligibility decision does not replace a Home Office decision, nor does it supply immigration permission for the third country used to attend an appointment. The rules provide settlement where their requirements are satisfied, but also require suitability checks. A travel plan should therefore distinguish lawful entry to the appointment country from eventual permission to enter the United Kingdom.
Immediate and additional relatives need different preparation
The Home Office caseworker guidance distinguishes immediate family members from additional family members. It requires sufficient evidence of the claimed relationship and permits requests for further information where evidence is missing or raises concerns. Applicants should assemble coherent identity and family records and respond to the actual request, rather than assuming that listing a relative’s name completes the assessment.
That guidance describes a thirty-day additional-family application period from the principal applicant’s response to the eligibility letter, subject to compelling circumstances where the period could not be met. This is separate from the twelve-month appointment process. An illustrative principal applicant who accepted an offer recently should therefore check both clocks: submitting an additional-family request and completing later biometric arrangements are different actions. The one-year window is not permission to wait a year before identifying additional relatives.
Reviews and information requests also have short clocks
The MOD guidance gives applicants receiving an ineligible outcome from 28 April 2026 a twenty-eight-calendar-day review period from receipt of the letter, subject to its compelling-circumstances provision. It links the official review form and describes fourteen-day responses to information requests. An applicant challenging an outcome should use that review resource rather than submit another new principal application to a closed scheme.
For practical case management, keep a dated record of the outcome, when it was received, the requested evidence and the submission confirmation. Calendar days and a deadline expressed in a letter should not be replaced with a convenient estimate of four working weeks. Where wording or circumstances make the deadline uncertain, contact the responsible MOD team promptly with the case reference and the specific timing question. This report cannot determine whether an individual qualifies for an exception.
Application fees and supporting costs are separate
The UK immigration-fee regulations provide an ARAP entry-clearance fee exemption. Home Office caseworker guidance also identifies settlement applications on the route as free. Use those official resources when checking a demand described as a government ARAP application charge. The exemption should not be presented as evidence that passports, third-country visas, accommodation or all journey-related expenses are automatically free; those are separate practical questions.
For an eligible household still in Afghanistan, the next useful step is a single checklist matching each person’s letter, identity evidence, family category and outstanding appointment action. Confirm arrangements through the official case channel before committing to third-country travel. No reviewed source guarantees an appointment or final decision by a chosen travel date. The central distinction remains between an existing eligibility offer, compliance with its procedural deadlines and a completed UK immigration decision.
