Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme: What UPE and UPE2 Give You — and What They Don't

The Ukraine Permission Extension scheme answers one immediate question — how to stay in the UK legally when your Homes for Ukraine or Ukraine Family Scheme visa expires — but it raises a harder one that many Ukrainians are only now confronting: what comes after UPE runs out?

This post explains how UPE and UPE2 work, what you need to apply, why the application window matters more than most people realise, and the critical distinction between having legal status in the UK and having a route that leads anywhere permanent.

What the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme Is

The Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) was introduced to give Ukrainians whose three-year Homes for Ukraine or Ukraine Family Scheme visas were expiring a further period of legal leave in the UK. The initial UPE grants 18 months of additional leave.

UPE2 — the second extension — opened on 8 April 2026 and grants a further 24 months on top of the first 18. The total additional leave across both extensions is 42 months — three and a half years.

Both extensions are free to apply for. You do not pay an application fee, and you are not required to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge for the extension period. You retain the right to work, study, and access public services during the extension.

The 90-Day Application Window

The most operationally important detail of UPE is the application window. You must apply within 90 days before your current leave expires — not any earlier, and not after expiry.

This window was extended from 28 days to 90 days specifically because the 28-day window caused problems: many Ukrainians either missed it, applied too early and were rejected, or applied in a rushed panic at the last minute. The 90-day window gives substantially more planning time.

What the 90-day window means in practice:

• If your leave expires on 1 October 2026, you cannot submit your UPE application before 3 July 2026
• If you apply on 2 July 2026 (91 days before expiry), the application will be rejected
• Applications submitted outside the window are not held and reconsidered — they are refused, and you must wait until you are within the 90-day period to reapply

Set a calendar reminder for 91 days before your visa expiry date. Then apply within that window, not before.

Section 3C Leave During Processing

Once you have submitted a valid UPE application within the 90-day window and your current leave expires before a decision is made, Section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 automatically extends your existing leave. This means:

• Your right to work continues during processing
• You are lawfully resident in the UK while waiting for a decision
• Your employer cannot terminate your employment solely on the basis that your BRP has expired, because the Section 3C leave is recognised by the Home Office right-to-work checking service

Processing times for UPE applications vary, but the Home Office has generally aimed for decisions within eight weeks. Check your UKVI online account for status updates rather than relying on the original BRP expiry date to determine your current leave status.

Host Payments: The £350/Month Thank-You Payment

If you are living with a Homes for Ukraine sponsor, they receive a £350 per month thank-you payment from the government for the duration of your stay with them — but only for the first 18 months of UPE. The payment does not extend through UPE2.

This is a meaningful change for hosts. Some Homes for Ukraine sponsors agreed to hosting specifically because of the financial support. If you are in a sponsored hosting arrangement, it is worth discussing with your host what happens to the arrangement after month 18 of UPE — some hosts will continue regardless, others will need to reassess.

If you move to independent accommodation during UPE, the thank-you payment to your previous host stops, and the calculation above is no longer relevant to you. Most Ukrainians who have been in the UK since 2022 and are now approaching UPE have already transitioned to independent accommodation — the thank-you payment primarily affects those who remain in original hosting arrangements.

What UPE Does Not Do

This is the part that matters most and is most frequently misunderstood.

Time on any Ukraine scheme — Homes for Ukraine, the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Ukraine Extension Scheme, or the Ukraine Permission Extension — does not count toward Indefinite Leave to Remain. Not one day of it.

The Home Office amended Appendix Long Residence in December 2024 to make this explicit. The ten-year Long Residence route, which provides an alternative path to settlement for those who have lived continuously in the UK for a decade, now explicitly excludes Ukraine scheme time from the qualifying period.

The five-year Skilled Worker path to ILR has never counted Ukraine scheme time — the clock for that route starts only from the date a Skilled Worker visa is granted.

The result: a Ukrainian who arrived in April 2022 under Homes for Ukraine and goes through a full UPE and UPE2 cycle would have lawful leave in the UK through approximately 2028 or 2029. At that point, without having switched to a qualifying visa, there is no further extension. And because none of the Ukraine scheme time counts toward settlement, that person would have spent six or seven years in the UK with zero qualifying years for ILR.

This is known as the settlement trap, and UPE is not an escape from it. UPE is a holding mechanism. It buys time. It does not build anything toward permanence.

Who Should Apply for UPE

UPE is the right move if:

• Your Ukraine scheme visa is expiring within 90 days and you have not yet switched to a qualifying visa route
• You need more time to set up a Skilled Worker application — for example, your employer is in the process of applying for a Sponsor Licence, or you are waiting for UK ENIC to process your credential recognition
• You are in the process of qualifying for or arranging a Family visa
• You are below the salary threshold for Skilled Worker and are using the UPE period to increase earnings or switch to a qualifying employer
• You are a nurse or midwife working through NMC registration, which takes time, and need legal status during that process

UPE is not a long-term strategy. It is a bridge. The question to answer during the UPE period is: what route do I switch to before UPE2 runs out?

The Timeline If You Use Both Extensions

To illustrate the full timeline for a Ukrainian who arrived on a three-year Homes for Ukraine visa in April 2022:

If that person does not switch to a Skilled Worker or other qualifying visa during the UPE or UPE2 period, they reach October 2028 with six and a half years in the UK and no legal basis to remain.

If they switch to a Skilled Worker visa in, say, June 2026 (while still on UPE), the clock starts from June 2026, and they become eligible for ILR in June 2031. The UPE2 period from October 2026 onwards is no longer relevant to their settlement timeline — they are on a Skilled Worker visa running concurrently.

The earlier the switch, the earlier the ILR date. UPE2 is available as a safety net for those who cannot switch immediately, not as a reason to delay switching.

Applying for UPE2

UPE2 is applied for in the same way as UPE — through the UKVI online portal. The 90-day window before expiry applies to UPE2 as well. If you completed UPE and received 18 months of additional leave, your UPE2 application window opens 90 days before that 18-month grant expires.

The application is free, and you will need to confirm your identity and biometric information in the same way as the initial UPE application.

What to Do Alongside the Extension

If you are applying for UPE or UPE2, the sensible parallel action is to assess your visa switching options before the extension runs out. The questions to answer:

1. Does your current salary meet the Skilled Worker threshold — £41,700 general, £33,400 New Entrant, or lower for the Health and Care Worker route?
2. Does your employer have a Sponsor Licence, or are they willing to apply for one?
3. If not, do you have a family route available — a British or settled partner?
4. If none of the above, is self-sponsorship through a UK limited company viable for your situation?

Answering these questions during the UPE period, rather than after UPE2 has expired, is the difference between having options and having run out of them.

The Ukraine to UK Visa Pathway Guide maps exactly this decision — how to identify your strongest qualifying route based on your salary, employer, and family situation, what the employer sponsorship conversation looks like, and the full cost breakdown for every family size — so that the time UPE buys you is used to build toward something permanent.