On 30 April 2026 the Home Office published revised case-worker guidance for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), clarifying eligibility and documentary standards for dependants of former locally-employed Afghan staff. The update removes the controversial requirement that all family members travel at the same time as the principal applicant and codifies evidentiary flexibilities introduced after Kabul’s fall in 2021. For UK employers the change matters because hundreds of Afghan interpreters and security staff hired under government or defence contracts remain stuck in third-country transit hubs, preventing them from taking up promised roles in Britain. By allowing spouses and children to follow separately, the policy should accelerate issuance of initial visas and reduce corporate dependency on agency labour. The guidance also sets a clearer framework for documenting births, marriages and deaths in situations where Afghan civil records are unavailable. Case-workers may now accept UNHCR attestations or certified translations of Sharia marriage contracts—evidence that was previously rejected as insufficient. Companies providing relocation support must update document checklists accordingly and brief pro-bono legal partners on the relaxed standards. Importantly, the revision confirms that ARAP migrants granted Indefinite Leave to Enter will be able to convert to Indefinite Leave to Remain after five years without paying the Immigration Health Surcharge—aligning their pathway with other protection routes such as the Ukraine and Hong Kong schemes. Finance departments should recalculate long-term assignment costs to reflect the waiver. Although the policy still caps sponsorship at nuclear-family level, campaigners welcomed the move as “the most practical set of changes since the scheme began.” Businesses employing ex-Afghan staff in logistics, translation or defence-sector roles are advised to review onboarding timelines, as a surge of arrival bookings is expected over the summer.
Source: Home Office – GOV.UK
