Home Office invites expression of interest applications and publishes caseworker guidance as pilot scheme begins
The Home Office has officially opened the application window for the UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme, allowing eligible individuals currently in France to submit an expression of interest to come to the UK through the designated GOV.UK portal at https://www.register-uk-european-applicant-transfer-scheme.homeoffice.gov.uk/start.
Under the 'one in, one out' agreement with France, the UK will return asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel by small boat in exchange for accepting individuals from France.
The Home Office's brief online guidance for submitting an application says the pilot scheme will be open for applications for a "short period", with an initial limited number of places to come to the UK. More comprehensive details on the scheme are available in the Home Office's new 83-page caseworker guidance, which can be downloaded from here.
To submit an expression of interest under the scheme, an applicant must apply online using the official form and must be physically present in France on the date of submission, as confirmed through geo-location verification by the Home Office. Applicants must be aged 18 or over at the time of application, unless applying as part of a family group with a parent who is at least 18. They must not be nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA) or possess free movement rights as family members of EEA nationals.
Each applicant is required to upload a valid passport or other identity document along with a recent photograph to confirm their identity and nationality. Applications will only be considered if the applicant has not been granted international protection or recognised as stateless by another country, does not currently hold immigration permission in France, and has not provided any information that could lead to refusal under Part 9 of the Immigration Rules.
The caseworker guidance further explains that when deciding which applications to accept, the Home Office will use a three-stage selection process designed to prioritise individuals who are most at risk of exploitation by smuggling or trafficking gangs, those who are more likely to be granted leave to remain in the UK, and those with a personal connection to the UK.
The process begins with stage 1, which selects applicants from nationalities with high grant rates for asylum and high volumes of applications. The guidance explains that high grant rate nationalities are those for which at least 25 asylum decisions have been made in the latest quarter, 100 in the past year, and where at least 80% of decisions in that year resulted in protection being granted. High volume nationalities refer to the three nationalities with the highest number of small boat arrivals from France to the UK between January and March 2025. The method for determining high grant rate and high-volume nationalities will be kept under review and assessed every 3 months when the quarterly immigration statistics are published.
Applicants who meet the stage 1 criteria are then randomly selected for assessment against the scheme's validity requirements. If an application is valid, it moves to stage 2, where applicants with a demonstrated connection to the UK are prioritised. Finally, stage 3 involves a random selection of valid applications that did not meet the earlier criteria. The Home Office says this structured process ensures a fair and targeted approach to selecting applicants under the scheme.
For family group applications, only the first applicant is assessed against the stage 1 and stage 2 selection criteria. If they qualify, the rest of the group can move forward, as long as each individual application meets the scheme's validity requirements.
Jonathan Featonby, Chief Policy Analyst at Refugee Council, noted on social media that he understands the list of countries meeting the criteria for stage 1 would be Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Myanmar, Palestine, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. He further noted, however, that many from these countries will lack the identity documents required to make an application.
According to the Home Office's online guidance, decisions on applications "may take some time", and applicants are advised not to contact the Home Office for updates. However, applicants must respond to the initial geo-location verification request within 24 hours of submitting their application. Successful applicants under the scheme will be given entry clearance for only 3 months to come to the UK. After arriving in the UK, they will need to apply for another type of permission to stay, such as by claiming asylum.
As applications open for those in France, so the first asylum seekers crossing the Channel to the UK have been detained for possible return. BBC News reported that an unspecified number were detained yesterday and will be held in immigration removal centres until they are returned to France. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was quoted as saying that further operational details would not be disclosed, as criminal gangs could exploit the information. She added that returns could begin within weeks.
In a letter to the Home Affairs Committee yesterday, the Home Secretary said: "The pilot will be developed to increase the scale and pace over time, and with the ability to trial different approaches. The UK and France will jointly monitor the effectiveness of this pilot and adapt the processes in response throughout the duration to respond to changes in migrant behaviour and to test effectiveness."
The Home Secretary justified bypassing the usual 21-day parliamentary scrutiny period for ratifying a treaty by citing 'exceptional circumstances'. She told the Committee: "I believe that the circumstances in this case are exceptional. Each month we see completely unacceptable and dangerous small boat crossings, organised by criminal smuggler and trafficking gangs which undermine our border security and put lives at risk. We need to both begin the pilot and increase the scale and pace of its operations as swiftly as possible."
Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, told the Home Affairs Committee: "Due to the risks of Organised Crime Gangs adapting their methods, and to prevent unnecessary journeys by small boat, or to France under misinformation on eligibility for the UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme, details of the route have been kept classified until operational."