IMPACT – LOW

What is the change? The Home Office has announced it will shortly finalize the move of all content from its current website to the one-stop government website, GOV.UK.

What does the change mean? The GOV.UK website will serve as the primary source of information in the U.K. for immigration law, policy, news, application forms, procedures and processing times, and the UKBA’s historic site will no longer be used, but will re-direct visitors to GOV.UK in the short term.

  • Implementation timeframe: Immediate.
  • Visas/permits affected: All U.K. visas and permits.
  • Who is affected: Employers, advisors and foreign national applicants requiring information on Home Office/UKBA immigration.
  • Impact on processing times: None.

Background: The U.K. government set up the GOV.UK site in October 2012 as a place to bring information on all government services into one place, and the UKBA has been migrating immigration content there since March 2013. This process is due to finalize in March 2014, when the former UKBA website will be archived. As part of this process, UKBA content has been reviewed and rewritten to bring it in line with the GOV.UK “style,” but there should be no substantive changes.

BAL Analysis: The move of content will likely cause some short-term frustrations amongst frequent users of the Home Office’s current website, but planned redirects should ease this. Advisors are recommended to familiarize themselves with the GOV.UK site while there is still an opportunity to refer back.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group in the United Kingdom. For additional information, please contact uk@bal.com.

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