How do you renew or extend UK residence permission in 2026?

Apply online on the route-specific form before the end date on your current permission. For many worker routes, such as Skilled Worker, that means filing while you still hold leave, usually with a decision expected within about eight weeks after you submit. Dependants do not extend automatically. A partner or child must file their own extension or switch before their leave ends.

Switching is not always allowed from every category. Visit visas, short-term student permission, seasonal work, and some other short stays typically cannot switch in-country to Skilled Worker. Those applicants must leave and apply from abroad. Route pages on GOV.UK list the blocked starting categories.

If you change employer or occupation code on Skilled Worker, an ordinary “same job, same sponsor” extension is the wrong product. You need the update or change-of-employment application for that sponsorship instead.

When you submit a valid variation application before leave expires and no decision has issued by the expiry date, section 3C usually continues the same leave and conditions until the application is decided or withdrawn, and while certain appeals or administrative reviews remain pending. A late application after expiry does not create section 3C leave. You risk becoming an overstayer.

Section 3C leave ends if you leave the United Kingdom. On many in-country worker applications, travelling outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man before a decision can withdraw the application. Plan travel only after you read the decision letter and confirm your new status.

Keep decision emails, appointment references, and any biometric appointment booking. Older physical cards are not the live proof of a new grant. After approval, create or open your UKVI account and set up the UK eVisa so employers and landlords can check a share code. Legacy card questions sit on getting a UK residence card.

An extension keeps time-limited leave. Settlement, often called indefinite leave to remain, removes the end date once you meet the route’s continuous-residence and other rules. That path is separate: get permanent residence in the UK. Do not treat a routine extension as settlement, and do not wait until the last week if your next step is settlement eligibility rather than another limited grant.

After each grant, update employers, landlords, banks, and council records with the new end date and share-code process. Wider post-arrival sequencing sits in paperwork after moving to the UK.