HOME OFFICE
SHORT TERM
If you intend to leave the UK but have not been able to do so and you have a visa or leave that expires between 1 January 2021 and 28 February 2021 you may request additional time to stay, known as ‘exceptional assurance’.
If there were no travel restrictions or other reasons for being unable to leave the UK, requestors were given a short-term period of assurance referred to as a short-term assurance, for a period of two weeks, to allow them time to leave the UK.
LONG TERM
If you decide to stay in the UK, you should apply for the necessary permission to stay to regularise your stay. You’ll be able to submit an application form from within the UK, whereas you would usually need to apply for a visa from your home country. You must submit your application before the expiry of your ‘exceptional assurance’.
Those granted exceptional or short-term assurance were informed they could apply for permission to stay or leave the UK before the expiry of their assurance.
It was an assurance given upon successful request to the Home Office. Time between an applicant’s request for exceptional assurance being submitted and it being granted was considered as if the applicant held exceptional assurance from the date of request.