Home Office Sends Letters to Children as young as five — Leave To Remain Uk

The Home Office has sent letters telling children as young as five to leave to remain uk, even though their parents have been allowed to stay. The letters reached families that arrived before care-worker visa rules changed, and one woman six months pregnant was told to leave her husband and return to her country.

Varuni Arachchige Family Letters

Varuni Arachchige, a care worker in Perth, Scotland, said her family had been living legally in the UK since Christmas Day in 2022. She said: “We are completely shocked by the family receiving these letters.”

She also said: “My visa has been extended by the Home Office until 2031. But my husband and children who are my dependants have been told to leave the country.” Arachchige has two children aged eight and five.

Home Office Care Worker Rules

saw five letters sent by the Home Office to children telling them they must leave the UK. It also saw a sixth letter sent to a woman who is six months pregnant and lives in the UK with her husband, telling her she must leave him and return to her country.

The children whose families received the letters have parents on care worker visas. Until March 2024, those visas allowed workers to bring partners or children with them to the UK. The children who received the letters arrived before the bans and restrictions came into force.

Rasika Samarasinghe Refusal

Rasika Samarasinghe received a Home Office refusal to allow his dependants to stay in the UK after arriving in October 2022. He has a wife who works as a teaching assistant and three children aged 12, nine and eight. “I don’t know what to do,” he said.

The cases sit within a wider clampdown on care-worker migration and family visas. The government began tightening the rules after the Home Office estimated in 2023 that about 120,000 family members were in the UK, joining 100,000 care worker applicants. From March 2024, care workers were no longer allowed to bring partners or children with them, and a ban on overseas recruitment of care workers started in July 2025.

Two surveys point to another consequence if settlement rules change from five years to 15 years. Tulia Group CIC surveyed 269 migrant care workers and found only 36% said they would remain in the UK with longer settlement rules. Lifted surveyed 1,162 migrant care workers and found 69% said they would consider leaving if the 15-year rule comes into force. The current workforce of sponsored migrant carers provides 4.2 million hours of care a week for up to 280,000 people.