Guidance

Turkish ECAA business guidance

Immigration staff guidance on business applications under the Turkish EC Association Agreement

Published 5 March 2014
Last updated 14 February 2020 — see all updates

• From: UK Visas and Immigration

Documents

Business applications under the Turkish EC Association Agreement

PDF, 703KB, 97 pages

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Details

This immigration staff guidance gives information on deciding applications from self-employed Turkish businesspersons who wish to apply for an extension of stay in the UK to self-establish in business or continue operating their business under the Turkish EC Association Agreement.

The Home Office has announced new Immigration Rules to enable Turkish nationals who are in the UK as either ECAA business persons or ECAA workers, as well as their family members, to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

This announcement follows the 16 March 2018 withdrawal of the previous ECAA ILR policy, which operated outside of the Rules.

In addition to its commitments under the European Communities Association Agreement (ECAA), the UK will provide a tailored category of settlement for this group of Turkish nationals.

From 6 July, ECAA business persons and ECAA workers, as well as their family members will be able to apply for ILR, with standardised ILR requirements including:

• a 5 year residency requirement for main applicants and their spouses/partners
• a knowledge of language and life in the UK (KOLL) requirement
• the standard ILR application fee

Some eligibility requirements will be specific to the new ILR routes for persons here under the ECAA.

For example:

• the route will recognise time spent in the UK as an ECAA business person or worker, as well as time spent on equivalent routes under the Points Based system (PBS), provided the applicant is currently in the UK under the ECAA provisions
• children will able to settle at the same time as the main sponsor, including those children over the age of 21 provided they meet certain dependency requirements

We are also providing a new route for spouses to obtain further limited leave to remain while they accrue the necessary 5 years’ continuous leave in order to apply for ILR.

The full requirements of the new routes can be found in Appendix ECAA of the Immigration Rules.

Published 5 March 2014
Last updated 14 February 2020 + show all updates

1. 14 February 2020

   Guidance updated - amendment to refusal wording for leave to remain business cases.

2. 18 July 2019

   Updated guidance.

3. 16 March 2018

   Replace guidance document with a new version.

4. 16 March 2018

   Announcement added: no new ECAA ILR applications will be accepted on or after 16 March 2018.

5. 20 October 2015

   Updated guidance.

6. 21 May 2015

   Updated guidance.

7. 22 April 2015

   Updated guidance

8. 9 April 2015

   Updated guidance.

9. 23 February 2015

   Updated guidance.

10. 5 March 2014

    First published.