The police registration requirement has been abolished
The Home Office suspended the police registration requirement in August 2022, and with effect from 9 November 2022 has now removed this requirement completely. There is no longer a requirement for any visa holder to register with the police or report changes to them. This is confirmed in Home Office guidance
Previously visa holders and dependants (aged 16 or over) from some countries were required to register with the police and hold a Police Registration Certificate (PRC) if they were coming to the UK for longer than six months. Those required to register had to report within 7 days after arriving in the UK, and then report certain changes to the police as they arose, keeping their PRC up to date.
If a visa holder was required to register with the police as part of their visa conditions but did not, they would have been committing an offence, may have had a fine imposed, and would have encountered difficulties when they applied for a new visa. These penalties now no longer apply, even if a visa holder should have registered or reported changes before the police registration requirements were removed.
The Home Office recognised that the police registration process was outdated, the information provided has already been submitted by visa applicants, and changes in the screening and visa processes meant that it no longer provided any public protection benefit to either the Home Office or the police. As a result they have abolished this requirement and visa holders (new or existing) no longer need to register with, or report changes to, the police.
