UK Visas and Immigration guidance on when and how staff may make an arrest using administrative immigration or criminal powers.
This is part of Immigration Enforcement General Instructions.
Guidance in this section has been reworked into a new format and plainer language. Not all of the enforcement guidance has been revised yet. If you cannot find the information you need in this section, please look in the chapters sections of Enforcement instructions and guidance.
We are aware these publications may have accessibility issues. We are reviewing them so that we can fix these.
Updated the arrest and restraint guidance. From 1 April 2024, individuals who were previously described as the IE operational grade of Assistant Director will be known as Grade 7 in this guidance.
Updated Immigration Enforcement powers to reflect that from 1 April 2024, individuals who were previously described as the IE operational grade of Assistant Director will now be known as Grade 7 (Assistant Director) in this guidance.
Updated warrants: procurement and use guidance to reflectthat from 1 April 2024, individuals who were previously described as the IE operational grade of Assistant Director will now be known as Grade 7 (Assistant Director) in this guidance.
Partnership working guidance updated with the following changes: from 1 April 2024, individuals who were previously described as the IE operational grade of Assistant Director will now be known as Grade 7 (Assistant Director); individuals who were previously described as the IE operational grade of Deputy Director will now be known as Grade 6; the IE operational grade equivalent of Grade 5 (SCS, PB1), will be referred to as Deputy Director.
Updated the dealing with potential criminality (ICE teams) guidance, as from 1 April 2024 individuals who were previously described as the IE operational grade of Assistant Director will now be known as Grade 7 (Assistant Director) in this guidance.
Updated version of the Record keeping during enforcement visits guidance. All references to the paper pocket notebook (PNB) have been removed from the main body and placed into a contingency section at the end of the guidance.References to obsolete systems have also been removed.
Replaced Enforcement planning assessments guidance to give extra clarification on the completion of Equalities and Community Impact Assessment (ECIA) in line with the ECIA v2.0 template and to update the link to the generic Home Office EIA guidance and template page.
Document 'Coercive powers: overview' replaced by new document 'Immigration Enforcement powers'.
'Dealing with potential criminality (ICE teams)' updated. Full details are in the 'Changes from last version of this guidance' section.
The marriage investigations document has been updated.
Updated enforcement planning assessments guidance to include clarification of reasonable hours in respect of visit timings, PRONTO process update and clarification of which agency completes CIA on joint visits.
Updated Verbal abuse, obstruction and assault - Immigration Enforcement guidance.
Marriage investigations guidance updated.
Dealing with potential criminality (ICE teams) guidance has been updated to include clarification of details on aggravating factors.
Replaced 'Safeguarding and establishing lawful residence' - updated section on British Overseas Territories Citizens to reflect changes introduced by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
Added accessible version of Marriage investigations.
Minor revision to Safeguarding - establishing lawful residence concerning scope and intent of guidance in relation to use by non-Immigration Enforcement staff, additional detailed examples of evidence that might be sought/considered and updated links.
New forms added in version 2.0 of Preventing illegal working in licenced premises.
