Subject Access Request to the Home Office

The Subject Access Request Unit covers immigration, citizenship and Border Force records only. Passport records held by HM Passport Office are a separate route, as is other Home Office data. UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), Border Force and Immigration Enforcement publish this route jointly, and a request goes to the Subject Access Request Unit rather than to any one of them directly. Supporting documents must arrive within 7 days or the application is rejected automatically. This deadline was shortened from 15 days on 5 May 2026. Three request options: basic (all digital information recorded since 2000), specific (up to 5 named documents) and detailed (adds paper records from the file). If you need to evidence your travel history or your absences from the UK, the basic request is the option that carries it: the Home Office says it returns the dates applications were submitted and decisions made, landing cards, and visa applications you submitted from outside the UK as part of entry clearance. If you are looking for UK entry and exit records, a Home Office SAR is the route to ask: the borders, immigration and citizenship privacy notice says the Home Office holds information collected when you travel to and from the UK and when you enter the UK by crossing the border. A SAR cannot be used to obtain proof of immigration status or eVisa access, and the Home Office will not supply it. Each family member must apply separately. On 4 August 2026 the Home Office added a disclaimer that requests are taking longer than the published processing times. Complaints about how a request was handled go to SARU first at subjectaccessrequest@homeoffice.gov.uk, then to the Office of the Data Protection Officer at dpo@homeoffice.gov.uk if you are not satisfied. The ODPO cannot give you an update on a request that is still outstanding.

Made under UK GDPR Article 15, subject to the exemptions in Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018

Central government departments hold large, long-lived files, and requests to them are usually tied to a decision the person is challenging: an immigration application, a benefit decision, a tax assessment. Naming the decision, the date and any reference number substantially improves what comes back.

Departments also have exemptions available to them that most organisations do not. Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 lets them restrict access where complying would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, or the assessment or collection of a tax or duty. HMRC relies on the last of these. Separately, an immigration exemption lets the Home Office restrict access where complying would be likely to prejudice effective immigration control. Both are limited to the extent of the prejudice — neither is a blanket refusal, and a department has to justify withholding rather than assert it.

The immigration exemption in particular has been narrowed by litigation. The Court of Appeal found it incompatible with the UK GDPR twice, in 2021 and again in December 2023, and it was amended after each judgment. Since the amendments in force on 8 March 2024 the Home Office must decide case by case, separately for each right, and afresh each time, must show a substantial risk that outweighs the risk to your interests, must record its reasons, and must tell you it has applied the exemption unless saying so would itself be prejudicial.

Departments run their own subject access routes rather than one central one, and several also publish a faster self-service channel that answers the same question for free. Using the wrong one is the most common cause of delay: a request sent to a general enquiry address gets rerouted, and a request for information already sitting in an online account gets refused as unnecessary.

• Immigration and visa application files
• Benefit claim records and decision notes
• Tax records and correspondence
• Records of a decision you are appealing
• Internal notes and assessments about you

Deadline. An organisation must respond without undue delay and within one month. It may extend by up to two further months where the request is complex or you have made a number of requests, but it must tell you within the first month that it is doing so, and why.

Cost. There is normally no fee. A reasonable fee may only be charged where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or where you ask for further copies.

Proving who you are. An organisation may ask you to verify your identity, but only where it has reasonable doubts about who you are, and it should ask for the minimum needed. Where it needs further information to deal with your request, the one-month clock pauses until you provide it.

How hard they have to look. An organisation has to carry out a reasonable and proportionate search — not an exhaustive one. What counts as reasonable depends on the volume of information, the difficulty of locating it, and the size and resources of the organisation. This is a common reason for a partial response, and it is worth being specific about what you want.

If they ignore you. Complain to the organisation first. Since 19 June 2026 every organisation has had a legal duty to give you a clear way to raise a data protection complaint, to acknowledge it within 30 days, to look into it properly and to tell you the outcome. If it does not, or the answer is incomplete, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.