Refugee Travel Document

A convention travel document can be applied for, if the UKBA has given the individual permission to stay in the UK as a refugee. The 1951 United Nations Convention in relation to the Status of Refugees made the provision of this document available.

The UKBA has the right to refuse any individual assess to this particular document due to specific good reasons such as the protection of national security. Any individual who applies for the refugee travel document must be able to prove his or her refugee status in the UK and he or she must be a legal resident in the UK economy.

Any documents sent to an applicant by the UKBA which contains certain official reference numbers can be used as proof by the applicant that he or she has permission to stay in the UK. These numbers are as follows:

• ACD 0122
• ACD 2151
• ASL 2151
• ADL 1
• ASL 2167
• GEN 23
• GEN 22
• ICD 0726

From the date the application is made, the applicant must have the permission to stay for at least 6 months on the UK. This is based on the fact that if the applicant has under six months leave, the visiting country may not accept the applicant’s travel documents. The individual must apply for an extended stay in the UK if his or her current permission to reside in the UK is set to expire under six months and this must be done before a travel document can be applied for.

A Home Office convention travel document cannot be used to travel by an applicant to his or her country of origin or to where he or she has soughed for asylum, except for in certain circumstances. Although the convention travel document is valid for travel in other countries.

Travelling Abroad Using a Convention Travel Document

The individual may also need to acquire a visa before entering some countries when he or she has acquired their convention travel document. The individual is required to make enquiries at the embassy of the country (or countries) he or she wishes to travel to before making travel arrangements.

Please note that if an individual has a convention travel document, he or she does not need a visa of 3 months or less to a number of listed countries for visits. An individual is required to make enquiries at the embassy of the country (or countries) he or she wishes to travel to before any travel arrangements are made and this is essential especially when the list of countries changes from time to time.