Statement of changes HC 733: visa regime imposed on Trinidad and Tobago and help given to some care workers

The latest statement of changes to the immigration rules has been published, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum and a ministerial statement. A visa regime has been imposed on Trinidad and Tobago with immediate effect, I am pretty sure you can guess why. Details on that and many of the other changes are set out below.

Imposition of a visa regime on Trinidad and Tobago – 3pm today

Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago can no longer apply for an electronic travel authorisation to travel to the UK and will instead have to apply in advance for a visitor visa, as the country is added to Appendix Visa National effective almost immediately. A transitional period is in place for six weeks, where those who already hold an electronic travel authorisation and a confirmed booking to the UK made before 3pm today, to arrive in the UK no later than 3pm on 23 April 2025.

As has also been the case with other countries being added to the visa national list in recent years, such as Jordan and Colombia, the explanatory memorandum states that this is being done because of the number of people claiming asylum. Let’s take a look at those numbers.

The number of asylum applications has increased from 234 applications (representing 353 people) in 2023 to 272 applications (444 people) last year. In 2023 there were decisions on 157 applications, with 22 succeeding in the asylum claim (14%) and three main applicants granted another form of leave. In 2024 there were decisions on 236 applications with 35 of those asylum grants (15%) and three main applicants granted another form of leave.

It really doesn’t seem to take very much for a country to be placed on the visa national list. Although, the minister has described it as “a significant and sustained increase in asylum claims, which has added significantly to operational pressures at the border and resulted in frontline resource being diverted from other operational priorities”. In 2024 there were 108,138 people who claimed asylum in the UK, those from Trinidad and Tobago representing 0.4% of claims.

A low number of asylum claims based on sexual orientation are made by nationals of Trinidad and Tobago. The last reported year is 2023 when fewer than five asylum claims were made. There were ten initial decisions made that year, of which six were granted refugee status (60%).

Protection for care workers – 9 April

A new requirement has been added that must be met before a sponsor in England can sponsor a new recruit from other immigration routes or from overseas under the categories “6135 Care workers and home carers” or “6136 Senior care workers”. New paragraph SW 6.1C states that:

(a) the sponsor must have tried to recruit for the job the applicant is being sponsored for, from the pool of Skilled Workers who:
(i) are in the UK;
(ii) were last sponsored in an occupation code in SW 6.1B; and
(iii) are in need of new sponsorship because their sponsor has lost its licence or has not provided sufficient work , or have been identified by the relevant regional or sub-regional partnership (set up for the purpose of delivering activity which prevents and responds to exploitative employment practices with international recruitment of care staff, in the area in which the sponsor is located or recruiting) as a worker requiring assistance in obtaining new sponsorship;

Skilled Worker salary changes – 9 April

The minimum salary for Skilled Workers is being increased from £23,200 per year (or £11.90 per hour) to £25,000 per year (or £12.82 per hour).

The going rates for occupations in healthcare and education are also changing. Another small but potentially important change to be aware of is that the 40 hour working week used for the going rate in paragraph SW14.5 (transitional arrangements for salary on the Skilled Worker route) is being reduced to a 37.5 hour working week.

Where applicants are relying on a “new entrant” salary reduction, a change has been made to state that they must be relying on a UK qualification.

Ukraine schemes – 9 April

Changes made to the Home for Ukraine scheme in February 2024 heavily restricted those who could sponsor people under the scheme. A concession was made on 31 January 2025 to allow Ukrainian nationals to sponsor minor children under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, following pressure from charities as well as legal action brought by the Work Rights Centre. Those granted leave outside the rules before that concession was put in place have now been expressly added as eligible to apply under the new Ukraine Permission Extension scheme prior to the expiry of their leave.

In line with similar changes made elsewhere in the rules last year, the definition of parent for the Home for Ukraine scheme is being amended to remove step-parents.

Changes to the EU Settlement Scheme – 9 April

Changes are being made to allow non-EEA national to use a UK biometric residence card or permit which has expired by up to 18 months as proof of their identity and nationality when applying to the EU Settlement Scheme. Where this is done, the applicant will not be required to provide their biometrics again.

The wording in Appendix Administrative Review (EU) at 4.1 has been slightly changed, with the words in bold added:

Where an administrative review under this Appendix is pending, and the applicant has not left the UK, or
has been granted entry into the UK (which does not include a person granted immigration bail), the Home Office will not seek to remove them from the UK

This is presumably to address the issue of people being turned away at the border as raised by the Independent Monitoring Authority last year, and to make explicit the risk of leaving the UK, although if this is the case I think it could have been made clearer.

Other changes noted in the explanatory memorandum are:

• To confirm that a person who became an EU, other EEA or Swiss citizen after the end of the transition period cannot sponsor an EUSS family permit application.
• To enable an EUSS or EUSS family permit application to be refused on suitability grounds, without a deportation or exclusion order being in place, where the applicant’s conduct before the end of the transition period meets the relevant EU law public policy test applicable under the Citizens’ Rights Agreements.
• To confirm that, under the EU law public policy test applicable under the Citizens’ Rights Agreements to suitability decisions based on the applicant’s conduct before the end of the transition period, the threshold of ‘serious grounds’ of public policy or public security is to be met where they have (or are eligible for) indefinite leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU and not under other parts of the Immigration Rules.

Electronic travel authorisation exemptions

From 9 April, British Nationals (Overseas) will be exempt from the need to apply for an electronic travel authorisation, this requirement only having been added last week.

Effective from 2 April, children visiting the UK with a French school group will also not need to obtain an ETA, this is to ensure that non-visa national children (who can travel using a national identity card) and visa national children (must travel with a passport) are treated the same.

Appendix Short-term Study (English Language) – 9 April

STS 5.1 is being amended to include a “genuine intention to study” requirement, which seems likely to increase the number of refusals given these decisions are at the discretion of the Home Office decision maker.

Appendix Child Student – 29 May

On 29 May 2025, a new definition of “nominated guardian” will be added to paragraph 6.2(b) of the immigration rules:

“Nominated guardian” in Appendix Child Student means a person aged 18 years old or over who is appointed by the Child Student’s parent, legal guardian, or school as the Child Student’s carer in the UK outside of term-time for less than 28 days and/or is the school’s emergency contact in the UK for the Child Student. The person must not be:
(a) a private foster carer (for the purposes of section 66 of the Children’s Act 1989); or
(b) close relative the Child Student is living with during term-time; or
(c) the Child Student’s parent or legal guardian who has permission as a Parent of a Child Student.

Appendix Child Student is also being amended to include a care requirement for a child student. The Home Office decision maker “must be satisfied that there are appropriate care, living and, where applicable, guardianship arrangements in place for the applicant’s safety whilst in the UK”. A living arrangement requirement is also being added, as well as a discretionary ground for refusal where the carer has committed a criminal offence.

Administrative review – 9 April

Finally, in what appears to be a positive move, the free out-of-country error correction team is to be expanded to include in-country cases where there is an error in the conditions or time period in a grant of permission. These types of requests are therefore being removed from Appendix Administrative Review at AR2.1(e).

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