All Articles: Statement of Changes

Statement of changes HC 334 has been published today stating that the concession allowing Ukrainians to travel to the UK without the need to enrol their biometrics in advance will end on 18 December 2024. As of 3pm today, subject to transitional provisions, Colombians must obtain entry clearance before coming...

26th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

In this episode of the podcast Barry does everyone a big favour by taking us through the autumn statement of changes in detail. Sonia and Barry also have a bit of a call to arms on discretionary grants of indefinite leave to remain and tackling the ten year route. The...

7th October 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The autumn statement of changes HC 217 has been published, accompanied by a written statement from Seema Malhotra MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship. The errors we covered last week in relation to skilled worker going rates are being corrected from 8 October 2024 and we...

10th September 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

A visit visa allows a person to visit the United Kingdom on a temporary basis, usually for up to six months at a time. As is typical of many sections of the immigration rules, the rules for visitors are complex and spread across several different appendices. The rules are also...

5th July 2024
BY colinyeo

The British National (Overseas) citizens immigration route opened on 31 January 2021. This article sets out the rules for the BNO visa scheme, including recent changes. The Home Office abbreviation is “BN(O)”, which we will use where it forms part of the official title of a route, but otherwise stick...

30th May 2024
BY John Vassiliou

As previously advised, today a statement of changes and explanatory memorandum to the immigration rules was published to bring in the income threshold increases for both skilled worker and Appendix FM partner routes. The immigration minister made a statement summarising the changes relating to the skilled worker, Appendix FM partner,...

14th March 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

As trailed previously, a statement of changes has been published today removing the rights of care workers to bring dependants to the UK. What was not mentioned in advance was that this statement of changes would also close the Ukraine Family Scheme with immediate effect (from 3pm 19 February 2024),...

19th February 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

A new statement of changes has been laid today. Most of the changes relate to the EU Settlement Scheme and travel document requirements for school groups visiting the UK from France. There are also three new appendices (taking us up to 81 separate appendices to the immigration rules), Appendix Bereaved...

7th December 2023
BY Sonia Lenegan

A new statement of changes has been published along with the explanatory memorandum and a written statement from the immigration minister. The biggest change is the removal of administrative review from decisions made under the EU Settlement Scheme. Many of the changes are minor technical or drafting changes. It is...

7th September 2023
BY Sonia Lenegan

On 17 July 2023, a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published. As usual, it is accompanied by an Explanatory Memorandum. Also as usual, it is largely concerned with cracking down on those perceived as abusing immigration law. There are, though, one or two positive changes. Asylum...

18th July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

A new statement of changes to the immigration rules has now been published. The explanatory memorandum to the statement can be found here. The most significant changes are the addition of the Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme, and the introduction of the Innovator Founder route on 13 April 2023. The minimum...

9th March 2023
BY Josie Laidman

The new Statement of Changes, published on 18 October 2022, has introduced yet another appendix to the Immigration Rules: Appendix Temporary Permission to Stay for Victims of Human Trafficking or Slavery. The new appendix will be added on 30 January 2023. The provisions largely mirror those set out in primary...

26th October 2022
BY Eva Maria Doerr

The Home Office has published a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 17). It is largely focused on changes to the asylum system following the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the agreement with Rwanda to export refugees to that country. The changes come...

12th May 2022
BY CJ McKinney

The Home Office is writing two special visa schemes for Ukrainians into the Immigration Rules and adding a third for people already here. Statement of changes HC 1220 codifies the existing Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme (described here) from today, 30 March 2022, and creates a new...

30th March 2022
BY CJ McKinney

On 9 July 2022, the first people granted permission to stay under the ten-year private and family life routes will start to qualify for indefinite leave to remain. Now, just in time for that anniversary, the Home Office has introduced what it describes as a “simplified” approach to such cases....

17th March 2022
BY Deborah Revill

No set of amendments to the Immigration Rules is complete without tweaks and additions to the ever-expanding Points Based Immigration System, and statement of changes HC 1118 is no exception. In addition to the changes already outlined by CJ, there are a number of important changes to existing routes, as...

17th March 2022
BY Alex Piletska

The government has published 205 pages worth of changes to the Immigration Rules. The changes are being phased in over the next few months, starting on 6 April 2022. Highlights include: Children who live in the UK for seven years can get immigration permission with settlement either immediately or after...

16th March 2022
BY CJ McKinney

The Investor visa route has been closed to all new applicants with “immediate effect”, the Home Office announced this afternoon, citing “security concerns” and “wider corruption”. This follows multiple media reports yesterday that closure was imminent, although an announcement had not been expected until next week. A statement of changes...

17th February 2022
BY CJ McKinney

Social care workers can get Skilled Worker visas from 15 February 2022. The change was first announced on Christmas Eve and has now been confirmed in a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 1019), published yesterday. Employers (but not private households) will be able to sponsor care assistants,...

25th January 2022
BY CJ McKinney

And just like that we have a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. HC 913 was laid yesterday, 14 December 2021, and solely addresses changes to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and Ex Gratia Scheme for Locally Employed Staff. It came into effect, wait for it…...

15th December 2021
BY Sarah Pinder

The latest statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 803) allows pork butchers to come into the UK as Seasonal Workers for up to six months. It came into force at 4pm on 1 November 2021. The government announced last month that 800 temporary visas would be made available...

2nd November 2021
BY CJ McKinney

The Home Office has published a short statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. It is to implement the emergency temporary visa schemes for HGV drivers and poultry workers and therefore comes into force at 4pm today. Employers in those sectors will be able to request workers from four named...

11th October 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Lurking in the weeds of the latest statement of changes are some tweaks to the procedural requirements in Part 1 of the Immigration Rules. Most take effect today. These provisions may not be the sexiest part of immigration law but they are worth paying attention to. Falling foul of a...

6th October 2021
BY Alex Piletska

Changes to Appendix EU and Appendix EU (Family Permit) to the Immigration Rules come into force on 6 October 2021. This post attempts to flag the significant changes that are likely to impact on current and future applications. Joining family members As far as Appendix EU is concerned, the first...

20th September 2021
BY Sarah Pinder

Scattered throughout the latest statement of changes like needles in a 186-page haystack are three COVID-19 concessions that previously only appeared in Home Office guidance. They will now form part of the Immigration Rules. In immigration law, a concession is a policy operated by the Home Office that is more...

17th September 2021
BY Alex Piletska

On 10 September 2021 the Home Office published a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 617). It is 183 pages long and makes adjustments in quite a number of areas. Some of the main changes are: Banning entry to the UK with an ID card rather than a...

13th September 2021
BY CJ McKinney

The Home Office published a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules today. It is 108 pages long and the changes take effect on 6 April 2021 unless otherwise specified. Most relate to the work and study routes branded as the Points Based Immigration System, although there are various...

4th March 2021
BY CJ McKinney

A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published on 31 December 2020 and took effect at 11pm that night. (We weren’t working at the time, for some reason, so do excuse the delay in bringing you this summary). It is short enough that you can get a...

5th January 2021
BY CJ McKinney

On 10 December 2020 the Home Office published a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules that appears to be a flagrant breach of the UN Refugee Convention. The purpose of the main change is to: Enhance our capacity to treat as inadmissible to the UK asylum system asylum claims...

11th December 2020
BY CJ McKinney

The Immigration Rules covering student visas were substantially revised in early September 2020, with the changes coming into force on 5 October. As Nath has noted, this means that the student routes were not as affected as other categories by the major statement of changes (HC 813) on 22 October,...

10th November 2020
BY Bilaal Shabbir

Appendix EU and Appendix EU (Family Permit), which contain the rules for the EU Settlement Scheme, have received their latest revamp in the recent statement of changes (HC 813) to the Immigration Rules. The explanatory memo says that the changes “mainly reflect the end of the transition period” between the...

5th November 2020
BY Chris Benn

Following the failings identified by the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, Priti Patel promised a “compassionate… people first” Home Office. But over the past few months the Home Office seems to have entertained only the most inhumane immigration policies, such as offshore “asylum processing centres” mirroring Australia’s notorious Nauru detention centre,...

29th October 2020
BY Larry Lock

For work-based immigration, last week’s statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was in many ways rather anticlimactic. The last two years have seen a series of reports and policy statements setting out the government’s plans for a ‘new’ Points-Based Immigration System. The major changes therefore come as no great...

29th October 2020
BY Joanna Hunt

New Statement of Changes alert! With the end of EU free movement nearly here and the visitor route likely to see greater use in future, changes to the route have (in the nick of time) now been announced. A new Appendix V will replace the existing version, with a key...

26th October 2020
BY Zeena Luchowa

The joy of working in immigration law is writing a 4,000 word briefing on the English language requirement, only to see a new provider added to the list three days after it is published, before an entirely new English language section of the Immigration Rules is announced two weeks later...

23rd October 2020
BY Alex Piletska

The long-awaited statement of changes giving us more details on the famous “new Points-Based Immigration System” has now been published. It is over 500 pages long and even the explanatory memorandum, which is usually just a few pages long, weighs in at 50 pages. This article is a summary of...

22nd October 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

Is a statement of changes even a statement of changes nowadays if it doesn’t introduce a new appendix to the Immigration Rules? On 10 September 2020, the government laid the first statement of changes of its infamous “new Point-Based Immigration System”. It includes the addition of five new appendices. The...

11th September 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

The DeSouza case raised complex issues of citizenship, identity and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, but at the heart of the case was an immigration matter and a family who have faced a brutal uphill struggle to live together in the UK, like so many others. Last week, the...

21st May 2020
BY Una Boyd

If you can say one thing about the Home Office, it’s that they have questionable priorities! In the middle of a pandemic, with thousands of migrants not knowing whether or not they will have to leave the UK in just over two weeks, the department has decided to publish a...

15th May 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

The government continues to keep us immigration lawyers on our toes, and everyone else completely flummoxed, with yet another statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. Thankfully, many of these changes are welcome as they plug gaps in the EU Settlement Scheme. But it is difficult to keep up with...

13th March 2020
BY Chris Desira
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