First statement of changes of 2025 published, with numerous changes taking effect from today until 13 August 2025
The Home Office has today published a major new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules, making numerous changes. The 135-page statement of changes can be downloaded here. The 20-page accompanying explanatory memorandum is here. All documents related to the statement (HC 733) can be accessed from here on GOV.UK. The changes take effect from today through to 13 August 2025, with the majority coming into force in April.
As widely reported in the media today, the UK is introducing a visa requirement for all visitors from Trinidad and Tobago, effective immediately. Nationals will also need a Direct Airside Transit Visa if transiting via the UK. Those with an existing electronic travel authorisation (ETA) and confirmed travel before the deadline can still enter visa-free until 23 April 2025. This change follows a rise in Trinidad and Tobago nationals travelling for non-permitted purposes, including a surge in asylum claims, impacting border operations.
The Times quoted a Government spokesperson as saying: "There has been a significant increase in the number of Trinidad and Tobago nationals coming to the UK as visitors only to claim asylum on arrival, which constitutes a misuse of our immigration system. The UK's relationship with Trinidad and Tobago remains a strong one, and we will continue to warmly welcome visitors, who will now need to apply for a visit visa."
Additional immigration rule changes include updates to the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme to further support Ukrainian families, adjustments to the EU Settlement Scheme, reforms to protect care workers under the Skilled Worker visa route, an increase in the Skilled Worker minimum salary threshold, and an exemption from the ETA requirement for British Nationals (Overseas).
In response to growing concerns over the exploitation of overseas care workers and the failure of some providers to uphold their employment commitments, the Government is introducing new measures to prioritise the recruitment of existing care workers already in the UK before employers can sponsor new hires from abroad. This aims to support workers who have lost sponsorship due to employers being unable to provide adequate work or losing their sponsor licenses. The requirement applies only in England and does not affect workers switching from other immigration routes if they have been employed by the same provider for at least three months. The Home Office has more on this change in a press release here.
Additionally, the Government is raising the minimum salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas from £23,200 to £25,000 per year (or from £11.90 to £12.82 per hour). This routine update ensures salary requirements remain aligned with the latest wage data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and keeps the threshold well above the National Living Wage, which will also rise in April 2025.
Changes are being made to the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme (UPE) and the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (HfU). The UPE allows Ukrainians and their eligible family members to extend their stay, and eligibility will now extend to children under 18 who were previously granted Leave Outside the Rules, aligning their status with their families. Updates to the HfU scheme will introduce an 'approved sponsor' requirement for minors and standardise the definition of "parent" to align with the broader immigration system. Additionally, parents wishing to be joined by their children must be lawfully resident in the UK. The Government stresses that none of the changes constitute a reduction of support for Ukrainians.
In a written statement to Parliament, the Minister for Migration and Citizenship provided the following details about the changes:
Seema Malhotra
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship
Statement
My rt hon Friend the Home Secretary is today laying before the House a Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules.
Introduction of a Visit Visa requirement on Trinidad and Tobago
We are today introducing a visa requirement on all visitors from Trinidad and Tobago. Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago will also be required to obtain a Direct Airside Transit Visa if they intend to transit via the UK having booked travel to another country. The visa requirement comes into force at 15:00 GMT today.
Consequential to this, nationals of Trinidad and Tobago will no longer be eligible to apply for an electronic travel authorisation for travel to the UK.
There will be a six-week, visa-free transition period for those who already hold an electronic travel authorisation and confirmed bookings to the UK obtained on or before 15:00 GMT 12 March 2025 where arrival in the UK is no later than 15:00 BST 23 April 2025.
Arrangements are in place so that nationals of Trinidad and Tobago nationals can apply for visas. We are publicising the changes so travellers are aware and can plan accordingly.
We are taking this action due to an increase in the number of Trinidad and Tobago nationals travelling to the UK for purposes other than those permitted under visitor rules. This has included 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.
The decision to introduce a visa requirement has been taken solely for migration and border security reasons. Our relationship with our Commonwealth partner Trinidad and Tobago remains a strong and friendly one. Any decision to change a visa status is not taken lightly and we keep the border and immigration system under regular review to ensure it continues to work in the UK national interest.
Changes to the Ukraine Scheme
The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme (UPE) opened on 4 February 2025, and allows Ukrainians, and their eligible family members, who have been living in the UK with permission under one of the existing routes within Appendix Ukraine Scheme, or outside the Immigration Rules in specified circumstances, to apply for a further period of 18 months' permission to stay in the UK. The launch of UPE reflects our commitment to providing further support for Ukrainians in the UK whilst the conflict with Russia continues.
We are making some minor changes to UPE to extend the validity requirements further. This will include bringing in scope children under 18 who were granted Leave to Enter the UK outside the Immigration Rules so they could join or stay with their parents who already held Ukraine Scheme permission. Going forward, a change to the Homes for Ukraine Scheme guidance that was published on 31 January will enable eligible parents to sponsor their children to come to UK under the Homes for Ukraine route. However, making this change to the UPE requirements now will enable children who have already been granted Leave Outside the Rules in these circumstances to align their status with their parents by enabling them to apply to UPE when their current permission is due to expire. This will provide further reassurance and certainty about their status in the UK.
There will also be some minor drafting changes to the eligibility rules for UPE to better reflect the existing policy intention.
We are also making changes to the Homes for Ukraine (HfU) scheme, to include the 'approved sponsor' requirements for eligible minors in both validity and eligibility sections of the Rules. This will enable decision makers to determine applications which do not have an approved sponsor. We will also align the definition of parent across HfU and UPE, so it is consistent with the wider immigration system. In order to preserve the integrity of the broader immigration system, we will also introduce a requirement that parents who wish to be joined by their children in the UK under the HfU scheme must be lawfully resident in the UK.
Finally, changes to the Immigration Rules were laid in November 2024 (HC 334) to end the use of 'permission to travel' (PTT) letters on the Ukraine schemes from 13 February onwards. The Rules currently allow PTT arrivals to vary their permission in country within 6 months of their arrival. As there will be no further PTT arrivals from 13 February, no one will be able to vary their permission in this way from 13 August onwards. We are consequently making a change to the Rules to remove this provision from that date, as it will no longer be required.
These changes to Appendix Ukraine Scheme do not constitute a reduction of support for Ukraine and the UK government remains steadfast in its commitment to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.
Changes relating to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
The EUSS enables EU, other European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss citizens living in the UK before the end of the post-EU exit transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020, and their family members, to obtain the immigration status they need to continue living in the UK, consistently with the Citizens' Rights Agreements.
The main changes enable a non-EEA national applicant to use a UK-issued biometric residence card or permit which has expired by up to 18 months as proof of their identity and nationality; confirm that a person with a pending administrative review of an EUSS decision, who has not left the UK or has been granted entry into the UK (except on immigration bail), will not be removed from the UK; and enable an 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 Agreements.
Changes relating to care workers in the Skilled Worker route
The Government values the important contribution care workers from overseas make to social care services. However, too many providers have recruited care workers to the UK and failed to provide them with the work they were promised, or have subjected them to appalling exploitation. We have a duty to protect people against destitution, exploitation and modern slavery, and the best way to do so is through secure, properly paid work and employment conditions.
We are therefore making changes to address the growing pool of care workers and senior care workers in this route who no longer have sponsorship, because their sponsors have been unable to offer sufficient work and/or have lost their sponsor licences.
The changes require providers to try to recruit from this pool of workers who are seeking new employment, before seeking to sponsor new recruits from other immigration routes or from overseas.
The changes do not apply to workers outside England, or where providers are seeking to sponsor someone switching from another immigration route who has already been working for them for at least three months. We will keep the geographic coverage of this requirement under close review.
Changes to the minimum salary for Skilled Worker visas
A routine change is being made to update the minimum salary floor from £23,200 per year (or £11.90 per hour) to £25,000 per year (or £12.82 per hour). It is standard practice to update this and other salary requirements across work visa routes each year, using the latest Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This ensures these salary requirements continue to reflect the latest pay situation for UK workers. As the Government intends to shortly publish an Immigration White Paper, the changes are being limited to only updating the minimum salary floor. This is to ensure it reflects the latest ASHE data and remains significantly above the National Living Wage, which is also increasing in April 2025.
Appendix ETA – exemption for British Nationals (Overseas)
We are removing British Nationals (Overseas) from the list of nationalities requiring an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) for travel to the UK.
This means that holders of a BN(O) passport will be able to travel to or transit via the UK without requiring an ETA. We will keep this exemption under review.
These changes to the Immigration Rules are being laid on 12 March 2025. For the changes that introduce a Visa requirement on Trinidad and Tobago, due to safeguarding the operation of the UK's immigration system, those changes will come into effect at 15:00 GMT on 12 March 2025. For the changes relating to the Ukraine Scheme, those changes will come into effect on various dates from 2 April 2025, as detailed in the Statement of Changes. All other changes will come into effect on 9 April 2025.