The Home Office has published the first Statement of Changes of the year 2025 introducing several changes to the UK Immigration rules. These are :
1. Introduction of Visit Visa requirement for nationals of Trinidad and Tobago
Effective 12 March 2025, nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, will need to apply for a visa prior to visiting the UK as Trinidad and Tobago has been removed from the list of countries whose nationals are eligible to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
Those who already have an ETA, can travel to the UK until 23 April 2025, if their travel was booked before the deadline when this change came into effect, i.e 3pm (UK time) on 12 March 2025, and this booking was for a journey arriving in the UK before 3pm (UK time) on 23 April 2025.
The reason stated by the Immigration Minister for the introduction of visa requirement for nationals of Trinidad and Tobago is:
“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.Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme.”
2. ETA exemption for British Nationals (Overseas)
British Nationals (Overseas) have been removed from the list of nationalities requiring an 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.
These changes and those set out below come into force on 9 April 2025.
3.Care workers
In response to growing concern over exploitation of care workers where they no longer have sponsorship, because either their sponsors have been unable to offer sufficient work or have lost their sponsor licences, the Government has introduced a new requirement for sponsors of care workers in England. Effective 9 April, employers in England will be required to prioritise recruiting international care workers who are already here and seeking new sponsorship, before recruiting from overseas. Employers who want to recruit a new worker from overseas will have to first prove that they have attempted to recruit a worker from within England who needs new sponsorship.
To enforce this requirement, sponsors are required to provide a confirmation from the relevant regional or sub-regional partnership that they have tried to recruit in this way, and confirm that no suitable workers were available from this pool.
The changes do not apply to workers outside England, or where employers are seeking to sponsor someone switching from another immigration route who has already been working for them for at least three months.
4. Minimum salary for Skilled Worker visas
An increase in minimum salary threshold from £23,200 per annum (£11.90 per hour) to £25,000 per annum (or £12.82 per hour) annum has been introduced to ensure the salary requirement continues to reflect the latest pay situation for UK workers in line with the latest Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data from the Office for National Statistics. Qualification.
5.Changes to the Ukraine Scheme
Ukrainians and their family members who were granted permission before the Ukraine Schemes were established, are now able to make an application to extend their temporary sanctuary in the UK whilst the conflict in Ukraine remain under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme (UPE).
A further update to the rules has been made to allow for 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. The Homes for Ukraine guidance updated on 31 January 2025 enables parents of such children to be considered eligible sponsors, and therefore allow the children of those parents to apply under the Homes for Ukraine route going forward. The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme requirements have been updated to ensure children granted Leave outside the Rules (LOTR) before the concession was in place, can be granted permission under UPE when their current permission is due to expire, in line with their parents, thus providing greater certainty as to their status in the UK.
6. Changes to EU Settlement Scheme
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 to the EUSS 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, 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.