The Home Office has published a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules which will affect immigration applications for the UK.
The statement was published on 12 March 2025. As outlined below, the changes start to take effect from April 2025, with one already having taken effect shortly after publication. Please see each relevant change below for specific details about when it will take effect. Home Office guidance to accompany these changes may not be published until on, or after, the effective dates of the changes.
Trinidad and Tobago
New provisions have been imposed for citizens and nationals of Trinidad and Tobago wishing to travel to the UK. Trinidad and Tobago has been added to the visa national list and consequently removed from Appendix Electronic Travel Authorisation. Trinidad and Tobago citizens and nationals are now required to obtain entry clearance (a Visitor visa) before travelling to the UK, as opposed to being able to seek permission to enter the UK upon arrival. This change was implemented with immediate effect from 3pm GMT on 12 March 2025.
Transitional arrangements are in place for any citizens and nationals of Trinidad and Tobago who hold a confirmed travel booking to the UK made before 3pm GMT on 12 March 2025. If this booking leads to arrival in the UK no later than 3pm BST on 23 April 2025, they will not be subjected to this change.
PhD students on the Student route
For applications made on or after 9 April 2025, a Student applying under the Student immigration route will not need to demonstrate academic progress if they are making a new immigration application to follow their academic supervisor to another Student sponsor in order to complete a PhD or other doctoral qualification. We have advocated for the return of this provision for PhD students in this position, so we are pleased to see its inclusion in this statement of changes.
Health Education England (HEE) Student sponsor licence surrendered (postgraduate doctors or dentists)
Health Education England (HEE) were a provider with a licence to sponsor individuals under the Student route to undertake recognised foundation programmes as doctors or dentists in training. HEE have surrendered their Student sponsor licence and are no longer able to sponsor students under the Student route. As a result, the following changes are being made, affecting applications made on or after the 9 April 2025:
- The definition of “Postgraduate doctor or dentist” is being removed from the Introduction of the Rules.
- All references to “recognised Foundation programme for postgraduate doctors or dentists” are being removed from Appendix Student to reflect that it is no longer possible to seek sponsorship under the Student route for these programmes.
- A Foundation programme in Medicine or Dentistry will no longer be a listed relevant qualification to meet the qualification requirement for the Graduate route.
The Home Office have confirmed anyone wishing to undertake these foundation programmes should access them via the Skilled Worker route.
Short-term students (English language)
For applications made on or after 9 April 2025, the Short-term student (English language) route will include a genuineness test. As part of an application under this route applicants will be subject to the following requirements:
- They will have to satisfy a caseworker that they are only seeking entry to the UK to study the course that they have been accepted onto and that they will not study anything other than that course in the UK.
- They must not study at an academy or state-funded school.
- They must leave the UK within 30 days of the end of their English language course, or at the end of 11 months, whichever is sooner (this is an existing rule that is being relocated to the rest of this test in Rules).
- They will not make the UK their main home.
- They will not work in the UK.
- They will not engage in business or professional activities in the UK.
- They must have relied on funds that are genuinely available to them for the purposes of undertaking the course of study they have been accepted onto.
There are already considerations for caseworkers to test the genuineness of applicants, included in Home Office caseworker guidance. This addition to the Rules brings these considerations into law.
New references to ‘Nominated guardian’, and changes to care requirements for a Child Student
A definition for, and references to, the term ‘nominated guardian’ will be added to Appendix Child Student on 29 May 2025, for applications made on or after that date. The explanatory memorandum for the statement of changes (pdf) explains that “Nominated guardians were previously not accounted for in the Immigration Rules but will now be added and be required to provide a letter of undertaking. This is similar to the current requirement for close relative and private foster carers”.
The addition of the above term interacts with further changes made to the same appendix, adding a new overarching ‘Care Requirement for a Child Student’ and new grounds for caseworkers to refuse applications where there are concerns around safeguarding or criminality.
Group school trips to the UK from schools in France
From 2 April 2025 those aged 18 or under who are studying at a school or educational institution in France registered with the French Ministry of Education and who are seeking to enter the UK as part of a school party of 5 or more pupils (organised by that school/institution) will no longer be required to obtain an ‘electronic visa authorisation’ prior to entry to the UK. They will need to be listed in a designated Home Office form, and the list must be in the possession of an adult arriving at the border with responsibility for supervising the party’s travel.
Administrative Review
From 9 April 2025, administrative review will no longer be the mechanism to challenge incorrect conditions and length of immigration permission. This mechanism is currently in place for immigration applications made inside the UK only. The explanatory memorandum for the statement of changes (pdf) explains that: “The free out-of-country error correction team is going to be expanded to cover cases in-country where there is an error in the conditions or time period in a grant of permission.”
The Rules also make clear that:
- an applicant cannot make an administrative review application outside the UK when they are challenging the refusal of an application for permission to stay (which is an immigration application made from within the UK); and
- an application for an administrative review will be invalidated if an immigration application is made while the administrative review application is pending.
