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 26 November 2024. The changes will take effect on dates throughout the end of 2024 and early 2025, outlined below. Home Office guidance to accompany these changes may not be published until on, or after, the effective dates of the changes.
Colombia – Visitor visa requirement
New provisions have been imposed for Colombian nationals and citizens wishing to travel to the UK. Colombia has been added to the visa national list (and consequently removed from Appendix Electronic Travel Authorisation), meaning that Colombian nationals and citizens 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 (UK time) on 26 November 2024.
Transitional arrangements are in place for any Colombian nationals or citizens that hold a confirmed booking to the UK made before 3pm (UK time) on 26 November. If this booking leads to arrival in the UK no later than 3pm (UK time) on 24 December 2024, they will not be subjected to this change.
Minor cosmetic changes to Student, Child Student, Short-term Student and Graduate route
Changes have been made to multiple routes across the immigration Rules for readability purposes. The Home Office assures in the explanatory memorandum that these are not policy changes and are minor presentational changes. All of the changes across these routes will take effect on 18 December 2024. For further details of these changes, please consult the statement of changes documents.
Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) Scheme
The new Ukraine Permission Extension scheme will open to eligible applicants at 9am (UK time) on 4 February 2025. This scheme will grant eligible applicants a maximum of a further 18 months of permission to continue living in the UK. This scheme will be free to apply. Further details on the scheme can be found in the explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes and the Applying to the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme guidance.
Miscellaneous changes
A minor change to the rules for administrative review means that, as of 18 December 2024, an administrative review is deemed to have been withdrawn where an applicant either signs an administrative review waiver form or notifies the Home Office that they wish to withdraw the administrative review. Currently, the Rules are worded in such a way that an administrative review is only deemed to be withdrawn if an applicant does both of these things.
