| Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 1248 has been published today. Impact Assessments have been published in respect of the changes to the Graduate Route and the intimidation policy for Afghan Locally Employed Staff. Some of the main changes are as follows: – The change that will happen first is the introduction of the Graduate Route on 1 April 2021. This is a new route for international students who have successfully completed an eligible course as a student at a student sponsor which is a higher education provider with a track record of compliance. Applications must be made in the UK and the applicant must have leave as a Student or Tier 4. Dependent family members will be permitted if they are also in the UK with leave as a dependant of the main applicant. – Eight occupations have been added to the Shortage Occupation List in the health and care sectors. – Changes to the EUSS will come into force on 1 July 2021, in particular surrounding eligibility for family members of relevant EEA nationals. – Change to the Global Talent route to allow applicants to bypass the endorsement requirement and instead qualify if they have received a prestigious prize, as set out in Appendix Global Talent: Prestigious Prizes. – A number of amendments are being made to Appendix Hong Kong British National (Overseas), most notably of which is an amendment that will allow those on the BN(O) route to apply for change of conditions to have their no recourse to public funds condition lifted. We expect that this will be the same application process that is currently in place for the Family and Human Right route. An individual who is on the BN(O) route will be able to apply for a change of conditions where they are destitute or at imminent risk of destitution which will allow them access to public funds. – The simplification process has been applied to the Overseas Domestic Worker route. There are also changes to several other routes. |
- Document Date
- Thursday March 4, 2021