News Update – 11 September 2026
The Home Office laid out the latest Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules before Parliament on 3 September 2026. With amendments reaching across a wide range of routes. In this week’s update, we bring you comprehensive coverage of what those changes are, set out by individual route affected.
Alongside this, we round up the other important developments from the week, including the latest on Channel crossings, public priorities for work-based immigration, the cost of British citizenship, and important case law decisions on sponsor licence revocations.
Statement of Changes HC 584
The Home Office laid its latest Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (HC 584) before Parliament on 3rd September 2026 with most of the changes due to come into effect on 8th October 2026. There are three exceptions; the religious worker changes apply from 29th October, the student maintenance uplift from 30 November, and the EUSS change on biometric residence permits from 9 December. Updated guidance will be published once each change comes into force.
The changes are as follows…
Part Suitability
The definition of breach of immigration laws in SU11.4 is being widened to cover those who previously frustrated immigration controls. In practice, applicants in the UK who failed to report for bail, or who absconded from bail or custody, can now be refused on that basis, as those applying from overseas already could be.
Appendix Skilled Worker
Skilled Workers who are recognised by the Competent Authorities as victims of modern slavery will be free to work for any employer for the rest of their current permission. The aim is to encourage victims to come forward and to stop exploitative sponsors using the visa as a means of control.
Appendix FM & Appendix Private Life
Families in the Family Returns Process can now raise Article 8 claims directly with Home Office staff. They will not need a valid application, a fee or a specified form. This puts an existing practice on a formal footing and brings these families into line with those in detention.
Fee Waivers & Variations
Two changes target misuse of section 3C leave. After a fee waiver decision, the application that follows must be the one named in the fee waiver request. This prevents a human rights application being switched to a non-human right route. A new rule also confirms that there is only one window for enrolling biometrics, even where an application is later varied.
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Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse
The route is being extended to adult dependent children whose relationship with their sponsor has broken down because of domestic abuse. The change follows the Northern Ireland High Court’s decision in JR337, and the Home Office expects between 163 and 447 additional grants each year.
Appendix Visitor and Appendix Visitor: Permitted Activities
The Visitor route is being opened to Erasmus+ ahead of the UK rejoining the programme in 2027. Erasmus+ visitors will be able to study at state-funded schools and academies for up to six months. They will also be able to give or receive training, join courses, undertake traineeships of up to 30 days, job shadow, and take part in sports coaching. Participants will need to show that they are genuinely part of the programme, and those under 18 will need consent from a parent or guardian and from their home institution.
All visitors, whether they are on Erasmus+, will also be able to take part in workshops, debates and skills competitions. The Home Office is further clarifying the Visitor rules so that they stay in line with trade agreement commitments. Visitors will no longer have to show that the training they want is unavailable at home. Artists, entertainers and musicians may attend rehearsals, and a new definition of entertainment staff sets out who can assist them.
Appendix Student & Appendix Child Student
These routes are being relaxed for Erasmus+ participants only. Their courses can be sponsored even if they do not lead to an approved qualification, and at a level as low as RQF 2. Such participants can also undertake work placements without the usual caps on placement length or the restriction that applies to probationary sponsors. State-funded schools and academies holding a sponsor licence may also sponsor them.
Appendix Government Authorised Exchange
Erasmus+ is being added as a new scheme on this route. It will operate through an overarching sponsor, IRARA Services Ltd, appointed by the Department for Education. At the same time, the defunct Ofgem International Staff Exchange Scheme is being removed.
EU Settlement Scheme
Holders of pre-settled status who no longer meet the requirements, but whose status it would be disproportionate to remove, can remain in the scheme and progress to settled status. Joining family members will have three months from their latest lawful entry to apply. However, anyone previously rejected or refused after arriving without an EUSS family permit will need reasonable grounds for a late application.
The changes also give effect to the Court of Appeal’s decision in Ayoola. A child with pre-settled status whose EU parent was formerly a worker or self-employed person can keep that status until they complete their education in the UK, and so can their primary carer. Elsewhere in the scheme, expired biometric residence permits will no longer be accepted as identity evidence. The EUSS travel permit is being replaced by the Update My Details service, and Appendix AR (EU) is being deleted.
Appendix Hong Kong British National (Overseas)
Dependent children on this route will no longer need to complete five years’ continuous residence before settling. Where their parents qualify for settlement, they will be able to settle alongside them.
Appendix T2 Minister of Religion
Members of religious orders are exempted from the restriction on mainly non-pastoral duties. The maximum time an applicant can spend on the route is being removed. The financial requirement is also being reassessed for unpaid applicants who are exempt from the National Minimum Wage.
Appendix Temporary Work – Religious Worker
The requirement for sponsors to advertise the role is being replaced by a requirement to show affiliation with the sponsoring faith organisation. The same change to the financial requirement for unpaid applicants applies here too.
Student Route Maintenance Requirement
Student maintenance funds are rising to match home student maintenance loans for 2026/27, and the maximum accommodation offset is increasing in line with them.
Appendix Long Residence
Varied permission-to-stay applications will now face the same consequence as varied settlement applications where the Immigration Health Charge is not paid, namely rejection as invalid.
Appendix Child Relative (Sponsor with Protection)
A new eligibility rule will allow entry clearance applications from those over 18 to be refused, closing a technical gap in the existing validity provisions.
Channel Crossing Update
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has signed a new Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement with Belgium’s Interior Minister, Bernard Quintin. The agreement allows police in both countries to exchange intelligence directly and in real time, without the judicial sign-off that previously applied to certain information requests.
According to the Home Office, those earlier requirements slowed investigations at critical moments and made it harder for officers to build a complete picture of networks operating across both jurisdictions. The new framework is designed to strengthen joint investigations and specialist training, targeting smuggling gangs launching boats from the Belgian coast as well as wider organised crime involving drugs and firearms.
The agreement forms part of a wider enforcement push. Last month, the Home Secretary confirmed that the number of NCA officers dedicated to organised immigration crime has risen from 276 at the start of 2025 to almost 800, and the Home Office says more than 1,100 boats and engines have been seized since the general election.
On the French coast, enforcement activity is facing criticism from Utopia 56, a French NGO working with people attempting Channel crossings. It reports a sharp rise in accounts of police violence this year, including allegations of beatings, teargas use, family separations, confiscated lifejackets and dangerous incidents during beach operations under the UK-France enforcement arrangement. The organisation argues that tougher policing has made crossings more chaotic and risky rather than stopping them, pointing to at least 21 deaths this year and calling for safer routes and wider asylum reform.
The Home Office says the strategy is reducing crossings, citing thousands of prevented departures, a fall of more than 40% compared with last year and plans to increase French beach patrols by 40%, although it remains unclear how many intercepted people later crossed. In the UK, tensions have also affected the RNLI after volunteers involved in bringing intercepted migrants ashore near Portsmouth were targeted online and accused of treason, prompting a security review and warnings that lifeboat crews and stations may take precautions if they feel unsafe.
UK Work Visa Update
The Home Affairs Committee, working with the think tank Demos, has published the findings of Your Voice on Immigration, a series of citizen-assembly-style workshops held to inform its scrutiny of work-based migration. Nearly 100 people took part across North Tyneside, Leicester and Renfrewshire, with each group of around 30 selected to reflect the local population’s demographics and its range of views on immigration and politics.
Participants were asked to consider how work-related immigration should be reduced, given the government’s aim of lowering net migration. After hearing from a panel of experts, each group drew up ten guiding principles. Despite the distance between the venues and their differing experiences of immigration, the conclusions were similar enough to be consolidated into 13 principles, which have now been passed to the Committee.
The central message is that training and upskilling UK residents, particularly young people, should come before recruitment from overseas, supported by investment in schools, local public services and integration programmes. Alongside this, participants wanted migrant workers to be treated with dignity and respect, with adequate local infrastructure in place to support both newcomers and existing communities.
Of particular relevance to immigration advisers, the principles call for a range of immigration pathways that reflect individual circumstances, and for clear routes to settlement for visa holders who are making a long-term contribution. Participants also favoured robust oversight and enforcement to ensure employers treat workers fairly, and wanted policy grounded in evidence and long-term workforce planning, responsive to local labour market needs. They were willing to accept some short-term costs in return for greater workforce stability over time.
British Citizenship costs
New Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) analysis has renewed scrutiny of UK naturalisation costs, highlighting that the £1,709 application fee is more than five times the estimated £324 processing cost, rising to £1,839 once the citizenship ceremony fee is included. The UK fee is also far higher than other G7 countries, including the United States at £562, adding to the financial burden faced by applicants who have often already paid substantial visa fees and the immigration health surcharge.
The IPPR warns that high fees risk placing citizenship beyond the reach of long-term residents, restricting their civic and political participation. It calls for fees to be brought closer to administrative costs, clearer pathways to citizenship, reform of the Life in the UK test, and a system less reliant on temporary migration and more focused on settlement and integration.
David Blunkett argues for earlier citizenship education and faster settlement routes for some applicants who learn English and contribute to their communities, while Amnesty International and the Refugee Council have criticised rising costs. The Home Office says any surplus is reinvested in the migration system, but with expected changes to settlement rules ahead, advisers should monitor developments closely because they may affect naturalisation planning and client timelines.
Case Law Update
Sponsor Licence Revocations
Unreported Unpaid Leave Is Not a Mandatory Revocation Ground: High Court Quashes Moon Fish Licence Decision
In R (Moon Fish Ltd) v SSHD [2026] EWHC 2289 (Admin), the High Court quashed the revocation of a sponsor licence and sent the matter back to the Home Office. The sponsor had paid a worker less than his certificate of sponsorship salary because he took two months authorised unpaid compassionate leave, and it had not reported this.
The court held that the mandatory ground in Annex C1(aa) targets actual salary reductions, not lawful unpaid leave that simply went unreported. That failure is a reporting breach under the discretionary Annex C2(a).
The process was also unfair: the Home Office had only asked for documents and never put its specific concern to the sponsor before revoking. Even for mandatory grounds, and even where no dishonesty is alleged, the gist of the case must normally be put and a chance to respond given. Section 31(2A) did not save the decision, because a single good-faith oversight could realistically have attracted a lesser sanction. For full case decision, visit here
Court of Appeal Upholds Revocations in J’s Supermarket and Prestige: Genuine Vacancies and the Reach of Section 31(2A)
In R (J’s Supermarket Ltd) and R (Prestige Social Care Services Ltd) v SSHD [2026] EWCA Civ 1147, the Court of Appeal upheld both revocations. For J’s Supermarket, the gap between the managerial duties described on the certificates of sponsorship and the shopfloor work the employees actually did was stark.
The Home Office had clearly set out that concern in its suspension letter, so its finding of non-genuine vacancies under Annex C1(z) was both fair and rational. For Prestige, recruiting a non-driver into a driving role showed poor recruitment rather than a non-genuine vacancy. The Home Office had also dropped the C1(z) allegation and then revived it without warning, so that ground could not stand. Revocation still survived under section 31(2A), however.
The decision letter had expressly relied on Annex C2(a) and (b) as independent grounds, based on high staff turnover, unsuitable hires and systemic recruitment failings, and revocation on those grounds was highly likely in any event. For full case decision, visit here
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Useful Immigration News Links
Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 584, 3 September 2026
UK and Belgium strike deal to target small boat gangs
RNLI reviews security after volunteers targeted online
French police accused of rising use of violence to stop Channel crossings
Applicants for UK citizenship charged more than five times the admin cost
Home Office Guidance and Policy Updates
To view the Home Office Guidance and Policies updated between 4th September 2026 to 11th September 2026, visit here
What’s on
With the rules on fee waivers and variations tightening from 8th October, now is a timely moment to refresh your practice. HJT Training’s bite-size course, How to Prepare a Fee Waiver, scheduled for the same day, covers the fundamentals that are essential to a well-prepared application. The training also takes you through all the critical updates announced in the Statement of Changes. For more information, visit HERE
Visit us HERE for details on more courses scheduled.
Early booking is recommended; for enquiries, email enquiries@hjt-training.co.uk or call 07446466898.
Written by Shareen Khan, Legal Content Writer, HJT Training
Disclaimer: This blog post is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Immigration advisors should consult the full decisions and official policy documents when advising clients on specific cases.