In the space of two days last week, the Home Office published two statements of changes to the Immigration Rules. The first Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 1496) was published on 17 July 2023, followed by a second Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 1715) on 19 July 2023.

In this post we highlight some of the key changes to the Immigration Rules that applicants should be aware of, including:

• Addition of various nationalities to the visa national list;
• Removal of the right of most international students to bring dependants to the UK;
• Removal of international students’ ability to switch into work routes before completing their studies;
• Certain construction and fishing jobs added to the Shortage Occupation List;
• Automatic extension of pre-settled status for 2 years;
• Closure of EUSS ‘Surinder Singh’ route for family members and ‘Zambrano’ route for careers.