News and updates from the world of staff immigration in 2026. Please let your colleagues know about this page if you think our updates would be useful to them.
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*UPDATE* You can now find information on the eligibility criteria, and what the HR Compliance Team needs from you, for each Global Talent endorsement path within the Information for departments section. There's also a page on visa expiries, refusals and rejections.
29 May 2026
We've done a little restructuring of our website, which has resulted in a new Information for departments section. You'll now find the following within:
- Right to Work
- Working on a Student visa
- Financial support for visas
- Skilled Worker visa
- GAE visa
- Skilled Worker & GAE - Sponsor duties
- Forms, templates and webinars
The pages now require a Raven login, so will not be available to anyone outside the University. We still have pages on Global Talent, Skilled Worker and other immigration routes which are accessible to anyone, but they no longer contain information which is only relevant to departmental colleagues such as CoS application forms, permitted Student visa holder working hours and how to carry out a right to work check.
If you're looking for our GAE visa information, it's now under Visiting the UK, though it can still be used for employees where the criteria of the route are met.
27 March 2026
The Home Office has announced an increase in the cost of some UK visas with effect from 8th April 2026. The table below shows fees for the most commonly-seen visas at the University; you can check the full list on gov.uk.
| Applications made outside the UK | Applications made in the UK | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fees category | Current fee | Fee from 8 April 2026 | Fee change | Current fee | Fee from 8 April 2026 |
Fee change |
| British citizenship - Naturalisation | £1,605 | £1,709 | +£104 | |||
| Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) | £16 | £20 | +£4 | |||
| Government Authorised Exchange (Temporary Work) - main applicant and dependants* | £319 | £340 | +£21 | £319 | £340 | +£21 |
| Graduate Route – main applicant and dependants | £193 | £206 | +£13 | |||
| Hong Kong British National (Overseas) - 30 months - main applicant and dependants* | £193 | £206 | +£13 | £193 | £206 | +£13 |
| Hong Kong British National (Overseas) - 5 years - main applicant and dependants* | £268 | £285 | +£17 | £268 | £285 | +£17 |
| Indefinite leave to remain - main applicant and dependants | £3,029 | £3,226 | +£197 | |||
| Skilled Worker - 3 years or less - main applicant and dependants* | £769 | £819 | +£50 | £885 | £943 | +£58 |
| Skilled Worker - more than 3 years up to 5 years - main applicant and dependants* | £1,519 | £1,618 | +£99 | £1,715 | £1,865 | +£114 |
| Skilled Worker (job on Immigration Salary List) - 3 years or less - main applicant and dependants* | £590 | £628 | +£38 | £590 | £628 | +£38 |
| Skilled Worker (job on Immigration Salary List) - more than 3 years up to 5 years - main applicant and dependants* | £1,160 | £1,235 | +£75 | £1,160 | £1,235 | +£75 |
| Visitor (Standard) - up to 6 months* | £127 | £135 | +£8 | £1,100 | £1,172 | +£72 |
| Visitor (Standard) - up to 2 years* | £475 | £506 | +£31 | £1,100 | £1,172 | +£72 |
| Visitor (Academic) - more than 6 months but no more than 12 months* | £220 | £234 | +£14 | £1,100 | £1,172 | +£72 |
* in-country fees relate to extension applications.
19 March 2026
Following some confusion over repayment percentages for visa fees where an employee's contract was for less than 3 years and they left employment part-way through that contract, we have amended our guidance. Our webpage and the visa fee payment agreement which the employee is asked to sign have both been updated.
Previous guidance
Should you leave your employment before your contract ends, and where finance has been provided to pay for a Skilled Worker or Global Talent visa, you will be required to repay a percentage of the finance provided to you in line with the following schedule (up to a threshold of 3 years’ visa validity):
- Departure within the first year from grant of visa - 100%
- Departure within the second year from grant of visa - 66%
- Departure within the third year from grant of visa - 33%
Guidance from 18 March 2026
If you leave employment before your contract ends, you will be required to repay a percentage of the finance provided to you in line with the following schedule:
- More than 70% of contract fulfilled: repayment not required
- Between 36% and 70% of contract fulfilled: 50% of the finance provided to you
- Up to and including 35% of contract fulfilled: 100% of the finance provided to you
18 March 2026
The changes to the UK's Immigration Rules below were announced on 5th March 2026 (please note effective dates). No changes to residency requirements for Indefinite Leave to Remain/Settlement applications have been announced.
Skilled Worker visa
Visa 'brake' - Skilled Worker visa applications will be refused for Afghan nationals (effective date: 26 March 2026 until further notice).
Student visa
Visa 'brake' - Student visa applications will be refused for nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar or Sudan (effective date: 26 March 2026 until further notice).
Visitor visa
- Nicaragua and St Lucia have been added to the visa nationals list (effective date: 5 March 2026).
- Those whose travel was already booked and an ETA granted before 3pm on 5 March 2026 may travel to the UK on an ETA as long as they will enter before 3pm on 16 April 2026.
- Otherwise, nationals of these countries must obtain a Visitor visa before travelling to the UK and are no longer eligible to travel with an ETA.
Indefinite Leave to Remain/Settlement
- Applications submitted after the effective date will require English language at CEFR level B2 (effective date: 26 March 2027).
- Until that date, applicants must meet CEFR level B1.
Ukraine Schemes
- Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) scheme visa holders may apply to extend their existing visa by 24 months (effective date: 8 April 2026).
- They will be able to apply up to 90 days before their existing visa expires.
British National (Overseas) visa
Route expanded for adult children who were under 18 on 1 July 1997 (effective date: 8 April 2026).
Refugee visa
The standard length of grant of a Refugee visa will be reduced from 5 years to 30 months for most new visas. Applicants will be able to apply to extend their permission before the end of the current permission (effective date: 26 March 2026).
Asylum Seekers
Those seeking asylum in the UK will be permitted to work in "higher skilled" occupations (effective date: 26 March 2026)
All visa types
Criminality: mandatory refusal/cancellation of visa applies to those receiving a suspended sentence of 12-month or more, aligning with the Sentencing Act 2026 (effective date: 26 March 2026).
Biometric changes for in-country applications: applicants with previously verified biometrics can reuse identity by uploading a ‘live’ facial image using the Generic Identity Document Verification (GIDV) app (yet to be launched), which will be biometrically compared to the image they enrolled previously, reducing the requirement to attend a visa centre. Eligibility for identity reuse will shortly be set out in guidance and on the online application (effective date: 26 March 2026).
10 March 2026
*UPDATE* Temporary travel arrangements for dual British/Irish nationals who do not have either a British/Irish passport or a Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode in another valid passport has been announced by the Home Office. Our webpage has been updated.
25 February 2026
There are changes coming on 25th and 26th February for both visa and ETA - please see the update on our new webpage which replaces our Transition from physical visas to electronic visas page.
12 February 2026
From 12 January 2026, most people granted a Visitor visa (and some other visa types) who receive an entry clearance vignette sticker in their passport will be told that they will get an eVisa as well.
In addition, most people with a valid entry clearance vignette sticker issued before 12 January will be able to access their eVisa through their UKVI account.
Later in the year, UKVI intends to stop issuing entry clearance vignette stickers altogether, meaning that all successful visa applicants will only get an eVisa. We will provide further updates as and when they are announced.
19 January 2026
UK Research and Innovation, the endorsing body for Global Talent path 3 applications, has added to its list of Endorsed Funders. Eligible funding bodies now include:
- Asthma and Lung UK
- Bowel Cancer UK
- Danish National Research Foundation
- Getty Foundation
- Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH)
- Invest NI
- Marie Curie
- NDE Research Association (NDEVR)
- Novo Nordisk Foundation
- Ovarian Cancer Action
- Yorkshire Cancer Research
The main eligibility criteria remain that a grant must last for at least 2 years and must be worth at least £30,000 in total. The applicant must have an employment contract or visitor agreement with at least 1 year left, and their role must be funded by the grant for that year (or be replaced by a different grant which is eligible in its own right).
If you would like to check eligibility for path 3, please contact us with a copy of the grant.
The Government's consultation on proposed changes to settlement (ILR) requirements is open until 11:59pm on 12 February 2026.
The University will feed into this consultation before the deadline, and we encourage colleagues to submit their own views as individuals. Details of the proposed changes and survey questions are available online, and the link to the survey itself is at the bottom of the webpage.
20 January 2026
UK Visas and Immigration has recently updated its guidance on the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa route to bring it into scope for ATAS. This means that all new HPI applicants who otherwise meet the criteria for ATAS must be granted ATAS clearance. This does not apply to existing HPI visa holders.
The Immigration Rules have not yet been updated, so it is not clear whether an ATAS certificate will be required before applying for a visa (as with the Skilled Worker and GAE routes) or before a visit/employment can begin (as with Visitor visas). Until we know more, we would recommend the former to avoid the risk of a visa application being refused.
We have updated our ATAS guidance accordingly.
16 January 2026