UK changes its Immigration Rules again: exploited Skilled Workers can switch employer, Erasmus+ returns, BN(O) children settle with their parents

The Home Office laid a new Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules before Parliament on 3 September 2026. HC 584 is not a headline overhaul, but it moves several things that decide whether individual people can stay, work or settle in the UK. A Skilled Worker recognised as a victim of modern slavery will be able to work for any employer instead of being tied to the sponsor who exploited them. Dependent children on the Hong Kong BN(O) route will be able to settle alongside their parents rather than waiting out their own five-year clock. The Visitor, Student and Government Authorised Exchange routes reopen to Erasmus+. And Student maintenance goes up. The changes take effect on four dates between 8 October and 9 December 2026.

Background

The Immigration Rules are changed by a Statement of Changes laid before Parliament under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971. HC 584 was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 3 September 2026, with an explanatory memorandum setting out why each amendment is being made. Two of the changes are the government responding to the courts rather than choosing a new policy. The domestic abuse extension follows a Northern Ireland ruling, JR337 [2026] NIKB 12, which found the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession unlawful as applied to an adult child dependent on a parent for their permission to remain. The EU Settlement Scheme change follows Ayoola v SSHD [2025] EWCA Civ 1519, which held that a child with pre-settled status whose EU citizen parent had been a worker keeps a right of residence under the Withdrawal Agreement until they finish their education.

What exactly changed

The Skilled Worker route gets a new paragraph, SW 18.3. A Skilled Worker referred into the National Referral Mechanism who receives a positive Conclusive Grounds decision during their most recent permission may have their work conditions amended so that any work, including self-employment and voluntary work, is permitted, with one exception: work as a professional sportsperson or sports coach. The Home Office says this "incentivises victims to come forward early and guards against those who seek to weaponise the sponsorship system in order to exploit vulnerable workers". On the BN(O) route, HK 62.1 is rewritten so the five-year continuous residence requirement does not apply to an applicant aged under 18 at the date of application. Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse is extended to adult child dependants whose relationship with their sponsor has broken down because of abuse, which the Home Office estimates at 163 to 447 additional grants a year. Student maintenance rises from £1,529 to £1,570 a month in London and from £1,171 to £1,203 elsewhere.

Erasmus+ comes back into the Rules

The UK and the European Commission announced on 17 December 2025 that the UK would associate to Erasmus+ from 2027, and Protocol I to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement was amended on 15 April 2026 to implement it. HC 584 is the immigration plumbing for that. Job shadowing, participative observation, skills competitions and traineeships become defined terms in the Rules. State-funded schools and academies will be able to host Erasmus+ participants on study placements of up to six months under the Visitor route, without a sponsor licence. Erasmus+ students are exempted from the usual work-placement restrictions on the Student and Child Student routes, and Erasmus+ is added as a Government Authorised Exchange scheme. Roughly 60,000 Erasmus+ participants came to the UK in 2019.

Who it affects

Four groups in particular. A care or hospitality worker on a Skilled Worker visa who has been exploited by their sponsor currently has to choose between staying with that employer and losing their status; from 8 October a positive Conclusive Grounds decision opens the whole labour market for the rest of their permission. A Hong Kong family on the BN(O) route whose child joined after the parents no longer has to leave that child on a separate five-year clock at settlement. An adult child abused by the parent sponsoring their status gets a route of their own. And anyone applying for a Student visa after 30 November needs more money: nine months in London becomes £14,130 rather than £13,761.

What to do if you are mid-application

Check which side of a commencement date you fall on. Most blocks protect applications made before the date they take effect, so one submitted on 7 October is decided under the old Rules even if granted in November. That cuts both ways: a student applying before 30 November shows the lower maintenance figure, while a BN(O) dependent child applying for settlement before 8 October misses the new HK 62.1 and may be better off waiting. EU citizens have two dates of their own: first-time joining family members face a deadline of three months from their latest legal entry to the UK, and the option to apply using an expired biometric residence permit disappears on 9 December. Our United Kingdom country guide (/country-guides/united-kingdom) covers the main routes and settlement steps, and the Hong Kong guide (/country-guides/hong-kong) covers the BN(O) route.