New immigration rules statement sets autumn commencement dates
08 Sep 2026
The Home Office published a new Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, known as HC 584, on 3 September 2026. It updates several parts of the rules, and the changes come in on different dates rather than all at once.
If you're on the Skilled Worker, BNO (Hong Kong BN(O)) or Family route, the date that matters most to you is 8 October 2026. That's when changes to the Skilled Worker, Hong Kong BN(O), Child Relative, Long Residence and Victim of Domestic Abuse rules take effect. Other parts of HC 584 come in later: 29 October 2026 for the T2 Minister of Religion and Religious Worker routes, 30 November 2026 for Student visa financial requirements, and 9 December 2026 for a final EU Settlement Scheme amendment. Those three later dates apply to routes this calculator doesn't cover, so most readers only need to watch 8 October 2026.
We've already covered some of the specific changes that land on 8 October in separate posts, including wider work rights for Skilled Worker modern slavery victims and a settlement residence change for BNO dependent children. This statement is the umbrella document that sets the overall timetable those individual changes sit under.
If you have an application in progress or plan to apply on the Skilled Worker, BNO or Family route around early October 2026, it's worth checking whether your application type is affected before you submit.
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