Immigration updates – 13th of March

European Union

Revised timeline fort EES and ETIAS

On 5 March 2025, EU Home Affairs Ministers endorsed a revised timeline for the implementation of the Entry/Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and AuthorisationSystem(ETIAS).

The EES is expected to become operational in October 2025. ETIAS is expected to follow inthe last quarter of 2026. 

• The Entry/Exit System (EES) is a new digital border management system for registering non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay, each time they cross the external borders of 29European countries using the system. The EES will modernise border management of the Schengen countries, gradually simplify border controls and prevent identity fraud.
• ETIAS travel authorisation is an entry requirement for non-EU visa-free nationals travelling to any of 30 European countries. It is linked to a traveller’s passport and is valid for up to three years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. ETIAS holders can enter the territory of these European countries as often as you want for short-term stays – normally for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

At the same time, on 5 March 2025 EU Home Affairs Ministers endorsed Council’s General Approach on a progressive start of operations of the EES. Once adopted by the co-legislators, 29 European countries will gradually introduce the EES over a period of six months. This would give border authorities and the transport industry more time to adjust to the new procedures. 

Once the Regulation on the progressive start of operations of the EES is adopted and the remaining Member States declare readiness, the Commission will decide on the specific date of the progressive start of the EES, guided by the timeline endorsed by the Home Affairs Ministers on 5 March 2025. 

Ireland

Measures to support home care and planning sectors

The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has announced changes to the employment permits system to address skills shortages in Ireland’s planning and home care sectors. The changes will come into effect on 10 March 2025.

• The quota for home carers will be increased by 1000 general employment permits.
• Town planners have been added to the Critical Skills Occupations List.

For the purposes of the employment permits system, occupations fall into three categories:

1. Occupations listed on the Critical Skills Occupations List are highly skilled professional roles that are in high demand and are not always available in the resident labour force. Occupations on this list are eligible for a Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP) and include roles such as medicine, ICT, sciences, finance, and business.
2. Ineligible occupations are those with evidence suggesting there are sufficient Irish/EEA workers to fill such vacancies. Employment permits are not granted for these occupations.
3. Every other job in the labour market, where an employer cannot find a worker, is eligible for an employment permit. For these occupations, the employer is required to undertake a Labour Market Needs Test and if no-one suitable applies for the job, the employer is free to apply for an employment permit. Occupations such as these may be skills of a more general nature and are eligible for a General Employment Permit (GEP).

Visa requirement for nationals of Eswatini, Lesotho and Nauru

With effect from 10 March 2025, nationals of Eswatini, Lesotho and Nauru are required to obtain a visa before travelling to Ireland. A transit visa will also be required, if intending to transit through Ireland en route to another destination.

Nationals of these countries who made travel plans before 10 March 2025 and can provide evidence of a valid booking and payment for the trip, may be accommodated for emergency travel in the following situations where the scheduled travel is on or before 31 March 2025:

• A critical medical case involving a family member being seriously ill or undergoing medical treatment. Evidence from the relevant medical institution must be provided.
• Visiting for a significant family event – a birth, wedding, or funeral. Suitable evidence must be provided.
• Taking up a place obtained in a third-level institution on an undergraduate or post-graduate degree course. Evidence must be provided from the relevant institution.
• Taking up employment and holding an Employment Permit for Ireland. Evidence of the permit issued by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment must be provided.
• Travelling for business. Confirmation of the arrangements for the visit from the business in question must be provided.

Persons falling within the above categories are asked to email becomingvisarequired@justice.ie with the subject line “Visa Required – Emergency Travel Requested”.

Switzerland

New online notification system for short-term work

The State Secretariat for Migration has launched a new system for notifications of short-term work. The current application for reporting short-term work in Switzerland will no longer be available as of March 14, 2025. Starting March 17, 2025, users can submit notifications exclusively through EasyGov.swiss. There are fundamentally no changes to the notification process or the information requested. 

Background

The Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (AFMP) between Switzerland and the EU is aimed at liberalising the cross-border provision of services (posted workers or self-employed service providers) for up to 90 effective working days per calendar year. All that is required is prior submission of a notification form. The 90 working days per calendar year rule are calculated both for the company posting workers and for the posted worker.

For services to be rendered beyond this 90-day threshold, a work permit is required.

The online notification procedure also applies to companies based in Switzerland that would like to employ foreign workers for periods of up to three months. All that is required is submission of a notification form. If the intention is to employ a worker for longer than three months, then this person must request a Swiss residence permit or must satisfy the requirements for issuance of a cross-border commuter permit.

Each assignment carried out in Switzerland must be entered into the system at least eight days prior to commencement of work. For foreign workers taking up short-term employment with a company based in Switzerland (work contracts of up to three months in duration), the notification form must be submitted no later than one day prior to the first day of work.

The competent cantonal authorities in the location where the worker is posted or where the services are to be rendered in Switzerland will process the notification form.

The activity of posted workers and self-employed service providers is subject to a notification requirement if the work in Switzerland exceeds eight days within a given calendar year. In the following sectors, the activity is always subject to a notification requirement from the first day onwards regardless of the duration of work:

• Construction and secondary contract work
• Gardening and landscaping
• Hotel, restaurant and catering
• Cleaning in companies and households
• Monitoring and security services
• Itinerant trade (exceptions: trade fairs and circuses)
• Sex industry.

United Kingdom

New statement of changes in immigration rules

On 12 March 2025, the government published a statement of changes in immigration rules (HC 733). An explanatory memorandum and a written parliamentary statement accompanied the statement of changes. Most of the changes take effect on 9 April 2025.

Introduction of a visit visa requirement on Trinidad and Tobago

Effective 12 March 2025, the government has introduced a visa requirement on all visitors from Trinidad and Tobago. Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago will also be required to obtain a direct airside transit visa if they intend to transit via the UK having booked travel to another country. The visa requirement comes into force at 15:00 GMT today.

As a result, nationals of Trinidad and Tobago will no longer be eligible to apply for an electronic travel authorisation for travel to the UK.

There will be a six-week, visa-free transition period for those who already hold an electronic travel authorisation and confirmed bookings to the UK obtained on or before 15:00 GMT on 12 March 2025 where arrival in the UK is no later than 15:00 BST on 23 April 2025.

Arrangements are in place so that nationals of Trinidad and Tobago can apply for visas.

Changes to the Ukraine scheme

The Ukraine permission extension scheme (UPE) opened on 4 February 2025, and allows Ukrainians, and their eligible family members, who have been living in the UK with permission under one of the existing routes within Appendix Ukraine scheme, or outside the immigration rules in specified circumstances, to apply for a further period of 18 months’ permission to stay in the UK.

The government is making some minor changes to UPE to extend the validity requirements further. This will include bringing in scope children under 18 who were granted leave to enter the UK outside the immigration rules so they could join or stay with their parents who already held Ukraine scheme permission. Going forward, a change to the Homes for Ukraine scheme guidance that was published on 31 January 2025 will enable eligible parents to sponsor their children to come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine route. However, making this change to the UPE requirements now will enable children who have already been granted leave outside the rules in these circumstances to align their status with their parents by enabling them to apply to UPE when their current permission is due to expire.

There will also be some minor drafting changes to the eligibility rules for UPE to better reflect the existing policy intention.

Changes are also being made to the Homes for Ukraine (HfU) scheme, to include the “approved sponsor” requirements for eligible minors in both validity and eligibility sections of the rules. This will enable decision makers to determine applications which do not have an approved sponsor. The definition of parent will be aligned across HfU and UPE, so it is consistent with the wider immigration system. A requirement is being introduced that parents who wish to be joined by their children in the UK under the HfU scheme must be lawfully resident in the UK.

Finally, changes to the immigration rules were laid in November 2024 (HC 334) to end the use of “permission to travel” (PTT) letters on the Ukraine schemes from 13 February 2025 onwards. The rules currently allow PTT arrivals to vary their permission in country within six months of their arrival. As there will be no further PTT arrivals from 13 February 2025, no one will be able to vary their permission in this way from 13 August 2025 onwards. This provision is being removed from the rules from that date, as it will no longer be required.

Changes relating to the EU settlement scheme (EUSS)

The EUSS enables EU, other European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss citizens living in the UK before the end of the post-EU exit transition period at 11 pm on 31 December 2020, and their family members, to obtain the immigration status they need to continue living in the UK, consistently with the citizens’ rights agreements.

The main changes:

• enable a non-EEA national applicant to use a UK-issued biometric residence card or permit which has expired by up to 18 months as proof of their identity and nationality;
• confirm that a person with a pending administrative review of an EUSS decision, who has not left the UK or has been granted entry into the UK—except on immigration bail—will not be removed from the UK;
• confirm that a person who became an EU, other EEA or Swiss citizen after the end of the transition period cannot sponsor an EUSS family permit application; and
• enable an application to be refused on suitability grounds, without a deportation or exclusion order being in place, where the applicant’s conduct before the end of the transition period meets the relevant EU law public policy test applicable under the agreements.

Changes relating to care workers in the skilled worker route

The government is making changes to address the growing pool of care workers and senior care workers in the skilled worker route who no longer have sponsorship, because their sponsors have been unable to offer sufficient work and or have lost their sponsor licences.

The changes require providers to try to recruit from this pool of workers who are seeking new employment, before seeking to sponsor new recruits from other immigration routes or from overseas.

The changes do not apply to workers outside England, or where providers are seeking to sponsor someone switching from another immigration route who has already been working for them for at least three months.

Changes to the minimum salary for skilled worker visas

A routine change is being made to update the minimum salary floor from £23,200 per year, or £11.90 per hour, to £25,000 per year, or £12.82 per hour. It is standard practice to update this and other salary requirements across work visa routes each year, using the latest annual survey of hours and earnings (ASHE) data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This ensures these salary requirements continue to reflect the latest pay situation for UK workers. As the Government intend to shortly publish an immigration White Paper, the changes are being limited to only updating the minimum salary floor. This is to ensure it reflects the latest ASHE data and remains significantly above the national living wage, which is also increasing in April 2025.

Appendix ETA—exemptions for British nationals (overseas)

• British nationals (overseas) are removed from the list of nationalities requiring an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) for travel to the UK.
• All children aged 18 and under visiting the UK in organised French school groups are exempted from the ETA requirement.

Other changes

• A genuine intention to study rule has been added to Appendix Short-term Student to the Immigration Rules. This will enable caseworkers to refuse applications where they are not satisfied the applicant on this route has a genuine intention to study the course listed on their application and to leave the UK at the end of their course.
• Minor changes are being made to the requirements for the Global Talent routes.
• On 29 May 2025, a new definition of “nominated guardian” will be added to the immigration rules, relevant to Appendix Child Student.
• New care and living arrangements requirements are being added to Appendix Child Student.
• The free out-of-country error correction team is going to be expanded to cover cases in-country where there is an error in the conditions or time period in a grant of permission. 

Effective dates

For the changes that introduce a visa requirement on Trinidad and Tobago, due to safeguarding the operation of the UK’s immigration system, those changes will come into effect at 15:00 GMT on 12 March 2025. For the changes relating to the Ukraine scheme, those changes will come into effect on various dates from 2 April 2025, as detailed in the statement of changes. All other changes will come into effect on 9 April 2025.