Immigration Bail And In-Country Applications After Statement Of Changes HC 259: Has The Kaur Problem Been Fixed?

On 9 July 2026, the Home Office published the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules HC 259. Among the many changes is a targeted but important amendment to immigration bail and in-country applications for permission to stay. The relevant changes take effect on 3 August 2026.

This development is particularly important in light of the Court of Appeal’s judgment in R (Kaur & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ 1474, discussed in our earlier article, Immigration Bail and Switching In-Country After Kaur: Why Immigration Bail Blocks In-Country Applications. In that case, the Court of Appeal confirmed that being on immigration bail was, under the wording of the Rules as they then stood, an independent suitability bar to an in-country Skilled Worker application.