What changed in 2026, across the Cosmos destinations: The EU Entry/Exit System became fully operational on 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamping with digital biometric records — while ETIAS is still not in operation and is scheduled by the European Commission for the last quarter of 2026. Canada paused its Start-Up Visa on 1 January 2026 and the transitional deadline passed on 30 June 2026. The United Kingdom raised the Skilled Worker English requirement to CEFR B2 on 8 January 2026 and raised fees on 8 April 2026. Denmark's Green Card scheme has been repealed, and its 2026 Pay Limit threshold is DKK 552,000. New Zealand's immigration median wage rose to NZ$35.00 an hour on 9 March 2026. Australia's 2026-27 program year opened on 1 July 2026. EB-5 investors face a 30 September 2026 grandfathering date and an expected minimum increase on 1 January 2027. The UAE Golden Visa continues to offer 5- and 10-year residence without a sponsor.
Every item below links to the government or regulator page it came from, so you can check it at source rather than take our word for it.
What is expected next
Changes that have been announced or are scheduled but are not yet in force. Announced dates can move, and where no date has been set we say so rather than guess.
Destination
Expected change
When
United States
Comments close on the DHS proposed EB-5 rule, which would remove the “troubled business” pathway and tighten source-of-funds review.
New Zealand
Skilled Migrant Category settings change: the work-experience requirement for six points falls from three years to two, and two new pathways open for skilled experience and for trades and technicians with a Level 4 qualification.
United States
EB-5 minimum investment (USD 800,000 / USD 1,050,000) expected to rise with inflation. A petition filed on or before 30 September 2026 keeps grandfathering protection.
Denmark
Pay Limit Scheme salary threshold is revised, as it is every year on 1 January. The 2027 figure has not yet been published.
Schengen
ETIAS launches for visa-exempt travellers, including UAE nationals. The European Commission states it is scheduled to start in the last quarter of 2026, with the exact date to be communicated later this year. Treat any specific day-level date you see elsewhere as unverified until the Commission publishes one.
Q4 2026
Canada
The Start-Up Visa pause is described as temporary, but no reopening date has been announced.
Not announced
Australia
State and territory nomination quotas and intake rounds for the 2026-27 program year are announced, typically across July and August.
Jul–Aug 2026
Last reviewed . Immigration rules change without notice — always confirm the current figure with the regulator before acting.
SchengenEES live · ETIAS scheduled Q4 2026
The Schengen Entry/Exit System is live; ETIAS is scheduled for the last quarter of 2026
The EU Entry/Exit System became fully operational on 10 April 2026 at all Schengen external border crossing points, replacing passport stamping with a digital record of each entry and exit by non-EU nationals. It registers name, travel-document data, facial image and fingerprints. Rollout began on 12 October 2025 and ran progressively over six months.
ETIAS is a separate system and is not yet in operation. It is not accepting applications. The European Commission states that ETIAS is scheduled to start in the last quarter of 2026 and that the exact start date will be officially communicated later this year. Treat any third-party content quoting a firm ETIAS launch date as unreliable until the Commission publishes one. The short-stay rule itself is unchanged at 90 days in any 180-day period — what has changed is that enforcement is now automatic and digital.
Does this apply to you?
UAE nationals travel to the Schengen area without a short-stay visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, are already registered by the Entry/Exit System at the border, and will additionally need an ETIAS travel authorisation once that system starts, which the European Commission has scheduled for the last quarter of 2026.
Indian nationals require a Schengen short-stay visa, are already registered by the Entry/Exit System at the border, and are not covered by ETIAS, which applies only to visa-exempt travellers.
UAE Golden Visa: 5- and 10-year residence without a sponsor
The UAE Golden Visa grants renewable long-term residence of five or ten years, and holders do not need a sponsor. Ten-year eligibility covers investors in public investments, people of exceptional talent or rare specialisation — including doctors, scientists, inventors, creatives in culture and arts, executives, athletes, PhD holders and specialists in priority scientific and engineering fields — top university students, and humanitarian pioneers and frontline heroes. Investors in real estate and entrepreneurs are granted five years rather than ten, alongside outstanding high-school achievers.
The government portal states a minimum capital of AED 2 million, or property ownership or a contribution to an establishment paying at least AED 250,000 annually in taxes. Category requirements differ, and several widely-circulated claims about “nomination-based” golden visas do not appear on the official portal — check your specific category against the government source before acting.
EB-5 investors: file before 30 September 2026 to lock in grandfathering, before 1 January 2027 to lock in the current minimum
A regional centre petition filed on or before 30 September 2026 keeps statutory protection under INA section 203(b)(5)(S): if the regional centre programme’s authorisation later expires, USCIS must continue processing that petition and cannot deny it on the basis of that expiry. The programme is currently authorised through 30 September 2027.
The USD 800,000 minimum for a targeted employment area or infrastructure project and the USD 1,050,000 standard minimum apply to petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022. Under INA section 203(b)(5)(C)(iii) these amounts adjust automatically on 1 January 2027 and every five years thereafter. USCIS has not yet published the adjusted figures, so any specific post-2027 amount quoted elsewhere is an estimate rather than a published rate.
United States · Visa BulletinAugust 2026 bulletin · fiscal year ends
August 2026 Visa Bulletin lists EB-2 India as unavailable, and flags EB-1 India as at risk
In the August 2026 Visa Bulletin the employment-based second preference final action date for India is listed as “U”, meaning no immigrant numbers are authorised for issuance that month. EB-3 India and EB-3 Other Workers India both sit at 1 January 2014. Under Dates for Filing, EB-2 India remains at 15 January 2015.
The State Department adds a note that high demand from India in EB-1 “may necessitate making the category unavailable in the coming weeks” if India’s pro-rated limit is reached before the fiscal year ends on 30 September 2026. If you are an Indian national in the GCC holding an approved EB-2 petition, a visa cannot be issued in the August bulletin month, and the bulletin’s own wording puts EB-1 India at risk of the same status before the year end.
EB-5 unreserved is unavailable for India in August 2026, while all three set-asides stay current
The August 2026 Visa Bulletin lists the EB-5 unreserved category for India as “U”, meaning unavailable, and China-mainland at 1 December 2016. All three reserved set-asides — rural at 20 percent, high unemployment at 10 percent and infrastructure at 2 percent — are listed as current for every country, including India and China.
The practical effect in this bulletin month is that an EB-5 applicant chargeable to India has visa numbers available only through a set-aside project, not an unreserved one. This is a question of visa availability and is separate from the EB-5 filing deadlines above, which concern grandfathering and the investment minimum.
UK Skilled Worker: CEFR B2 English, a £41,700 general salary threshold, and April 2026 fees
From 8 January 2026, first-time Skilled Worker applicants must meet a raised English standard of CEFR B2, up from B1.
Since 2 February 2026, section 17 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 has made it a criminal offence to create or publish online material whose purpose or effect is to promote an unlawful immigration service, carrying up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. Separately, sponsor guidance prohibits sponsors from recouping the Certificate of Sponsorship fee or associated administrative costs from a sponsored worker; that is a sponsor licensing duty rather than a criminal offence, and the two are often reported as though they were the same rule.
From 8 April 2026, the Skilled Worker application fee is £819 for up to three years or £1,618 for over three years per person when applying from outside the UK, and £943 or £1,865 when applying from inside the UK to extend, switch or update. Jobs on the Immigration Salary List are charged £628 or £1,235. All figures are before the Immigration Health Surcharge, which is usually £1,035 per year.
The salary requirement is whichever is higher: the general threshold of £41,700 per year, or the going rate for your specific occupation code. Going rates are set per occupation code and are updated periodically, so check the rate for your code as well as the general threshold.
Canada's Start-Up Visa is paused; the 30 June 2026 deadline for existing commitment certificates has now passed
IRCC has placed the Start-Up Visa Program under a pause. Its official page states that to apply you must hold a valid 2025 commitment certificate and must have applied by 30 June 2026, and that the programme is closed to all other applications. That deadline has now passed, so the route is shut to new applicants. Provincial entrepreneur and business-nominee streams, and intra-company transfer expansion strategies, remain open alternatives depending on profile.
Canada’s Express Entry categories now number ten, and three of them require Canadian work experience
Category-based Express Entry rounds now run across ten categories. Three of the newer ones — physicians, senior managers and researchers — require at least twelve months of full-time work experience gained in Canada within the past three years. The skilled military recruits category requires ten years of continuous foreign military service plus a Canadian Armed Forces job offer.
The categories that still accept experience gained abroad are French-language proficiency, healthcare and social services, STEM, trades, education, and transport occupations. For a candidate applying from the UAE with no Canadian work history, category planning should focus on that second group.
New Canadian regulations on immigration and citizenship consultants took effect on 15 July 2026
Regulations strengthening oversight of immigration and citizenship consultants came into force on 15 July 2026. They let the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants strengthen its complaints and discipline process, including higher penalties, clarify its misconduct investigation rules and add reporting requirements. They also allow the minister to appoint someone to take over board duties if the board fails to meet its responsibilities, and set guidelines for the College’s compensation fund for people who suffer financial loss through a consultant’s dishonest acts.
From April 2027 the College’s public register of licensed consultants must carry more information. If you are paying for Canadian immigration advice from the GCC, you can check the individual adviser on that public register, and the compensation fund and higher penalties now sit behind the licensing regime.
DenmarkPositive Lists updated · Green Card repealed
Denmark's Green Card scheme is repealed; the 2026 Pay Limit threshold is DKK 552,000
The Danish Green Card Scheme has been repealed and is closed to new applicants. Holders of a valid Green Card permit can still apply to extend it, and SIRI was still processing extensions as at 26 June 2026. Anyone researching Denmark on the basis of older Green Card information should treat that route as unavailable.
The routes that remain open include the Pay Limit Scheme, which requires a job offer with an annual salary of at least DKK 552,000 for 2026. That amount is regulated every year on 1 January. SIRI updated Denmark’s Positive Lists with effect from 1 July 2026: the Positive List for People with a Higher Education now holds 164 job titles and the Positive List for Skilled Work holds 63. The two moved in opposite directions — the higher-education list shrank while the skilled-work list grew — and the lists are revised periodically rather than annually, so check the current list for your job title rather than relying on a count.
AustraliaPlanning levels announced · program year opened
Australia’s 2026-27 permanent Migration Program is set at 185,000 places, with Regional allocations cut sharply
On 12 May 2026 the Australian Government set the 2026-27 permanent Migration Program at 185,000 places, unchanged in total from 2025-26, split roughly 70:30 between the Skilled and Family programs. The Skilled Migration Program has 132,240 places, the Australian Family Program 52,460 and Special Eligibility 300. Within the Skilled program the allocations have moved: Employer-Sponsored rises from 44,000 to 58,040, Skilled Independent from 16,900 to 21,090 and State/Territory Nominated from 33,000 to 35,500, while Regional falls from 33,000 to 14,110. The government has also weighted the year towards people already onshore, allocating 129,590 places to applicants in Australia and 55,110 offshore. State and territory nomination allocations for 2026-27 have not yet been published; the most recent published allocation remains 20,350 for 2025-26, set on 4 November 2025.
Australia lifts skilled visa income thresholds by 3.8% from 1 July 2026
The Department of Home Affairs has indexed skilled visa income thresholds by 3.8%, in line with Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings. The Core Skills Income Threshold rises from AUD 76,515 to AUD 79,423 and applies to nomination applications for the Core Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186). The Specialist Skills Income Threshold rises from AUD 141,210 to AUD 146,576 for the Specialist Skills stream of the 482. The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold rises from AUD 76,515 to AUD 79,423 for subclass 494 and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187).
The department states the change does not apply to existing visa holders, or to nominations lodged before 1 July 2026. If you are relying on an Australian employer nomination from the GCC, the salary offered now has to meet the new figure.
New Zealand's immigration median wage rose to NZ$35.00 an hour on 9 March 2026, with Skilled Migrant changes due in August
As of 9 March 2026 the immigration median wage moved up to NZ$35.00 an hour, the figure that feeds Skilled Migrant Category settings and the Accredited Employer Work Visa partner-support thresholds of NZ$28.00 and NZ$52.50 an hour. Forty-seven occupations were added to the National Occupation List the same day. From 24 August 2026 the Skilled Migrant settings change again: two new pathways open, one for skilled work experience and one for trades and technicians holding a Level 4 or higher qualification, and applicants will be able to claim additional points for New Zealand qualifications. Draft expressions of interest expire on 24 August 2026, so anyone who wants to be assessed under the current rules needs to submit an EOI before that date.
Singapore raises the Employment Pass qualifying salary to S$6,000 for new applications from 1 January 2027
The Ministry of Manpower has published a higher Employment Pass qualifying salary. For all sectors except financial services the minimum rises from S$5,600 to S$6,000 at age 23 or below, and from S$10,700 to S$11,500 at age 45 and above, stepping up by age in between. For financial services the minimum rises from S$6,200 to S$6,600 at the youngest band and from S$11,800 to S$12,700 at age 45 and above.
The new figures apply to new applications from 1 January 2027 and to renewals of passes expiring from 1 January 2028. Candidates must also pass the points-based COMPASS framework. For a mid-career candidate moving from the GCC, the lodgement date is now itself a planning decision.
Rules change without notice. Verify current figures and dates directly with the relevant regulator — USCIS, GOV.UK, IRCC, the Department of Home Affairs, Immigration New Zealand, SIRI, the European Commission or the UAE government portal — before acting, and check any adviser or consultant on the official register named on our verify credentials page. No adviser can guarantee a visa outcome; decisions rest with the deciding authority.
