Border rules, and when they stop being true

Electronic Travel Authorisation for short visits

If you can visit the UK without a visa, you now need an ETA before you travel. It costs £16, covers multiple trips for two years or until your passport expires, and is linked digitally to the passport you applied with. Get a new passport and you need a new ETA.

Enforcement began on 25 February 2026. Carriers check before boarding, and without an ETA you will not be allowed on the plane. British and Irish citizens are exempt. People who need a visa should apply for the visa, not an ETA.

Approval is often immediate, but allow three working days in case your application needs extra checks.

Official source: gov.uk/eta

Skilled Worker visa

The main work route. You need a job offer from an employer the Home Office has approved as a sponsor, and a certificate of sponsorship from them. You must apply within three months of getting it.

You must be paid whichever is higher: £41,700 a year, or the published going rate for your occupation code. The going rate often bites first — a role with a going rate of £45,000 needs £45,000, not £41,700.

A lower floor of £33,400 applies in some situations, and healthcare and education jobs follow national pay scales instead. Your employer also has to meet minimum wage and working time law, or the application is refused.

Official source: gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa

Earned settlement: five years becomes ten

On 2 November 2026 the Home Secretary set out a new model for indefinite leave to remain. The standard qualifying period rises from five years to ten for most people, with faster routes for higher earners and certain public service roles, and much longer periods for people who have breached immigration rules. The Long Residence route closes.

Official source: gov.uk Immigration Rules

English language level for settlement

Rules laid in March 2026 raise the English requirement for settlement from B1 to B2. This comes into force in March 2027 and is separate from the earned settlement changes above.

Official source: gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk

The 90 in 180 short-stay rule

As a visa-exempt visitor you can spend at most 90 days in any rolling 180-day period across the whole Schengen area combined, not per country. The window rolls: on any given day, count backwards 180 days and add up the days you were inside.

This covers tourism, visiting people and most business trips. It does not let you work or live there. Overstaying, even slightly, can mean an entry ban, and since the Entry/Exit System went live the days are counted automatically rather than from passport stamps.

Official source: travel-europe.europa.eu

Entry/Exit System

The EES registers non-EU nationals every time they cross a Schengen external border for a short stay. On your first crossing your fingerprints and a facial image are recorded; after that it logs entries and exits automatically. It replaced manual passport stamping.

Rollout started on 12 October 2025 and the system has been fully operational at all external border crossing points since 10 April 2026. Expect longer queues at busy airports, particularly on a first crossing. Cyprus and Ireland are not part of the EES.

There is nothing to apply for and nothing to pay. It happens at the border.

Official source: travel-europe.europa.eu/ees

ETIAS travel authorisation

ETIAS will eventually require visa-exempt travellers to get an authorisation before entering the Schengen area, expected to cost €20 and last three years or until the passport expires.

It is not running. The European Commission's own page states ETIAS is currently not in operation and that no applications are being collected. The previously advertised late-2026 window has been removed and no replacement date has been published. The EU has committed to announcing the start date several months in advance, followed by a grace period.

Official source: travel-europe.europa.eu/etias

EU Blue Card

A work and residence permit for highly qualified non-EU professionals, governed by a common directive but implemented nationally. Each country sets its own salary threshold between 100% and 160% of its national average gross salary, so the bar varies enormously — from under €20,000 a year in Romania to over €70,000 in the highest countries.

Two examples for scale: Germany requires €50,700 gross a year in 2026, or €45,934.20 for shortage occupations and recent graduates. The Netherlands works in gross monthly terms, at €5,942, or €4,754 under the reduced criterion.

Denmark and Ireland opted out entirely. For those two you need the national work permit system instead.

Check the threshold with the immigration authority of the country you are applying in — the figure that counts is the one in force on the day they decide.

MVV and the combined application

To stay longer than 90 days you usually need a residence permit, and most nationalities also need an MVV — a provisional residence permit that lets you travel in as a prospective resident rather than a tourist.

You apply for both at once under the TEV procedure. Your sponsor in the Netherlands normally files it; without a sponsor you can apply yourself from abroad through a Dutch embassy or consulate. The IND's decision period is 90 days, though it often decides faster. Once granted you have three months to collect the MVV, then you collect the residence permit itself at an IND desk after you arrive.

The IND advises against being in the Netherlands while the application is pending.

Official source: ind.nl

Highly skilled migrant salary thresholds

The kennismigrant route admits non-EU professionals on salary alone — no diploma requirement, no labour market test, no separate work permit. The catch is that your employer must already be an IND-recognised sponsor, and the salary has to clear a threshold that resets every January.

The salary must also be market-conform, which the IND assesses separately. Applying the expat tax ruling does not lower the threshold.

Official source: ind.nl required amounts

Expat tax ruling, from 30% to 27%

Employees recruited from abroad can receive part of their salary free of Dutch tax as a cost reimbursement, for a maximum of five years. From 1 January 2027 the maximum rate drops from 30% to 27%, and the minimum salary needed to qualify rises. The benefit is capped at the WNT norm, €262,000 in 2026.

This is a tax rule administered by the Belastingdienst, not an immigration rule, and its salary test is a different figure from the IND threshold above. People whose ruling started before 2024 may fall under transitional arrangements.

Official source: business.gov.nl

Naturalisation

To become Dutch by naturalisation you must be 18 or over, have lived in the Kingdom for five consecutive years on a valid permit, hold a permanent permit or one with a non-temporary purpose, and pass the civic integration exam at level A2. Three years is enough if you have lived with a Dutch partner.

You must not have had a significant criminal penalty in the previous five years, and in principle you are expected to give up your existing nationality, with exceptions. The fee was €1,139 in 2026 and the IND has twelve months to decide. You become Dutch at the ceremony, not on the decision.

Some people with Dutch family or birth connections qualify for the option procedure instead, which is cheaper, faster and has no exam.

Official source: ind.nl Dutch citizenship