All Official Changes
Every verified rule change Diplonaut has tracked, in one place — each dated, sourced, and linked to the government page that made it. Not a curated highlight reel: the full record.
-
Coming
UK Graduate Route shortens to 18 months
24 months → 18 months
For bachelor’s and master’s graduates applying from 1 January 2027. It stays 24 months until then.
-
Coming
UK raises the student living-cost requirement
£1,171 / mo → £1,203 / mo
£1,570 a month in London and £1,203 outside London, for applications from 30 November 2026, set in the Statement of Changes HC 584 published on 3 September 2026.
-
H-1B petitions now face employer-layoff scrutiny
An executive order directs the State, Labor, and Homeland Security departments to coordinate with Commerce, Education, and the SBA when reviewing H-1B petitions, and requires agencies to factor in whether the sponsoring employer has conducted or plans layoffs affecting similarly-situated American workers. The Labor Department must also begin reviewing past labor condition applications within 30 days for possible enforcement action. This doesn’t change the H-1B cap or fees directly, but adds real friction to employer sponsorship — relevant to anyone counting on H-1B after graduating.
-
US ‘duration of status’ rule postponed
A federal court blocked the DHS rule replacing open-ended student stays with fixed periods of up to four years, a day before it was due to take effect. Duration of status remains in place while the case continues.
-
Canada raises proof of funds to CA$23,448
CA$22,895 → CA$23,448
For study permit applications outside Quebec, on top of first-year tuition and travel.
-
France: €877.50 a month to show
€615 / mo → €877.50 / mo
Up from €615 and now tied to the minimum wage, so it will rise automatically.
-
South Korea makes its digital nomad visa permanent, and easier to get
2 years, flat income floor → 3 years, tiered income floor
After a 2.5-year pilot, the F-1-D ‘Workation’ visa became a permanent category effective 30 June 2026. The flat income requirement (2x national GNI per capita) is now tiered: applicants under 35 outside Seoul can qualify at 1x GNI, while those 35+ in the Seoul metro area still need up to 2x. Maximum stay extends from 2 to 3 years, and holders can now switch status without leaving the country to reapply.
-
Australia raises visa charges
Student visa from A$2,000 to A$2,500; graduate visa from A$4,600 to A$5,750.
-
France ends housing aid for most non-EU students
Non-EU students without a means-tested scholarship no longer receive APL housing benefit.
-
Sweden limits student work to 15 hours a week
No limit → 15 h / wk
Bachelor’s and master’s students granted a permit from 11 June 2026 may work at most 15 hours a week during term, with no limit in June, July and August. Working more can lead to the permit being withdrawn, and study-progress requirements are stricter.
-
Portugal doubles the wait for citizenship
5 years → 10 years
Under Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026, most foreign residents — including Americans on a D7, D8 digital nomad, or former Golden Visa route — now need 10 years of legal residence before applying for citizenship, up from 5 (7 years for CPLP/EU citizens). The clock also now starts the day your residence card is issued, not the day you apply, which matters given AIMA’s own backlog routinely runs 12–24 months. The regulation meant to clarify how pre-2026 residence time counts was due within 90 days of the law and still hadn’t appeared by late September — so anyone mid-process genuinely doesn’t know where they stand yet.
-
France caps fee waivers and sets 2026–27 fees
€3,941 / yr, often waived → €3,950 / yr
Universities may waive the non-EU fee for at most 30% of these students in 2026–27, 25% in 2027–28 and 20% from 2028. The 2026–27 master’s fee is €3,950.
-
Mexico roughly doubles residency fees
1-year temporary resident card: 5,328 → 11,140.74 pesos
Effective 1 January 2026, Mexico’s immigration authority (INM) raised nearly every residency-related fee by about 109%, per a schedule published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación. A 4-year temporary resident card rose from 11,984 to 25,057.82 pesos, and permanent residency from 6,494 to 13,578.96 pesos. INM referenced a 50% fee reduction for certain applicant categories, but as of mid-2026 had not published guidance on how to actually claim it — treat that discount as not yet usable in practice.
-
Austria raises the amount students must show
€1,273.99 / mo → €1,308.39 / mo
Students aged 24 and over must now show €1,308.39 a month (€722.58 under 24), following the 2026 update of the official reference rate.
-
US suspends new student visas for 38 countries
A presidential proclamation fully suspends entry for nationals of 19 countries, including Iran, Haiti and Syria, and suspends new F, M and J student visas for nationals of 19 more, including Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania. Visas valid before 1 January 2026 are not revoked.
-
Canada: no attestation letter for master’s at public institutions
Master’s and doctoral students at public designated institutions no longer need a provincial or territorial attestation letter, and fall outside the study permit cap.
-
Netherlands sets its 2026 funds amount
€1,130.77 a month for university students, €13,569 a year.
-
South Korea extends its job-seeker visa for graduates to 3 years
Up to 2 years → Up to 3 years
Graduates of Korean universities can now stay up to 3 years to look for work, renewed one year at a time instead of every 6 months, and internships are no longer capped at 1 year in total.
-
US reviews the online presence of every student visa applicant
All F, M and J applicants must set their social media profiles to public so consular officers can review their online presence.
-
31 Dec 1969
Belgium: €1,062 a month for 2026–27
The indexed amount students must show for the 2026–27 academic year.