The Home Office announced on 8 July 2026 that the National Security (State Threats) Act has received Royal Assent, giving ministers a suite of new powers aimed at hostile-state activity. While framed as a security measure, several provisions directly affect global mobility professionals. Under the Act, the Home Secretary can now impose ‘foreign-state interference prevention orders’ that bar named individuals from obtaining a UK visa or, if already present, mandate regular police reporting and restrict their work and study rights. The legislation also lowers the evidential threshold for cancelling existing visas on national-security grounds, with appeals limited to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. For multinationals transferring staff to sensitive sectors such as AI, telecoms or defence, the key risk is inadvertent association: companies must certify that transferees are not acting at the direction of a sanctioned state entity. Lawyers expect this to surface during Sponsor Licence renewals, requiring enhanced due-diligence questionnaires similar to US export-control vetting.
![New UK anti-state-threat law expands powers to refuse visas and deport foreign agents]()
At a practical level, organisations can ease the compliance burden by partnering with VisaHQ, whose UK portal monitors legislative changes like the State Threats Act, alerts HR teams to new vetting questions, and assists employees in assembling the enhanced documentation UKVI now demands.
HR teams should update mobility‐onboarding checklists to capture dual nationals of countries listed in the forthcoming ‘State Threats Schedule’ (expected to include Russia, Iran and North Korea) and be prepared for longer processing times as UKVI applies the new risk filters. The business-travel community broadly supports the reforms but warns that lack of transparent guidance could create uncertainty for legitimate travellers. The Home Office insists decisions will remain ‘case-by-case’ and proportionate, but advisers predict an initial spike in refusals as caseworkers test the new powers.
At a practical level, organisations can ease the compliance burden by partnering with VisaHQ, whose UK portal monitors legislative changes like the State Threats Act, alerts HR teams to new vetting questions, and assists employees in assembling the enhanced documentation UKVI now demands.
HR teams should update mobility‐onboarding checklists to capture dual nationals of countries listed in the forthcoming ‘State Threats Schedule’ (expected to include Russia, Iran and North Korea) and be prepared for longer processing times as UKVI applies the new risk filters. The business-travel community broadly supports the reforms but warns that lack of transparent guidance could create uncertainty for legitimate travellers. The Home Office insists decisions will remain ‘case-by-case’ and proportionate, but advisers predict an initial spike in refusals as caseworkers test the new powers.
