Global Mobility News from VisaHQ

DETE confirmed that Employment Permit salary thresholds will start rising on 1 March 2026 and then climb gradually until 2030, replacing a steeper two-year timetable. Employers gain clarity to plan budgets and renewals, while migrant-worker groups say monitoring will be vital.

Effective 5 December 2025 Spain raised the monthly income requirement for its Digital Nomad Visa to roughly €2,763 (200 % of the new SMI). Family members trigger additional income tests. Multinationals and remote-first employers should revisit payroll budgets and timing for 2026 assignments.

Ontario has released draft regulations that would consolidate and modernise the province’s immigration program in 2026. Key proposals include two TEER-based Employer Job-Offer tracks, a new licence-based health-care stream, an entrepreneur succession pathway and an Exceptional Talent route that does not require a job offer. Employers and applicants have until January 1 to submit comments, making now the time for workforce planners to review future hiring needs.

A heavy Alpine storm on 5 December shut down Munich Airport for eight hours and forced the cancellation of all Munich–Vienna and Munich–Graz flights, triggering widespread knock-on delays at Vienna and Graz airports. Airlines have activated weather re-booking policies, but business-class seats for 6–7 December are already scarce, and cargo operators have declared force-majeure. The incident highlights the vulnerability of Austrian air links in winter and has renewed calls for lower aviation taxes to attract contingency capacity.

The Federal Council has formally adopted the EU’s tougher visa-suspension regulation, allowing Switzerland to re-introduce C-visas at shorter notice and for more reasons. Corporations relying on visa-waived travel will need contingency plans and should expect closer Swiss-EU coordination on risk assessments.

A new Presidential decree confirms nearly half-a-million work-visa places between 2026 and 2028, with over half earmarked for seasonal agriculture and tourism. The enlarged quota is intended to counter Italy’s labour shortages but keeps the controversial ‘click-day’ application race, meaning employers must prepare early to secure permits.

From 1 January 2026, Finnish passports and ID cards can no longer be collected with a paper power-of-attorney. Collection will be limited to the applicant, a legal guardian or a digitally designated representative. The move aligns with EU security rules and forces employers and relocation firms to rethink document-pick-up logistics.

China Eastern Airlines has opened the world’s longest scheduled air route, operating a 26-hour, 20,000-km service between Shanghai and Buenos Aires with a brief technical stop in Auckland. The twice-weekly flight slashes travel time by about five hours compared with traditional routings, boosts trade by adding direct belly-cargo capacity, and is expected to increase Chinese tourism to Argentina by more than a third. For corporate mobility programmes, the route offers a faster, one-stop solution for executives and freight, but limited frequencies require careful contingency planning.

From 15 December, every H-1B and H-4 visa applicant must unlock their social-media accounts for consular review. The rule extends public-profile vetting beyond students to the core U.S. skilled-worker program, raising privacy concerns and travel-planning headaches for employers and global staff.