UK Govt Raise Minimum Skilled Worker Salary And Income Requirement for Spouse Visa to Over £38K
LAHORE MIRROR — With official estimates of net migration reaching record levels of 745,000 in 2022, the Home Secretary has today made a very significant statement to the House of Commons setting out plans to cut family, study and work-related immigration.Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak said recently that levels of immigration are too high and need to come down to sustainable levels.
In today’s announcement, the Home Secretary James Cleverly said a new five-point plan will be introduced that will take effect in Spring 2024. Under the new plan:
• The minimum salary for foreign skilled workers will be raised from £26,200 to £38,700 (though the health and care sector will be exempt).
• The minimum income requirement for a spouse or family visa will be raised from £18,600 to £38,700.
• Care workers will not be allowed to bring any dependents to the UK, and care firms will be required to be registered with the Care Quality Commission to sponsor visas.
• The Shortage Occupation List will be reformed and the current 20% going rate salary discount for shortage occupations will be abolished.
• The rules on students bringing family members to the UK will be tightened, plus the Migration Advisory Committee will be commissioned to carry out a full review of the graduate visa route.
The announcement of the very large increase from £18,600 to £38,700 in the minimum income requirement for a spouse or family visa was met with considerable surprise and dismay on social media. Katie Newbury of Kingsley Napley solicitors noted on X (formerly Twitter) that the increase also means that British people will need to earn at least £38,700 if they want to bring their partner to the UK.
The non-profit organisation Reunite Families UK said it was “beyond devastated” by the increase. Author and political journalist Ian Dunt called it “an assault on mixed-nationality British families”. Chris Smyth, the Whitehall editor of The Times, noted that three quarters of British people are now “too poor to marry a foreigner”.
It was not immediately clear if the increase would apply to those renewing a family visa, but the leading immigration barrister Colin Yeo said he imagines it will only apply to new entrants.
Downing Street said the aim of the new plan was to deliver the biggest reduction in net migration on record. The Home Secretary said the new measures would mean that over 300,000 of the estimated 1.2 million people who moved to the UK in 2022 would now be unable to do so.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow Home Secretary, said in response that the statement represented an admission of years of total failure by the Conservative government over immigration and the economy. Cooper noted that net migration had trebled as a result of the Government’s own policies.
She said the Prime Minister was now opposing his own policies in a ‘chaotic panic’. “Who does the Home Secretary think has been in charge for the past 13 years?” Cooper asked.
SOURCE: ein.org.uk
