On 4 December 2023 the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, announced future changes to visa rules in what he described as a “five-point plan” to reduce immigration. The Home Office released more information on 21 December, including some adjustments to what had initially been announced.
Some of the changes have come into force and most of the rest will by 11 April 2024, in accordance with two sets of changes to the Immigration Rules released on 19 February and 14 March.
What are the five changes?
- Social care workers are no longer allowed to bring dependants (that is, partners and children) on their visa.
- The minimum salary to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa is increasing, with the baseline minimum rising from £26,200 to £38,700 (but not for the Health and Care Worker visa, which includes social care, or for education workers on national pay scales) .
- Changes to the Shortage Occupation List to reduce the number of jobs where it will be possible to sponsor someone for a Skilled Worker visa on less than the usual minimum salary (which is the main purpose of the list).
- The minimum income normally required to sponsor someone for a spouse/partner visa is increasing in stages from £18,600 per year to £29,000 and ultimately around £38,700.
- A review of the Graduate visa, a two-year unsponsored work permit for overseas graduates of British universities.
When will the changes happen?
- The ban on newly arriving care workers bringing immediate family has been in place since 11 March 2024.
- The Skilled Worker minimum salary increase will occur on April 4, 2024.
- An interim Immigration Salary List, replacing the Shortage Occupation List, will also come in on 4 April 2024; the list will be reviewed later this list.
- The spouse/partner visa minimum income will first increase to £29,000 on 11 April 2024; to around £34,500 at an unspecified time later in 2024; and finally to around £38,700 “by early 2025”.
- The review of the Graduate visa has begun, with Home Secretary asking for a report by 14 May 2024.
Will MPs vote to approve, reject or amend the changes?
Unlikely.
Revision of visa regulations is carried out through statements of changes to the Immigration Rules. The Government has laid two statements before Parliament to implement these changes, one on 19 February 2024 (care worker dependants) and another on 14 March 2024 (family and work visa income thresholds).
Statements of changes take effect automatically unless either the House of Commons or House of Lords actively votes to annul them within 40 days. Usually there is no vote and the Government is not obliged to make time for one in the Commons even if a motion against the changes is tabled (this can be done as an Early Day Motion).
If there is a vote on changes to the Immigration Rules, the proposed changes cannot be amended. They can either be accepted or rejected in their entirety.
No further legislation is needed.
Why has the Government decided to make these changes?
Ministers believe that immigration is “far too high”. Net migration (the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants) was provisionally estimated to be 745,000 in 2022.
International students, social care workers and their immediate family members (dependants) are the main contributors to the recent increase in net migration, along with humanitarian visa schemes and people claiming asylum.
The changes announced in December follow restrictions on student dependent rules in announced separately in May 2023 and in force since the start of 2024. The Home Office says that 300,000 of the people who moved to the UK last year would not have been able to come had all these changes have been in place then.
My constituent will be extending their spouse/partner visa on or after 11 April – will the £29,000 threshold apply to them, or only to first-time visa applicants?
Only for first-time applicants. A Government spokesperson initially said the higher threshold would apply to visa extensions, but the Home Office later announced that it would not. The notes accompanying the Immigration Rules published on 14 March explain:
There are transitional arrangements for those who, before 11 April, already have a Family visa within the fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner or five-year partner route, or who applied before 11 April and are being granted. Once a minimum income requirement (MIR) has been met, the same MIR must be met through to settlement on the route, provided the applicant is applying to stay with the same partner.
This means that someone whose fiancé(e), partner or spouse applies for a visa before 11 April 2024 will only need to demonstrate a minimum income of £18,600 per year. This transitional exemption will apply to their initial visa application, future visa extension applications, and future applications for settlement (also known as indefinite leave to remain).
Can both the applicant’s and the sponsor’s income be counted towards the £18,600 / £29,000 required?
When applying for the initial visa from outside the UK, only the sponsor’s income can be counted towards the minimum income threshold. For extensions and permanent residence, both incomes count. People generally need to provide evidence of having earned that income for the past six months (although the exact rules are complicated).
There are also some options for people who do not earn the minimum income, allowing them to qualify for the visa by other means such as by using savings above £16,000 or in exceptional circumstances.
None of this is changing.
Will there be changes to the amount of savings needed as an alternative to income?
The basic rule will stay the same: only savings above £16,000, divided by 2.5, count towards the threshold. Because the threshold will be £29,000, the amount of savings needed to meet it increases automatically. If the couple has no relevant income and are looking to meet the threshold entirely through savings, they will now need £88,500 in savings instead of £62,500.
As with the main income rule, people generally need to have the required amount of savings in their account(s) for six months before applying.
Will there also be a minimum income increase for members of the armed forces who want to sponsor a spouse/partner visa?
Yes, but only up to £23,496, the armed forces minimum wage.
Do any comparable countries apply minimum income rules to spouse visas?
Many countries require proof of sufficient economic resources. The way the requirements are expressed and assessed varies, making exact comparisons difficult.
Where countries do express the requirement as a minimum income, such as in Belgium or Norway, Library research has so far not found any examples of the threshold being set above or close to £38,700 (the level the UK Government ultimately intends to reach). The UK’s rules on what income sources count towards the threshold are also stricter than in other countries, according to the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.
Opponents of the minimum income policy often cite a ranking called the Migrant Integration Policy Index or MIPEX. In 2020, the UK was placed second from bottom among 56 countries for ease of family reunion. The family reunion ranking takes minimum income-style rules into account, along with various other factors, in comparing the various countries.
What about the higher £38,700 salary threshold for the Skilled Worker visa – will that apply to people already here on that visa?
No. “Those already in the Skilled work route, and applications made before the rules change, will not be subject to the new £38,700 salary threshold when they change employment, extend, or settle”, according to the Minister for Legal Migration.
The Immigration Rules changes published today confirm that someone who has a Skilled Worker visa before 4 April 2024, and applies to extend it or for settlement before 4 April 2030, only needs to meet a salary threshold of £29,000 rather than £38,700. The £29,000 is the current level of £26,200 adjusted for inflation.
For many roles, workers cannot be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa unless they are paid a higher ‘going rate’ salary. The job-specific going rates are also increasing significantly, up to the median (average) UK salary for that job. This means, for example, that the minimum salary to sponsor a foreign accountant is increasing from the current going rate of £31,300 to £46,800.
In certain circumstances, people can be paid a little less than the usual minimum salary and still be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa. This includes “new entrants” to the labor market, such as people aged under 26 and post-doctoral researchers. Such reductions will still be possible after April 4, although many fewer jobs will be eligible for a lower sponsored salary by virtue of being on the new Immigration Salary List, which is much shorter than the Shortage Occupation List it replaces.