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Explainer: UK govt’s five-point plan to slash immigration
The changes are set to go into effect in spring 2024.
Representative Image / Unsplash
Earlier this month, UK Home Secretary James Cleverly unveiled a prospective shift in visa regulations, outlining a strategy with five key points aimed at slashing immigration in the country.
Collectively, this initiative will result in approximately 300,000 individuals who arrived in the UK last year being ineligible to enter the country, according to a release. The set of actions will put an end to the substantial influx of dependents arriving in the UK, raise the minimum income requirements for both overseas workers and British or settled individuals sponsoring their family members, and address instances of exploitation within the immigration system.
Five announced changes
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Social care workers will be prohibited from bringing their partners and children as dependents on their visa.
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The baseline minimum salary for sponsorship under a Skilled Worker visa is set to increase from £26,200 (US$ 33,156) to £38,700 (US$ 48,975). However, this adjustment excludes the Health and Care Worker visa, encompassing social care, and education workers on national pay scales.
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Alterations to the Shortage Occupation List will substantially reduce the number of jobs eligible for sponsoring overseas workers below the new baseline minimum salary.The Shortage Occupation List (SOL) will be renamed as the Immigration Salary List.
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The minimum income required to sponsor an individual for a spouse/partner visa will undergo an increase from £18,600 (US$ 23,548) to £38,700 (US$ 48,975).
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The Migration Advisory Committee is tasked with reviewing the Graduate visa, a two-year unsponsored work permit for overseas graduates from British universities.
Date of implementation is unclear
A formal procedure called a statement of changes to the Immigration Rule will be used to incorporate the proposed alterations. Everything except the review of graduate visas was originally scheduled to take effect "from next spring," according to the Home Secretary. There are now different timelines for different measures:
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Newly arriving care workers will be banned from bringing immediate family “as soon as possible in the new year”.
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The Skilled Worker minimum salary increase will happen in April 2024.
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Changes to the shortage occupation list will happen no earlier than April 2024.
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The spouse/partner visa minimum income will first increase to £29,000 in “spring 2024”; to around £34,500 at an unspecified time (likely later in 2024); and finally to around £38,700 “in early 2025”.
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The Graduate visa review will begin in January (and may run until “late 2024”).
Why has the Government decided to make these changes?
“It is clear that net migration remains far too high. By leaving the European Union we gained control over who can come to the UK, but far more must be done to bring those numbers down so British workers are not undercut and our public services put under less strain,” said Cleverly earlier this month.
“My plan will deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration and will mean around 300,000 people who came to the UK last year would not have been able to do so. I am taking decisive action to halt the drastic rise in our work visa routes and crack down on those who seek to take advantage of our hospitality,” he added.
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