This article was published on 12 December 2023 and updated on 24 April 2024.
On 4 December 2023, Home Secretary James Cleverly announced 5 proposals designed to reduce net migration to the UK. Most changes target business immigration, but the Government casts its net over international graduates and lovers too.
1. Skilled Worker salary increases on 4 April 2024
The standard salary threshold for most Skilled Workers has increased to £38,700. Workers who were already in the Skilled Worker route prior to 4 April 2024 will not be subject to the new £38,700 salary threshold, even when they change employment, extend their Skilled Worker permission or apply for settlement.
The change effectively undoes the lowering of the skills threshold in December 2020 that allowed Skilled Workers to fill so-called “medium skilled” roles as well as “high-skilled roles”. Health and Care workers will be exempt from the higher salary threshold.
The Government has raised the individual occupation ‘going rate’ salary thresholds to the 50th percentile of salaries paid for each individual occupation, up from the 25th percentile. Those already in the Skilled Worker route prior to 4 April 2024 are exempted from the new median salary levels when they change sponsor, extend, or settle; they are subject to updated 25th percentiles using the latest pay data when they next make an application to change employment, extend their stay, or settle.
For more details on the Skilled Worker rules changes, please read our article on the topic.
2. Health and Care workers cannot bring dependants since 11 March 2024
Despite the exemption from the salary threshold hike, not all Health and Care Workers have escaped the Home Secretary’s scrutiny. The removal of care workers and senior care workers right to bring dependants came into force on 11 March 2024. Care workers and senior care workers already in the route can remain with their dependants, including extending, changing employer within these SOC codes and settling in the UK.
Where a care worker or senior care worker is in the route before 11 March 2024 but has not yet brought dependants, they are allowed to bring dependants during their sponsorship as a Health and Care Worker.
Dependants of individuals who are in the UK on any visa other than Health and Care, who switch to a Health and Care visa as a care worker or senior care worker are no longer allowed to remain dependants; they have to apply for another visa type or leave the UK.
Also in effect since 11 March 2024 is a restriction on use of the Health and Care Worker route to employers regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Care providers who were sponsoring workers in exclusively non-regulated activities, and therefore not required to be registered with the CQC, before 11 March 2024 are allowed to continue to sponsor these workers, including for extensions to their Health and Care visas. Care providers not required to be registered with the CQC can no longer sponsor new workers.
3. Shortage Occupation List became Immigration Salary List on 4 April 2024
The Shortage Occupation List was replaced by an Immigration Salary List comprised of roles where “the Government thinks it is sensible to offer a discounted salary threshold” according to the Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the Statement of Changes in the Immigration Rules published on 14 March 2024.
Roles identified as suffering from labour shortages will not be able to benefit from a lower Skilled Worker salary requirement. The Government is set to adopt the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)’s recommendation to end the 20% going-rate salary discount for shortage occupations.
The MAC published initial recommendations regarding roles for inclusion on the ‘Immigration Salary List’ at the end of February. In its previous reviews, the MAC did not recommend that the Government use the SOL to allow for lower salaries; the salary reduction was the Government’s own initiative, as it contorted the Skilled Worker route salary calculations to be able to present the UK’s immigration system as a ‘Points-Based System’, which it is not.
Changes Immigration Trainee Anna Asumadu’s article discusses the MAC’s 2023 review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL).
For the details regarding the new Immigration Salary List and related MAC report please read our article ‘The Immigration Salary List – What’s the points?’.
4. Review of the Graduate visa route
The Graduate visa authorises international students to work in the UK for two years after graduating from a degree-level course. The route affords employers the opportunity assess a non-UK national worker during a probationary period before committing to sponsoring them. The visa also affords Students some time to set up a business or try out a job in the UK before moving on to a business or work visa.
The Home Office has commissioned the MAC to begin work on the Graduate visa a rapid review on 11 March 2024. The Home Secretary asked to include in the review any evidence of abuse of the route including the route not being fit for purpose” and the “analysis of whether the route is undermining the integrity and quality of the UK higher education system”. The MAC has until 14 May 2024 to provide the Home Secretary with its report. In their response acknowledging the request, the MAC highlighted that the limited time provided by the Home Secretary will substantially limit the quality and quantity of evidence.
The Government has yo-yo’ed on this route, introducing its predecessor route, the Post-Study Work visa and then abolishing that route, before reintroducing it as the Graduate route.
5. Lovers beware – minimum salary threshold increases since 11 April 2024
The minimum income threshold for family members under the five-year route to settlement will increase incrementally, starting at £29,000 on 11 April 2024 and rising to around £34,500 sometime later in 2024, and again to £38,700 by early 2025. This visa route applies to spouses, civil partners, unmarried partners and fiancés of British nationals, people with indefinite leave to remain in the UK, certain EU nationals with immigration permission under the EU Settlement Scheme, and refugees among others.
Those who already have a family visa within the five-year partner route, or who apply before the minimum income threshold increases, will continue to have their applications assessed against the income requirements in place on the date of their application and will not be required to meet the increased threshold. This will also be the case for children seeking to join or accompany parents.
Since 11 April 2024, the same minimum income threshold applies regardless of the number of children applying.
The last time the UK pursued blanket policies to reduce net migration figures, hostile environment policies lead to abuses such as the Windrush scandal, the lessons of which the Government is evidently uninterested in learning.
You can watch our original video summarising the five-point plan announced in December 2023 here:
Publication date: 12 December 2023
