The new Home Secretary has announced in a statement to Parliament that the government will freeze the minimum income requirement for Skilled Worker visas at the current level of GBP 29,000 until the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has reviewed the financial requirements in the family immigration rules.
The previous government planned to increase the Skilled Worker salary threshold by 48% from GBP 26,200 to GBP 38,700.
The Home Secretary states that the government will continue to implement other changes introduced by the previous government in 2024, including:
- Restricting most overseas students from bringing family members to the UK.
- Restricting the ability of care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants with them and requiring all care providers sponsoring migrants to register with the Care Quality Commission.
- Abolishing the 20% going rate discount, so that employers can no longer pay migrants less than UK workers in shortage occupations.
The government has also commissioned the MAC to review the IT and engineering sectors. These sectors have consistently, over a decade or more, been included on shortage occupation lists and relied on significant levels of international recruitment. They are in the top 10 occupational groups in the UK that have the highest percentage of their workforce made up of new foreign workers who have been issued visas.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
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