UK Toughens Immigration Rules, Increases Minimum Salary Threshold By One-Third

Under the new rules, immigrants will have to earn more to get a work visa and will find it harder to bring family members to the UK.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced tough new immigration rules Monday that it says will reduce the number of people able to move to the UK. each year by hundreds of thousands. The decision will affect around 300,000 people who will no longer be eligible to enter the UK. Under the new rules, immigrants will have to earn more to get a work visa and will find it harder to bring family members to the UK.

Other measures put in place include stopping foreign health workers from bringing in family members on their visas, increasing the surcharge that migrants have to pay in order to use the health service by around 66 per cent, and raising the minimum income for family visas, as reported by news agency Reuters.

Sunak talking about these measures said, "Immigration is too high. Today we’re taking radical action to bring it down," as reported by Reuters. He took to X to announce this decision and said that he is determined to tackle the high immigration issue.

According to Reuters, annual net migration to the United Kingdom in 2022 hit a record of 745,000 and it has stayed at high levels since then.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said he was taking “robust action” to lower authorised immigration. He said that the minimum salary threshold for foreign skilled workers will be increased from the current level of 26,200 pounds to 38,700 pounds, however, health and social workers would be exempt. British citizens who want to bring their foreign spouse to Britain will have to earn the same amount – almost double the current threshold.

Overseas care workers will no longer be able to bring dependent relatives with them to Britain, and care providers can only sponsor migrant workers who are involved in activities regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

The UK will not only eliminate the 20 per cent salary discount for shortage occupations but also introduce an Immigration Salary List which will be reviewed by the Migration Advisory Commit

Measures to counter the rise in students bringing their family members are already in place and they are expected to impact the net migration significantly. Starting in January, most foreign graduate students also will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK.

These measures have been criticised by the Opposition leaders who said that they are not just counterproductive but will also prove to be a challenge for the private sector and state-run health services which already face labour shortages, as reported by Reuters.