UK Home Secretary, James Cleverly, has unveiled new rules aimed at curbing migration, including raising the minimum salary requirement for obtaining a skilled worker visa.
The current threshold of £26,000 will be increased to £38,700. Cleverly informed parliament that the implementation of these rules in the previous year could have resulted in a decrease of 300,000 migrants annually.
According to BBC reports, individuals coming on health and social care visas will be exempt from the higher salary threshold. However, overseas care workers will no longer be allowed to bring dependents, including partners and children. This means that if a UK citizen marries a non-UK citizen, their spouse will be unable to live in the UK with them until they earn £38,700.
The announcement is part of efforts to manage migration more strictly, and the changes aim to ensure that people can financially support their dependents.
Cleverly stated that the minimum income for family visas will be raised to the same threshold as the minimum salary for skilled workers.
In 2022, the net migration in the UK, representing the difference between individuals immigrating to the country and those emigrating, reached a total of 745,000.
The new rules are expected to have significant implications for various categories of migrants, particularly those in the health and social care sector.
