The Home Secretary James Cleverly has announced in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon that foreign workers will face tougher visa rules.
Cleverly has announced a new five point plan which is aimed at reducing immigration that includes banning care workers from bringing over their families.
The government has been under pressure to curb immigration as it is now at its highest point ever.
Cleverly has taken a hardline approach and the new plan is “more robust” than any previous stance taken on immigration.
The new measures to tackle immigration will be on health car visas as health workers will no longer be allowed to bring their families to the UK.
The UK government has today increased the salary needed to qualify for a skilled worker visa to £38,700. This represents an increase of almost 50% from the current salary threshold of £26,000.
Louise Haycock, a Partner at Fragomen, the global immigration law firm said, “Given there has been very limited rises to the salary threshold to sponsor migrant workers since Brexit, it was inevitable that these figures would be closely examined, especially given the higher-than-expected net migration figures published last month.
“However, the level of the rise in salary threshold is quite staggering and raises concerns that the government’s attempts to lower net migration figures are taking precedence to an economic need.
“Sectors that relied on the EU workforce to thrive have not yet had sufficient time to see the benefits of grassroots level training and have relied on sponsoring workers in typically lower-paying roles, while also paying the very high associated government fees.
“The foreseen impact is that from Spring 2024, employers will also need to increase wages which may simply prove unaffordable, exacerbate existing shortages already and undermine the progress being made to curb inflation.
Charlotte Wills, a Partner at the global immigration and mobility law firm added, “The UK immigration system is quick and objective.
“The question is, with the new increases to salary thresholds and other measures, combined with yet more rises to soon to be introduced fees, has the government gone too far in prioritising politics over economics and risks undoing the good work so far done by the immigration system?
“The 47.7% increase of the salary threshold for sponsored workers is truly staggering and raises concerns for those sectors who have relied on migrant workers post-Brexit to fill labour shortages whilst implementing training programmes to solve the problem on a longer-term basis.”
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