The new rules include a much higher salary threshold for foreign workers to access skilled visas. Other measures included stopping foreign health workers bringing in family members on their visas increasing a surcharge migrants have to pay to use the health service by 66 per cent, and raising the minimum income for family visas. Indian nationals represent the largest group of students granted leave to in the post-study Graduate visa rout. The group also has the second highest number of dependents in the UK.
UK to ban foreign care workers from bringing dependents; imposes higher salary threshold for visas
UK Home Secretary delivered a statement in the House of Commons to reveal that under the crackdown, which will also impact Indians, medics on Health and Care visas will no longer be able to bring any family members with them.
Five-point plan to cut immigration :
- Health and care visas: Overseas care workers will not be able to bring family dependants, to end the “abuse of the health and care visa”. Care firms that want to sponsor people for visa applications will need to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission. A dependant is defined by the government as a husband or wife, civil partner or unmarried partner, and children under 18.
- Skilled worker visa minimum salary change: The threshold for an application will rise by nearly 50% from £26,200 to £38,700 – although health and care workers will still be able to earn less before applying for the route.
- Shortage occupation list: The government wants to “scrap cut-price shortage labor from overseas” by reforming the way people working in short-staffed sectors can apply to come to the UK. This will include axing the 20% discount applied to the minimum salary for people looking for a visa for shortage occupations. The types of jobs on the list will also be reviewed and reduced.
- Family visas: The minimum threshold for a family visa will also be raised to £38,700 to “ensure people only bring dependants whom they can support financially”. Currently, it stands at the 2012 rate of £18,600.
- Student visas: Following the tightening of who can bring in family members on student visas earlier this year, the government will ask the Migration Advisory Committee to review the graduate route “to prevent abuse and protect the integrity and quality of UK higher education”.
