UK immigration System: Restrictions for skilled workers after new salary threshold begins April 2024 – Investing Abroad News

By Yash Dubal

Restrictions are being introduced to the UK immigration system from next month (April). The changes will mean fewer people from India will qualify for work visas.

As part of its aim to reduce inward migration by 300,000, the UK government is increasing the salary threshold for skilled worker visas from £26,200 to £38,700. This will mean that many middle-income roles that previously qualified for British work visas will no longer be available, as employers will not be able to meet the salary demands.

Roles such as chefs and retail managers, popular with Indian workers, will effectively be priced out of UK immigration, as the new salary threshold is far above the average wage of such workers in Britain.

The restrictions are being introduced following record visa allocations. Official UK figures released this month (March) show that 1.4 million people were granted visas to the UK last year and many of these were for students, visitors and dependents and a percentage was attributed to officials clearing a significant post-pandemic backlog, however, more workers still arrived from countries such as India than at any point since at least 2005.

The figures showed that overall 337,240 workers received a UK visa in 2023, an increase of 26 per cent from the previous year and nearly two-and-a-half times more than before the pandemic in 2019.

This figure includes all skilled worker visas. The majority of UK work visas were issued to migrants coming to the UK to work in hospitals and care homes, where personnel shortages are acute and persistent. The number of overseas health and care workers nearly doubled to 146,477 from 2022.

The UK government has found itself in a difficult situation regarding health and care visas. The National Health Service and British social services rely heavily on overseas workers. Despite efforts to recruit native workers, there remain significant gaps.

But in an election year, the ruling Conservative Party is also mindful that many of its supporters feel current rates of net migration are too high. So in another effort to reduce numbers, the government has stopped health and care workers bringing dependants with them.

There were 279,131 visas granted to dependants of people receiving a work visa last year, an 80pc increase from 2022, and this rise was driven by health and care workers bringing their families to the UK, with NHS employees’ families accounting for 73% of all work-dependant visas granted last year.

In total, there were 616,371 work and family visas issued last year in Britain, up from 421,565 the year before. There was a slight fall in the number of international students and their dependents, however, with the figure falling by just under 20,000 to 605,504.
The upcoming salary threshold increase means that employers in the UK are either withdrawing roles from the international jobs market or are rushing to fill their vacancies before the rise takes effect.

While highly skilled roles which attract higher than average salaries in the UK will be unaffected, such as those in science, computing, technology and engineering, it is advisable for anyone applying for middle-income jobs in the UK to expedite their applications as a matter of urgency before the changes take effect to avoid disappointment.

(The author is the Director & a Senior Immigration Associate at A Y & J Solicitors, London, United Kingdom and the views expressed are his own)