An election year brings significant changes to immigration law

Welcome to our first LinkedIn update.?

The immigration arena has been a hotbed for changes since the start of the year. There is still more to come. Whilst we look forward to an election and a potential change at the top, we don’t expect a wildly different approach from a labour government.

The UK Government announced various measures as set out in our December 2023 update to curb immigration abuse and cut net migration.

Our timeline table provides a high-level overview of these immigration changes:

1 January – Most international students could no longer bring dependents to the UK – this does not apply to postgraduate research courses and courses with government-funded scholarships).

1 January – the Home Office confirmed that they are working on an e-visa system to move away from the reliance on physical documents to prove immigration status, such as BRP cards. The Home Office will no longer issue physical documents as a confirmation of immigration status and instead, visa holders will only be able to view and prove their status through their UKVI account. Applicants who currently hold a BRP will need to register with UKVI to ensure they can prove their right to work in the UK.

31 January – the Youth Mobility Scheme was extended to include 500 allocated places for nationals of Uruguay and additional places for nationals of Japan and South Korea.

31 January – visitors are now permitted to work remotely whilst they are in the UK – provided the primary purpose of their visit to the UK is not “work”.

6 February – The Immigration Health Surcharge increased from ￡624 per year to ￡1,035 per year. The discounted rate for students and applicants under the age of 18 increased from ￡470 per year to ￡776 per year.

13 February – the increased fines for illegal working will apply to breaches which occur on or after the 13 February. For a first-time offence, the fine will rise to ￡45,000 per worker. For a repeat offence, the fines triple to ￡60,000 per worker.

11 March – Care Workers and Senior Care Workers will no longer be permitted to bring dependents to the UK and care homes in England will be required to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Care Worker visa route.?

14 March – the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) will be replaced with a new “Immigration Salary List” which will be known as the “ISL”. This will see an end to the 20% going rate salary discount for shortage occupations. It has not yet been confirmed whether the current new entrant threshold will continue to apply.

4 April – Minimum income requirement for Skilled Worker visas will increase from ￡26,200 to ￡38,700 per year. This will not affect those already in the UK under this route when they change sponsor, extend their visa or settle. The going rates for specific occupation codes are expected to rise significantly also. Applicants coming to the UK on the Health and Social Care visa route will be exempt from this minimum income requirement.

6 April – In welcome news for sponsors, the requirement to renew a sponsor licence will be removed. If a sponsor licence is due to expire on or after the 6 April, it will no longer need to be renewed. The Home Office has extended eligible licence expiry dates by 10 years which can be viewed on the Sponsor Management System.

11 April – the minimum income requirement for partners applying under the family route will be increased from ￡18,600 to ￡29,000 per year. This threshold will be increased incrementally to bring it in line with the minimum income requirement for skilled workers (￡38,700) by early 2025.

We are expecting the Home Office to confirm the Spring changes to the Immigration Rules on 14 March which should set out how the new salary thresholds for Skilled Worker and Family visas will work in practice.

Our Immigration team can assist with compliance for sponsorship and right to work. We offer mock audits which will help to identify any weaknesses in your HR processes or systems.? Additionally, we offer bespoke training on right to work checks and sponsorship management system for Level 1 users. If we can be of assistance please contact Head of Immigration, Imelda Reddington, at: [email protected]

We will closely monitor immigration law changes throughout 2024 and will publish information monthly in this newsletter. If you want to keep up to date with the latest developments in more details please sign up?to our FSP mailing list?to receive our bi-monthly newsletter.

Related articles:

Scrapping the Shortage Occupation List?

The Rising Cost of Immigration

Government U-turn on Minimum Salary for Family Visas