Immigration News Weekly Roundup – 8 December 2023
The UK government has announced dramatic increases to minimum salary thresholds this week for skilled worker visas, from £26,200 to £38,700 per year. While aimed at reducing overall immigration numbers, these short-sighted policies will severely impact UK businesses reliant on global talent, especially in the professional services sector.
Taking the accounting and architecture professions for example, many firms actively recruit top graduates from British universities to build their talent pipelines. These graduates often gain crucial experience working abroad in global offices or on international projects, where their language skills provide an edge. They are identified through rigorous recruitment processes as having the potential to become future leaders, driving innovation and global growth.
However, the new policies discount the “new entrant” rate that currently enables firms to temporarily pay recent graduates 20% under the minimum salary threshold. This pathway allowed accountancy firms to competitively recruit international graduates. But overnight, it will force starting salaries for foreign graduates over £10,000 higher than domestic hires.
Faced with such burdensome costs and barriers to securing world-class talent, the general census is that rather than arbitrarily hiking salary requirements, the government should develop more nuanced visa policies enabling UK firms to thrive through diverse, equitable access to talent worldwide.
In addition to the above, major changes have also been announced to family and personal immigration rules that will raise the financial bar for sponsoring a foreign partner and limit rights for international students.
The minimum income threshold for UK citizens sponsoring a spouse or partner visa will substantially increase from £18,600 to £38,700 annually. Additionally, the immigration health surcharge paid by incoming residents will rise by 60%. International students, who previously had some ability to bring dependents, will lose this entitlement with only limited exceptions.
The government stated these adjustments are intended to take affect in Spring 2024.
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This and more are covered in our Immigration News Weekly Roundup. The full list of updates on media news, reported case law and Home Office Policy and other document updates, see below.
IMMIGRATION NEWS
Home Secretary unveils plan to cut net migration – UKVI
The Home Secretary has announced a plan to slash migration levels and curb abuse of the immigration system, delivering the biggest ever reduction in net migration. Together, this package will mean around 300,000 people who came to the UK last year would now not be able to come.
The package of measures will end the high numbers of dependants coming to the UK, increase the minimum salaries that overseas workers and British or settled people sponsoring family members.
Family members must earn, and tackle exploitation across the immigration system.
For full report, click here
Post-study work visas under review in migration clampdown – University World News
Universities and higher education stakeholders in the United Kingdom are assessing the self-inflicted damage likely to be caused by the Conservative government’s latest attempt to clamp down on record levels of net migration, which includes a promised review into the length of post-study work visas and raising the minimum salary threshold for skilled foreign workers by a third.
For full report, click here
UK government unveils measures to cut immigration by 300,000 a year – Financial Times
The UK will make it harder for employers to hire overseas staff by raising the pay threshold for skilled workers and banning care staff from bringing their families to the UK, to cut record immigration by 300,000 a year.
Under plans set out by home secretary James Cleverly to get to grips with the politically charged issue, workers will need to earn at least £38,700 to obtain a visa, up from £26,200, while care workers will be barred from bringing in dependants from next April.
Employers will no longer be able to pay overseas workers less than UK employees in sectors where staff are in short supply, and the salary threshold for spousal visas will also be raised.
For full report, click here
Sunak’s bill aims to block UK human rights law to save Rwanda scheme – The Guardian
Rishi Sunak aims to block UK human rights laws to revive the government’s faltering plans to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda.
An emergency bill published on Wednesday will assert that ministers have the power to ignore judgments that come from Strasbourg, while stopping short of leaving or “disapplying” the European convention on human rights.
It will, however, seek to disapply relevant parts of the UK’s Human Rights Act in asylum claims.
Critics from the Conservative right have said that such a move raises the possibility that it will still be open to individual legal challenges.
For full report, click here
UK immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigns over new Rwanda asylum law -Reuters
Britain’s immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned on Wednesday saying the government’s published draft emergency legislation aimed at getting its Rwandan migrant deportation scheme up and running does not go far enough.
Jenrick said in a resignation letter that the legislation offered one of the last opportunities to tackle the small boats crisis before an election expected next year and the government’s plans were a “triumph of hope over experience”.
For full report, click here
‘If you go to Saudi, it’s sunny’: foreign care workers could quit UK after clampdown – The Guardian
Ban on bringing dependants has raised fears that England’s care staff shortage will only worsen.
It’s sunnier in Dubai, the visa lasts longer in the US and the wages are better in Canada. Many foreign care workers had already been thinking of quitting Britain for similar jobs elsewhere before the home secretary announced on Monday that dependants of new applicants would no longer be welcome.
Experts say the move, effective from next spring, will only make England’s severe care staff shortage worse amid international competition for people willing to look after society’s most vulnerable on low pay.
For full report, click here
EU migration package risks racial profiling and discrimination, NGOs say – The Guardian
Seventeen groups issue statement-sounding alarm at migration laws agreed by most EU members.
The EU risks opening the door to increased discrimination and racial profiling in what is being described as a “potentially irreversible attack” on the international system offering asylum and refugee protection, human rights organisations have said.
Seventeen NGOs have together sounded the alarm before what is expected to be one of the final meetings on the text of a package of controversial new migration laws already agreed by most EU leaders.
For full report, click here
Short-staffed sectors in UK respond to measures to cut net migration – The Guardian
James Cleverly’s package of policies, aimed at bringing about “the biggest ever reduction in net migration”, has provoked a widespread backlash in short-staffed sectors across the economy. Here are some of its potential implications.
For full report, click here
Deportation flights to Rwanda will begin before election, says Robert Jenrick – The Guardian
People arriving in the UK by irregular means will be deported to Rwanda before the next general election, Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has said, as the home secretary, James Cleverly, arrives in Kigali to sign a treaty paving the way for the policy.
Jenrick, who has taken an increasingly right wing stance and hinted at his frustration with Downing Street’s perceived inaction on migration, also ramped up the rhetoric, accusing people crossing the Channel in small boats of “breaking into the country”.
CASE LAW
H.A. v. the United Kingdom (App no. 30919/20)
The critical, in this case, was whether there are substantial grounds to believe if the applicant faced a real threat of mistreatment if sent back to Lebanon. While specific concerns about terrorist recruitment were not raised in the initial appeal, the applicant did clearly invoke Article 3 protections and was granted appeal rights on that basis.
As such, the Upper Tribunal had an obligation to explicitly examine and rule on any risk of serious harm upon return. Its failure to do so, which then went unaddressed during the Court of Appeals’ subsequent proceedings, now requires this Court to evaluate the risk itself based on established principles.
Fundamentally, did the Upper Tribunal overlook evidence that the applicant would face ill-treatment or other violations of rights should they be repatriated? Before returning the applicant to potential danger, the Court must determine if sufficient protections and assessments were made.
The ECHR, unanimously declared the application admissible; and held that the applicant’s deportation to Lebanon would not give rise to a violation of Article 3 of the Convention.
HOME OFFICE GUIDANCE & POLICY DOCUMENT UPDATES
- Guidance: Apply for a Ukraine Family Scheme visa has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Ukrainian nationals in the UK – visa support has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Apply for a visa under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Collection: Migration transparency data has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Using the ‘UK Immigration – ID Check’ app for Ukraine nationals has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance : China- Country Policy and Information Notes has been updated on 6th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Georgia Country Policy and Information Notes has been updated on 6th December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Windrush Scheme application form (UK) has been updated on 6th December 2023. To view the updated form, click here
- Guidance: Register of licensed sponsors: workers has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Register, click here
- Guidance: Register of licensed sponsors – students has been updated on 7th December 2023. To view the updated Register, click here
- Guidance: Prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test (SELT) has been updated on 4th December 2023. To view the updated Register, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working civil penalties: anonymous regional report has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working penalties: Wales and the Southwest has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working penalties -Scotland and Northern Ireland has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working penalties -North West has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working penalties -Northeast, Yorkshire and Humberside has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working penalties – Midlands and East has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
- Guidance: Illegal working penalties – London and the South East has been updated on 1st December 2023. To view the updated Guidance, click here
STAY TUNED FOR MORE IMMIGRATION NEWS NEXT WEEK
