Plans to reduce legal migration may require foreign spouses to leave the UK.
Crackdown criticized as “unconservative” and “morally wrong”
There’s a chance that new legislation intended to reduce immigration by 300,000 per year would divide up families that are already residing in the UK.
According to No 10, if a British citizen’s household does not make £38,700, their foreign partner may be told to leave the country the next time their visa is up for renewal.
The action is a component of strategies to reduce net migration, which increased to around 750 000 in 2022.
But experts cautioned that many people were experiencing distress as a result of the anticipated crackdown.
“If you are bringing someone into the country you are able to support them,” Downing Street defended the program.
The measures, which were revealed on Monday, have been dubbed a “tax on love” since they will require anyone who want to bring their spouse to the UK to earn £38,700 instead of the existing £18,600.
It is “both morally wrong and unconservative to say that only the wealthiest can fall in love, marry someone, and then bring them to the UK,” according to former Tory minister Gavin Barwell.
No 10 verified that the new higher figure risks apply to individuals who have already arrived in the UK as well as to those who have not yet arrived.
When asked if it would apply to partners renewing their visas, No 10 said the change was “not retroactive, but it would apply to future renewals.”
People would be expected to “meet the visa requirements of the day” at that point.
“People always have a set length of time for their visas and will be aware at the end of that visa time that they don’t have a guarantee that they will obviously remain in the country,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson added.
No 10 stated that the income level hasn’t been updated in ten years.
Exemptions are possible, but they will be determined case-by-case, and it was made clear that the total could be divided among the family.
The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory director, Madeleine Sumption, predicted that the UK would become an anomaly among western countries as a result of the changes.
She declared, “This is unquestionably entirely different from what any other high-income country does.”
The migrant rights organization Praxis’s Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz expressed concern for families that feel “forced to make horrible decisions” as a result of the changes.
The modifications are scheduled to take effect in the spring and will be applicable when foreign spouses’ current visas are up for renewal.
“The family immigration rules contain a provision for exceptional circumstances where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child, or another family member if their application were to be refused,” the prime minister’s spokesperson stated on Tuesday.
The representative stated that applications would be evaluated “case-by-case” but did not provide any examples.
According to official data from April, full-time employees in the UK made an average gross annual salary of £34,963.
News Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/foreign-spouse-visa-uk-migration-crackdown-b2459168.html
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