The UK’s crackdown on family visas will affect many Indian family plans: UK immigration rules

UK immigration rules Updates: A significant increase in the minimum salary threshold for British nationals and permanent residents seeking to bring family members to the UK is part of the UK government’s latest round of visa crackdowns aimed at reducing immigration numbers. This move is anticipated to have an effect on a number of Indian families. Until recently, the Family Visa category—which permits long-term residents of the UK to bring their spouses and partners along—required the applicant to earn a minimum of GBP 18,600 per year.

The Indian subcontinent is expected to be significantly impacted by this threshold increase, which will take effect in March/April of next year. According to official Home Office statistics, Indians made up the second-highest cohort under the Family Visa in the previous year (5,870), after Pakistanis (15,038).

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly told Parliament earlier this week, “We will ensure that people bring only dependants whom they can support financially, by raising the minimum income for Family Visas to the same threshold as the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers, which is GBP 38,700.”

“The current GBP 18,600 minimum income requirement has not been raised since 2012. This set of policies will go into effect in the spring of next year,” he stated.

Analysts have noted that the family plans of people with lower incomes will be significantly impacted by this sharp increase. The decision to increase the family income threshold is the “biggest surprise of the day,” according to Dr. Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. It is also one of the components of the most recent visa package that may have the “most significant impacts on individuals.”

Summary: “This threshold has more than doubled and establishes if British citizens can bring a foreign partner to live with them in the UK. Although family migration accounts for a small portion of migration overall, the people it affects can suffer substantial consequences.

“British citizens with lower incomes will be most affected, especially women and younger generations who typically have lower wages. People who reside in regions of the nation with lower incomes, such as those outside of London and the southeast of England, will also be more impacted by the income threshold.”

She and fellow researcher Dr. Ben Brindle co-authored an analysis in which they state that they are unsure of the rationale behind the similarity of the suggested thresholds for skilled work migration and family migration.

Certain groups will be more impacted by the income threshold than others. For instance, compared to approximately 60% of men, over 75% of women make less than the new income threshold,” they observe.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary for opposition Labour, has also hinted that a lot of hastily planned weddings by individuals attempting to get around the new regulations may occur between now and spring 2024.

“We are requesting that this be examined by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). Cooper told the BBC, “It appears that the committee hasn’t genuinely been asked to look into this for over ten years.

“So, they should be asked to look at this very swiftly, and to look at what the best way to approach this is, because at the moment this seems to have come out of thin air with no plan at all and because there’s a possibility that actually what this will lead to is a big increase in rushed marriages and so on in the next few months because of the changes,” she stated.

The UK’s largest representative organization for approximately 80,000 doctors and 55,000 nurses of Indian descent, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), wrote to the Home Secretary on Wednesday, requesting clarification on the specifics of the new crackdown on foreign caregivers.

“Our members were deeply troubled and disturbed to learn about the proposals to prohibit foreign caregivers from relocating their dependents to the UK,” the letter states.

“Stopping their spouses and children from accompanying them to the UK will have a significant detrimental impact on their mental and physical wellbeing resulting in a lower quality of care for patients and a reluctance for these skilled workers to either continue working or start new positions in the UK.”

Care workers abroad will not be permitted to bring family members under the new immigration crackdown, and skilled professionals will now need to meet a GBP 38,700 annual salary threshold instead of the current GBP 26,200.

The government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been forewarned by student and industry associations in India about the “unintended consequences” of the new immigration restrictions, which could force skilled Indians to choose other careers.

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