Major UK Changes Impacting Students and Workers: statement of changes Immigration Rules

The UK Home Office just published a comprehensive statement of changes Immigration Rules, dated 14th March 2024. So this is a long document around 289 pages. if you want to go and read, I’m going to provide the links in the description. However, for you I have done some notes, but I’m going to cover the seven updates, which is relevant just for my readers.

statement of changes Immigration Rules

As a reminder I said they are around 7 to 8 changes. I’m going to start with the students new entrant rule. Because most of these students read my post I’m going to talk about the skill visa changes. Healthcare SOL removed SoC 2020 code. Other visa categories salary roles, Family, Spouse, Visa. Asylum Visa. So you see almost everyone is impacted in the UK. Either you are planning to move to the UK or you’re already in the UK.

Update number one, which is about the students new entrant rule. So I’ve already covered the new entrant rule previously in my post. Just a quick recap. So who are new entrant? Anyone who is considered as a start of their career are considered as a new entrant. So there are certain criterias which the UK government mentioned on their website. So this is the link as well which I’ll provide. You can read that in your free time, but on a summary, if you are under 26 you are considered as a new entrant. The second criteria is if you are sponsored on any of these jobs, you are considered as a new entrant. Other. The third criteria is if you’re switching from tier one to skill visa, you’re considered as a new entrant. The fourth criteria is that if you’re moving from a student visa to skilled visa, you are considered as a new entrant. The fifth criteria is if you’re moving from your PhD, which is your graduate visa, to skill visa, you are considered as a new entrant. And for this, which I was saying, if you move from your student visa to skilled visa or W2 skill visa, you must be studying or studied in the UK for a bachelor’s degree, master’s, PhD, postgraduate certificate or professional graduate diploma education.

Now remember there is certain criteria or limitation under the new entrant rule. So this rule is valid only for four years. So here they have referred something in page number 74 which you can read. So in plain simple example I’m going to explain you what it means. What is this four year limit. So if you’re searching straight from say student visa to skilled visa you will be getting a discounted salary for four years. However, if you already spend, say, two years on your graduate visa, then you are getting the new entrant discount rate only for the remaining two years. So this four years is in given in total. It depends on you whether you search directly. From your student visa to school visa, or you want to do your two years on PES, which is a graduate visa and then move to the visa. So in total, you will be given discount only for four years and you will be considered as a new entrant. So let’s see what is the new rule which the government has defined. So you will have to refer to page number 68 and 72 which you can see it here. So in summary what is saying. You need to get a salary of minimum salary of 30,009 60 per year or 70% of the going rate for the SoC 2020 occupation code. Now for my new audience, you should know that in the UK. UK government already defines the SoC code, which is your occupation code, and they have also defined what is the minimum salary you should be getting.

So say 30,960 versus the going rate of that particular job. If you’re a new entrant, you will get a discount 70% discount on that, whichever is higher. You need to be paid. So let me explain you with this example. Now let’s take an example of say production engineer. You can find the whole table on page number 82 of the PDF. So this is the rate of this particular job which the the code is 1121. Now if you’re not a new entrant then you need to get a salary of 51,500 to be eligible for skill visa. However, given that you are students, you are new entrant. You will be getting a discount of 70% on the going rate of 1121, which means 70% of this, which is £36,050. So you need to earn a salary of £36,050. So if I go back to my previous slide here, like I said, £30,960 versus 36,050, whichever is higher. So here the higher is your occupation code. So you need to get a salary of 36,050. So there’s a lot of codes here. You can refer to page number 82 I have also opened it here. I can show you very quickly on my here.

You see I’m on page number 8283. Here is the full list. You can just go through this list to see which is your job. What is the occupation code and how much discount you are getting. So make sure you spend a lot of time here. Also, I can see there is a cafe owner restaurant and catering manager and the salary is, uh, discount is given huge. So you will fall under 30,009, 60. Most of the students I believe. Unless until you are applying for some senior roles, there are few students I know. They have got like five years of experience, and you’ll be targeting some senior roles rather than a starter roles. Then you may have to earn a little bit more than the minimum salary, which is defined by the government. So go and spend some time on this table, look at your code and look at the discount that you will be getting as per the new code and the table. Okay, if you got any questions on this, I know there are so many students already confused. They are asking me a bunch of questions already. Make sure you ask me. I’ll try to do a YouTube live session as well so that I can take as many questions as possible. Now let me quickly back to my notes.

Update number two Skill Visa. This is now going to start from 4th of April even for new entrant. All the rules will be starting on 4th of April except one which I’m going to talk about at the end now for skill visa. Like I said, this threshold is increasing by 48%, which means the new salary threshold is 38,007. This is the general standard, by the way, and the going rate is also increased from 25th percentile to the median.

Update number three is on the salary requirement for health and care worker visa. So as you guys know that the care and senior carers are exempted from the any salary increment. But if you are on other roles within the health and care worker visa, you still need to get a salary of 29,000 to be eligible for this visa category.

Update number four, which is about Sol removed. Sol stands for Shortage Occupation List, which will be removed from 4th of April 2024 and will be replaced by the immigration Salary list. If you guys remember, I did a detailed video on what is the immigration salary list and which of the jobs listed. Just go to Google and type immigration salary list. You’ll find it. Let me very quickly remind or show you I have opened it here. This is the immigration salary list, the list of the jobs which are included and the jobs which are removed is mentioned here already on the UK government website. So go and check it out. What jobs are listed, whether your jobs are listed or not.

Update number five is about the SoC 2020. So what is SoC? SoC stands for Standard Occupational Classification. So for skill visa or any visa in the UK when a cross is being issued, they refer to the occupation code which is the standard occupation code. Till now they had been using the SoC code which was assigned in 2010 and this was not updated. So from 4th of April any new CEO’s certificate or sponsorship which will be issued that will be based on the new SoC code 2020, which I was referring now on page number 82 I believe. So you can refer which is your new SoC 2020 code, and your employer should already know if they are sponsoring you.

Update number six is about all other visa categories. Like I said, you know, irrespective of whether you are student skilled, visa, global mobility visa, family visa or visa, all the visa categories are impacted because the new salary threshold is increased. So on the global business mobility for senior and specialist worker, your salary will be increasing from 45,800 to 48,500. And for graduate trainee, it will be increased from 24,000 to 20 to 25,000 for ten. Now for scalar visa, this will be increased from 34,600 to 36,300. And for poultry workers in seasonal worker, this will be increased from 26,200 to 38,700, which means your hourly rate from 10.75 points per hour will be increased to £15.88 per hour, which is a huge jump.

Update number seven is the family visa. Now let me clarify. If you’re coming as a dependant of student, you are not considered a family visa. If you’re a dependant of skilled worker visa, you’re not a family visa or global mobility visa scale a visa. Family visa means anyone who got a permanent settlement in the UK, like you got an Ila or you got a British passport, then you are considered as a family visa. When you apply for your partner’s visa then it’s called family visa. Okay. So again this threshold is also increased for them, which will be 29,000 from 11th of April 2020.

For all the remaining rules which I was talking about or the updates is from 4th of April 2024, but this is the only one which is starting from 11. And again only for the new application for people who already got a visa, they will be renewing it. You are not impacted only for the new applications. The new salary threshold will be 29,900. Now the update number eight is about the asylum seeker visa. So let me explain you what happens today. If you have applied for asylum seeker visa, you cannot apply for all the jobs in the UK. You can apply only for the jobs which are listed under shortage occupation list. But now as we know, the immigration salary list is condensed list. It contains only 24 jobs if I remember correctly. Then you are allowed to work only on those 24 jobs and not any other job. Now, let me also remind you, when MAC gave a recommendation to the UK Home Office, they recommended the asylum seeker visa. They should be allowed to work for any job. However, they dismissed that idea.

They picked up only the jobs which are in the immigration list. So the asylum seeker visa can apply for those jobs so the opportunities are less for them. So I believe those are the updates that I wanted to share with you guys. And also just a reminder, as we know, on 11th of March there was a massive change in the UK where the Home Office removed the right for the care workers and senior carers to bring dependants only for the new application, not for someone who is renewing the visa and only the care homes, which are regulated by CQC will be able to issue the new series. So that was a big change from 11th of March. So those are the changes that I wanted to discuss, and I’ll provide the link so that you can go and read the detailed 292 page and the updates which are provided.

Statement of changes Immigration Rules: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f18e2bff11701fff6159ba/E03091226_-_HC_590_-_Immigration_Rules_Changes__Print_Ready_.pdf

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