A new immigration crackdown means most foreign workers will have to earn at least £38,700 to qualify for a UK skilled worker visa from today.
The changes were announced by Home Secretary James Cleverly last year as part of a five-point plan to curb net migration, which he said was ‘far too high’.
However, workers can apply for a visa for jobs with a lower salary threshold if their role is on the UK Immigration Salary List.
This list, which was published today, covers occupations that are hit by labour shortages and include a minimum salary requirement – based on the ‘going rate’ for the particular role.
While many jobs command salaries that are lower than the £38,700 cap, others breach it, with biological scientists required to be offered a salary of at least £41,900 to move to the UK.
Visa changes were announced by Home Secretary James Cleverly last year as part of a five-point plan to curb net migration, which he said was ‘far too high’
Immigrants working in the NHS are able to apply for Health and Care Worker visas, where the minimum starts at £29,000.
The number of foreign workers handed permission to come to Britain by the Home Office surged to a record high last year.
More than 616,000 visas were granted to overseas workers plus their dependents – soaring 46 per cent year-on-year, figures show.
Across all types of visas – excluding tourists and other visitors – the Home Office granted permission for 1.4 million people to come to Britain, marginally higher than in 2022 but nearly triple the 519,000 a decade earlier.
Immigrants working in the NHS are able to apply for Health and Care Worker visas, where the minimum starts at £29,000
Meanwhile, family visas – used to bring foreign-based relatives to the UK – were up 72 per cent to 81,000.
And although the student visas total was down five per cent to 457,000, the number of former foreign students who extended their stay in Britain by securing a graduate work permit was up 57 per cent to 114,000.
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK which campaigns for tougher border controls, described the figures as ‘astonishing’, adding: ‘Immigration remains completely out of control.’
Last year’s 616,000 foreign worker visas topped the previous year’s 422,000. It included a 26 per cent year-on-year leap in the main holders of foreign worker visas to more than 337,000, plus an 80 per cent jump in the number of family members they were allowed to bring to the country, to 279,000.
The surge in foreign workers was driven by a 349 per cent rise in care worker visas to just over 89,000, with the largest numbers coming from India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Director of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, Dr Madeleine Sumption, said the surge was being driven by demand in the public sector.
‘When [EU] free movement ended, the Government said that employers would have to adjust,’ she said.
‘It turns out what this meant was that other employers would have to adjust, and not the Government.
‘Where workers are directly or indirectly employed by the Government, there has been much less enthusiasm to restrict.
‘This has meant the public sector has increasingly dominated the skilled work visa system.’
Only seven per cent of work visa applications were refused by the Home Office. Home Secretary James Cleverly has already announced a number of changes designed to drive figures down – including a bar on care workers bringing relatives here – but their impact remains to be seen. –Dailymail
