UK Visa and Immigration Policy Changes – Factcheet
The government have announced a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules.
The revision to the immigration rules do not impact all work routes, however we have listed below what the changes mean for impacted routes.
1. Family Route
The minimum income requirement for partners of British/settled individuals will be increasing from £18,600 to £29,000. With further increases anticipated as follows: £34,500 per annum (‘likely later in 2024’) and then to £38,700 per annum ‘in early 2025’. Source for cited dates here. This will impact those applying for the first time on or after 11 April 2024, transitional arrangements will be in place for those who have already applied/ currently on the route, full details of which listed here.
2. Graduate Route
The Migration Advisory Committee has been commissioned to undertake a rapid review of the Graduate route, and report back by 14 May 2024. Click here for further details.
3. Skilled Worker Route
New Applicants:
a. The general salary threshold for the Skilled Worker visa will rise from £26,200 to £38,700 with the absolute minimum salary for those eligible for a ‘tradeable point’ discount being £30,960.
b. There will also be significant increases to the minimum salaries for some roles (going rates) the greater of the two thresholds (general salary threshold or going rate) required to be met.
c. Skilled Worker salary discounts ‘Tradeable Points’, relating to holders of relevant PhD qualifications and “new entrants” to the labour market will remain an option under the new rules.
Transitional Arrangements
d. Transitional arrangements will be in place for applicants who have applied or held a Skilled Worker Visa prior to 04 April 2024 and have continually retained their Skilled Worker status since.
Individuals will be exempt from meeting new salary levels (to an extent) when they change sponsor, extend, or settle and the transitionary rules will be in place for applications up to 4 April 2030.
The general salary threshold under the transitionary rules will be £29,000, and going rates for individual SOC codes will be based on 25th percentile earnings for the role. Salaries will need to meet the higher of these two rates under the transitional arrangements (Appendix Skilled Occupations). Tradeable points (F to K) will still be applicable to lower the salary requirements by 90%, 80% or 70% (see Appendix A for worked examples).
The transitional arrangements will cover existing colleagues looking to extend their Skilled Worker Visa or colleagues joining us from other institutions and changing employer under the Skilled Worker visa route.
e. Supplementary Employment: For those sponsored under the Skilled Worker route on or after 4 April 2024, the restriction on only being able to undertake ‘supplementary employment’ within the same SOC code under which they are sponsored will be removed and supplementary employment can take place in any SOC code.
f. The Shortage Occupation list (SOL) will be replaced by the ‘Immigration Salary List’ with a significant reduction of eligible job roles. The minimum salary threshold will be discounted from the new £38,700 level to £30,960, however there will be no further discount to the going rate for the role (which may be higher than £38,700 anyway). However, for those already sponsored in roles that are being removed, a lower salary threshold will continue to apply (albeit higher than the current rate), provided individuals remain with the same sponsor and in the same role.
Change in rules effective 4th April 2024.
The immigration rules continue to evolve and we will update the following page as we become aware of rule changes. Should you have any questions regarding the upcoming changes please contact RTW@Lincoln.ac.uk in the first instance.
Supporting Documents
Appendix A Skilled Worker Going Rate and Tradeable Point Examples