UK government raises the required annual maximum salary limit for family visa applicants

London: The proposed minimum annual salary threshold for British citizens and permanent residents to have a partner or spouse on a family visa will be phased in from April 11, 2024, the Home Office said. The annual minimum salary limit, which was currently £18,600, has been increased to £29,000. New minimum annual wage rates for UK skilled worker visas come into effect from Thursday, the government said.

Home Affairs Minister James Cleverley said local domestic workers would also be freed from competition for cheap labor from abroad. If the government had implemented these standards last year, 30 lakh people would not have been able to enter Britain.

Now is the time to stop cheap labor from abroad. Mass migration is unsustainable and unfair. Because of this, people who can barely afford two square meals a day become absorbed.

From April 11, the minimum annual salary threshold for applicants who want to bring their family members on a family visa will increase from £18,600 to £29,000. This minimum annual wage for skilled workers will be increased to £38,700 from next year. The Home Department said that by increasing this salary limit the applicant will be able to take care of his family financially. The Government believes that no sector should be permanently dependent on immigration. Therefore, from today onwards the list of deficient occupations has also been abolished. Employers can no longer pay immigrants less than UK workers in shortage occupations. The new immigration salary list prepared by the independent Migration Advisory Committee-MAC will include only jobs that require skills and are in short supply.

According to the Office for National Statistics – ONS – the number of Indians applying under the skilled worker route has declined by 11 percent during September 2022-2023.

A new 18,107 visas were issued as against the earlier 20,360 visas. Similarly, the number of Indians who received family visas in the year ending September 2023 stood at 43,445. The student visa category also had the highest number of Indian citizens. 43 percent of Indians took the post study graduate visa route.