UK family visa: How will new salary threshold rules impact Indians?

The minimum income required for British citizens and residents including those of Indian heritage to sponsor someone coming to the United Kingdom (UK) on a family visa increased by over 55 per cent from Thursday (April 11).

According to the British government, the minimum income threshold to sponsor a family member’s visa has increased from 18,600 pounds to 29,000 pounds. By early 2025, this will have increased two more times, rising to 38,700 pounds – to meet the new salary threshold for a Skilled Worker visa.

This is “the final measure in the Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak) and Home Secretary’s (James Cleverly) package to reduce legal migration” and also “cut unsustainable and unfair levels of migration, and ensure those arriving here do not burden the taxpayer”, the government said.

‘Prioritising only the very best talent from abroad’

The rules were part of the measures unveiled by the Rishi Sunak-led government in May 2023 to tighten the student visa route.

The move had been criticised by the Opposition when it was first tabled in the House of Commons in December 2023. It led the government to opt for a more staged approach to the salary threshold hike, rather than an immediate hike to 38,700 pounds, as previously indicated.

With the latest measures, approximately 300,000 people arriving in the UK last year would no longer be able to, the UK Home Office said.

It follows the government’s steps to cut migration, current levels of which are seen as too high – “putting pressure on public services, housing, and undercutting British workers”.

“The government’s ambition for a high-skill, high-wage economy cannot rely on mass migration, and measures introduced as part of the package will protect British workers, encourage business to invest in, and recruit, workers domestically, while prioritising only the very best talent from abroad,” the Home Office said.

How will this affect Indians?

The latest changes are set to impact the Indian community, especially students who come to study in the UK.

Anahita Masters, an Alumni of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), was quoted as saying in a report on NDTV, “Restrictions on post-graduate research students bringing dependents is a huge setback to all students with dependents, particularly women.”

“Studying at the LSE as a mature student and a mother of a 3-year-old would not have been possible for me had it not been for the dependent clause. The change to remove this clause for Master’s level students is a huge setback to all students with dependents, particularly women, as young children cannot be expected to live apart from their mothers for a year or more,” she added.

In the same report, Sanam Arora, founder and chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK, was quoted as saying, “The Graduate visa is a key requirement of Indian students, and a critical offer of the UK’s international higher education system.”

“Without the Graduate route, university finances may collapse. The impact of this will be felt not just by international students but also by students from the UK, given that domestic students and the world-class research that happens in the country's universities are heavily cross-subsidised by international students,” she added.

The sponsoring family member, or in combination with the applicant if they are in the UK with permission to work, must now have an income of at least 29,000 pounds earned in the UK. The requirement can be met in a number of ways, including through savings exclusively or in addition to a lower income.

Home Secretary James Cleverly, said, “We have reached a tipping point with mass migration. There is no simple solution or easy decision which cuts numbers to levels acceptable to the British people.

“I promised action and we have delivered at remarkable speed. We’ve acted to cut unsustainable numbers, to protect British workers and their wages, to ensure those bringing family to the UK do not burden taxpayers, and to build an immigration system fit for the future - and one the public can rightly have confidence in.”

The full set of measures, which have all been implemented, include:

* ending the ability of nearly all students to bring dependants to the UK

* restricting care workers from bringing family members

* requiring care providers to register with the Care Quality Commission if they are sponsoring migrant care workers

* commissioning the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to carry out a rapid review of the Graduate route for international students to prevent abuse, protect the integrity and quality of UK higher education and ensure it works in the best interests of the UK

* increasing the minimum salary required for those arriving on the Skilled Worker visa, from £26,200 to £38,700

* replacing the Shortage Occupation List with a new Immigration Salary List, with employers no longer able to pay migrants less than UK workers in shortage occupations