The UK has announced immense changes to the skilled worker visa rules implemented from 12 March and 4 April for health and care workers and general work visa categories respectively. These changes have been made after three years since the new laws were introduced.
An overview of the changes made to the existing rules
- from 12 March 2024, a ban and restriction on care workers bringing family dependants to the UK;
- Abolishing the shortage occupations list;
- Healthcare surcharge to rise to £1035 annually;
- Minimum salary for UK skilled worker visa to increase (£38,700 per year) from 4 April 2024;
- Changes of the occupations code;
- Mandatory registration for the carer companies to CQC,
- Introduction of the new “Immigration Salary List”.
Ban on Dependant Visa for Care worker and senior care worker
There is a ban on care workers and senior care workers to bring their dependents to the UK after 11 March 2024. This ban is not however implemented on them if they were employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK and on a Skilled Worker visa before 11 March 2024 and one of the following is true:
- they are extending their Skilled Worker visa with their current employer,
- they are currently still on a Skilled Worker visa,
- they are changing to a new job within the same occupation code while on a Skilled Worker visa.
End of Shortage Occupations List
The shortage occupations list has been abolished and the new immigration salary list has been introduced. It means there is currently no shortage occupations list for you to get a 20% salary threshold off. Your occupation still even be included in the eligible occupations list. Special measures apply if your job exists in the list of immigration salary list.
Rise in Health Care Surcharge
The IHS has also been increased to a large extent. This means the immigration health care surcharge has been immensely increased from the previously implemented £624 to £1,035 per annum. There are exemptions however to the care workers. They do not need to pay this even after 4 April 2024. There will also be discounts available for those under 18.
New Salary Requirements
The salary requirements for the skilled worker visa have also been changed by the UK government. The migration advisory committee has increased them from £26,200 to £38,700 annually. That is about a 50 percent increase from previous requirements. The annual salary rates are set at 37,5 hours per week standards.
The applicants still be sure about their occupation’s ongoing salary rates. This means if the salary of £39,000 per year has been offered to a candidate by the UK employer, but the annual going rate for the job they will be doing is £45,000. They do not meet the usual salary requirements for this visa. And in this scenario, the visa application will be refused. It is always better to check the ongoing occupation rates for your chosen job. Care workers, senior care workers, teachers, and other occupations from the immigration salary list have different salary rules.
A candidate can be paid less salary that could be between 70% and 90% of the standard going rate for their job if their salary is at least £30,960 per year and they meet one of the following criteria:
- their job is on the immigration salary list,
- they are younger than 26 years of age, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training,
- they have STEM (a science, technology, engineering or maths) PhD level qualification that’s relevant to their job (if they have a relevant PhD level qualification in any other subject their salary must be at least £26,100),
- they have a postdoctoral position in science or higher education.
Changes to Occupations Code Numbers
The occupations code has been changed as well. You must check before applying if your occupation code is still a part of the eligible occupations list. The new code verification can be done here.
Implementation of the new Immigration Salary List
For bottleneck jobs, the UK has also introduced the “Immigration Salary List“. If a candidate has their occupation included in this list, they do not need to be paid 38,700 annually instead they can be paid 30,960 or the ongoing rate.
How the UK have changed the immigration laws for the Skilled Worker Visa over the past few years?
The UK has been working hard on the new immigration set of rules for a long time. The statement of changes in immigration rules HC813 was first announced by the UKBA on 22 October 2020. These rules were in effect from 9 am 1 December 2020. This was the first time the UK introduced the skilled workers visa according to the points-based system.
Later on, in December 2023, the UK once again announced many changes to its immigration rules amid the boom in net migration. The government wanted to decrease the number of immigrants entering rapidly each year since the implementation of the skilled worker visa stream. This is why the new set of immigration rules was announced partially on 11 March 2024 and fully on 4 April 2024.
Increase in the net migration to the UK
According to the new immigration rules changes 300,000 fewer people would be able to come to the UK. This would help the country to normalize net migration.
As per UK government statistics, about 1,180,000 people came to the UK until the end of June 2023. Most of these numbers about 968,000 came from non-EU countries. During this period, 508,000 people departed the UK, creating a net migration difference of 672,000. This was last noted as 745,000 back in 2022, which has become a worry for the government.
Alone about 120,000 dependants of 101,000 care workers and senior care workers came to the UK last year (till September). This might also be one of the reasons why a ban on the dependents of the care worker and senior care worker was announced. According to the statistics available, only 25% of dependants work in the UK when they join their primary applicant in the UK.