Thursday 14 March 2024

Following the release of the Government’s five-point legal migration plan on 4 December 2023, the Home Office has today published a Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 590 delivering substantial changes to work and family routes as highlighted below.

Skilled Worker route

This Statement of Changes will significantly change the Skilled Worker category, to be implemented from 4 April 2024. Some main changes are summarised below:

• the general salary threshold under Skilled Worker is being raised from £26,200 to £38,700 per year for initial applicants;
• going rate salary thresholds for individual occupations are also being raised to the same ratio as the general threshold (i.e. from the current 25th percentile of UK earnings in eligible occupations, up to the 50th percentile, or median of UK earnings);
• for those migrants already in the UK in the Skilled Worker route, and those in a small number of specific Health and Care Worker visa occupations whose salary requirements are not based on national pay scales, the general threshold is going up from £26,200 to £29,000. Going rates are remaining at the current 25th percentile of earnings in eligible occupations but are going up in line with the latest UK earnings data;
• for those occupations where the salary requirements are based on national pay scales (which includes most Health and Care Worker and educational roles) the general threshold is going up to £23,200 (up from £20,960) and going rates (also based on the 25th percentile) are going up in line with the latest available national pay scales; and
• all other existing Skilled Worker salary discounts, relating to holders of relevant PhD qualifications, new entrants, and national pay scale occupations, are being increased based on the latest UK earnings data.

Supplementary employment

Skilled Workers are already permitted to undertake supplementary employment – that is, employment in addition to the main job they are sponsored to undertake – if that work is in the same occupation and at the same level, or is in a shortage occupation, and is for a maximum of 20 hours per week. The new Skilled Worker provisions will widen the range of supplementary employment that Skilled Workers can undertake to include any eligible role under Appendix Skilled Occupations (rather than the role needing to be in a shortage occupation or the same occupation as the main role).

Implementation date

The new Skilled Worker rules and salary thresholds will apply to any applications where the migrant’s Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) has been assigned from 4 April 2024. Employers wishing to avoid being subject to these new rules should accordingly assign CoS before this date, where possible.

Many sponsors have annual CoS allocations that expire around the end of the tax year on 4 April. Such sponsors should consider prioritising the renewal of their CoS allocations now so that they have an allocation available to assign to individuals in the weeks before these changes come into force.

Other work routes

Salary thresholds are also being raised across other work routes. Some examples are as follows:

• under the Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker route, the general salary threshold is being updated from £45,800 to £48,500, and going rates are being updated in line with the latest earnings data
• under the Global Business Mobility: Graduate Trainee route, the general salary threshold is being updated from £24,220 to £25,410, and going rates remain based on 70% of the 25th percentile, updated to the latest earnings data
• for the Scale-up route, the general salary threshold is being increased from £34,600 to £36,300, and going rates are being updated using the latest earnings data.

New occupation codes – shift from SOC 2010 to SOC 2020

Work routes such as Skilled Worker use the Office for National Statistics’ Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system to classify occupations. The Home Office is implementing sweeping amendments to the Rules to update occupation data from the previous SOC 2010 system (currently in use) to the newer SOC 2020 system.

As a result, the classification of many skilled roles will change significantly. Sponsors will need to ensure they assign all CoS under the correct, newly defined occupation codes applicable to the relevant role to ensure that they remain compliant with Home Office sponsorship requirements. The Statement of Changes will introduce a new Appendix Skilled Occupations to reflect the SOC 2020 data, listing the new codes, occupation types and salary thresholds.

Immigration Salary List

Following the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommendation, the Shortage Occupation List is being removed and replaced by the Immigration Salary List (ISL) from 4 April 2024. Rather than being a list of all occupations experiencing labour shortages, roles on the new list will be those the Government considers sensible to offer a discounted salary threshold.

Roles listed on the ISL will no longer have discounts to the going-rate salary thresholds specific to each occupation. However, ISL occupations will have a 20% discount to the general salary threshold (down to £30,960 if the individual is subject to the new £38,700 threshold). See this article on our website for further analysis of the new ISL and the roles included on the list.

Asylum seekers and the ISL

Currently, eligible asylum seekers granted permission to work in the UK can only work in roles on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) – roughly 30% of potential sponsored roles. The new ISL, however, represents approximately only 8% of potential sponsored roles. Asylum seekers who are granted permission to work in the UK whilst awaiting a decision on their asylum claim will only be able to work in roles on this new, reduced ISL, which marks a significantly more restrictive approach to the status quo for asylum seekers.

Family route

As previously announced, the Home Office shall impose an increased minimum income requirement (MIR) from £18,600 to £29,000 for new applicants on the Family route. There will no longer be an additional income requirement for children. In due course, the Government will increase the MIR to £34,500 and later £38,700 by early 2025, though this is not contained in the Rules. The first MIR increase will enter into force on 11 April 2024.

Transitional arrangements apply for those already in the UK on the Family route or awaiting a decision for a pending application before 11 April 2024. Once the MIR has been met in an initial application, this same rate can be relied on throughout the pathway to settlement, provided that the applicant is applying to stay in the UK with the same partner (as well as for children joining or accompanying a parent).

The level of savings required for applicants relying solely on savings to meet the threshold will increase from £62,500 to £88,500.

The Rules emphasise that families who cannot meet the MIR may be able to obtain leave under the ten-year route to settlement, granted in four tranches of 30-month periods.

Appendix Continuous Residence

Arrangements to include specific additions relating only to applicants under the new Appendix Long Residence have been confirmed, including that Long Residence applicants will not break their continuous residence period if, on or after 24 November 2016, they had left the UK with permission and returned with permission (even if on a different route), provided they did not exceed the absence period of 180 days in any 12 month period (or as a transitional arrangement, 184 days at any one time if these absences were taken before 11 April 2024).

Additionally, the Appendix has been updated to reflect the Coronavirus Extension Concession policy, so time spent in the UK between 1 August 2020 and 31 August 2020 will count as lawful residence if the applicant had permission immediately before that date.

Appendix Long Residence 

A new Appendix Long Residence will replace existing rules and incorporate standard requirements from Appendix Continuous Residence, Appendix English Language, and Appendix KOL UK (Knowledge of Life in the UK).

This new Appendix includes a policy change to require applicants to have held their current permission for one year (or have been exempt from immigration control within the 12 months immediately before their application) to qualify for settlement under this route.

Appendix Armed Forces

The MIR for HM Armed Forces personnel to sponsor a partner or dependent child(ren) is being increased to £23,496, which is in alignment with the 2023/4 salary threshold for an Army (including the Brigade of Gurkhas) Private and their Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force equivalents on completion of training. Like the Family route, there will be no separate child element to the MIR.

Definition of a Parent

Revisions are being implemented to redefine the concept of parenthood, aiming to modernise terminology and acknowledge same-sex parents. The updated definition encompasses biological parents, legal guardians, and adoptive parents. The inclusion of stepparents, previously recognised only in cases where the biological parent of the same sex was deceased, has been eliminated. In Appendix Children, the criteria are explicit that a child of the main applicant’s partner has the right to enter or stay in the UK, in addition to a child of the main applicant. However, stepparents, even if they are the sole caregivers or if the other parents are deceased, will no longer meet the criteria for being classified as parents unless they also hold legal parental status.

ETAs

Appendix Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) has been updated to include several amendments to reflect better the Home Office’s original policy intention, including defining what constitutes an ‘overstay’ in line with the current approach to visitors, clarifying that an ETA is linked and valid only to the passport used in the application process, and providing for cancellation of an ETA where the validity requirements are not met at the time of application or after the application.

Additionally, provisions for exempting the ETA requirement for British Overseas Territories Citizens have been confirmed.

Get in touch

To learn more about forthcoming changes to UK immigration law, see our website, contact your assigned LDI lawyer or email enquiries@lauradevine.com.