Braverman proposes immigration cuts through targeting of families and students

New details outlined in an action plan 

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has issued a blueprint plan to curb UK immigration numbers by making significant changes to the current Student, Spouse, and Family visa schemes.

The action plan operates in the hope of targeting foreign students, Spouses, and Dependent visa applicants by increasing minimum income thresholds; making it more difficult to become approved for these visa types.

As seen by The Times, the proposal in question anticipates raising the minimum wage threshold for those applying for a Spouse or Family visa. The current threshold stands at £18,600, however, an increase could be implemented in the near future.

An increase in the issuing of UK Dependant visas

Data and statistics have shown that in 2019, 13,666 UK Dependant visas were approved. Since then, this has increased approximately 5 times to 81,089 by the end of June 2022.

This raised concerns to Government officials and prompted the most reason proposal draft with the intention of capping UK immigration numbers to what officials deem to be a more reasonable level.

Challenges facing students wishing to bring their partners to the United Kingdom

New plans could potentially make it harder for foreign students to bring their spouses to the United Kingdom once they have been granted a Student Visa by the Home Office.

Under current regulations, foreign students wishing to bring a partner or spouse to the United Kingdom as a dependent must earn a minimum of £680 per applicant. There are reports that this threshold will increase under new Government action.

Changes to requirements for Shortage Occupation List workers

Braverman’s blueprint also contains a plan of increasing the current minimum salary threshold for those applying for worker visas to work a job that appears on the Shortage Occupation list.

Due to the nature of the job roles that feature as shortage occupations, the salary thresholds have remained considerably low for some time, so the prospect of changing the requirements could mean that employers face greater challenge in filling these roles in short supply.

An increase in net migration

Since the increase, the Prime Minister has vowed to crack down on net migration. Most recent statistics show new data spikes in the level of foreign migrants entering the United Kingdom after being approved for a UK visa.

In the year of June, net migration reached an all-time high of approximately 504,000. A considerable majority of this total statistic was students- with around 476,000 foreign students being approved to enter the United Kingdom.

Concerns regarding the cost of British universities

According to Universities UK, the intended blueprint could bring about challenges for British universities due to the value foreign students add to the British education and economic systems.

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, has recently said that implementing a cap on foreign students was “nonsensical” and amounts to nothing more than “crude political thinking”.

The Home Office have since been approached for a comment on the matter.