Higher salary threshold for UK Family Visa comes into force
GBP 29,000, up from GBP 18,600. By early next year, this will have increased two more times to match the Skilled Worker visa salary threshold of GBP 38,700.
The UK Home Office said it marks the final measure in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary James Cleverly's package to reduce legal migration and «ensure those arriving here do not burden the taxpayer».
«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,» said Cleverly.
«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,» he said.
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«Whether it was words unsupported by action, unfounded optimism or just plain wishful thinking that migration would fall on its own, indifference of any kind is never going to work — only determined action, backed by strong resolve, will deliver needed change,» the minister added.
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 GBP 38,700, as previously indicated.
«I think the principle here is right,
