People on Skilled Worker route should be exempt from new median salary levels when they change sponsor, extend, or settle
In a Parliamentary answer yesterday, Tom Pursglove, the Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery, provided further brief details about the immigration changes announced by the Home Secretary on 4 December and how the new £38,700 minimum salary threshold for skilled workers will apply to existing visa holders.
Image credit: UK GovernmentNo details were initially given by the Home Secretary as to whether the new threshold would also apply to existing visa holders when renewing their visa. Immigration minister Tom Pursglove said yesterday that people already on the Skilled Worker visa route will not be subject to the new threshold when they change employment, extend, or settle.
Last week, Labour MP Clive Betts tabled a question asking the Home Secretary on what date the new earnings threshold for skilled worker visa applications will come into effect, and whether it will apply to (a) existing applications, (b) renewals and (c) people already living in the UK.
Tom Pursglove answered the question yesterday and said: "Until the Immigration Rules are amended next Spring, the current salary and Minimum Income Requirement thresholds, and policies relating to dependants, remain in place and at the current levels. Those already in the Skilled work route, and applications made before the rules change, will not be subject to the new £38,700 salary threshold when they change employment, extend, or settle."
To provide further clarity, the Home Office released a factsheet this evening with more information on the changes. It confirms that the Government will increase the minimum earnings threshold for Skilled Worker visas from £26,200 to £38,700 in April 2024 and raise the individual occupation ‘going rate’ thresholds in line with the median full-time wage for equivalent jobs in 2023. With regard to existing visa holders, the factsheet states: "Those already in the Skilled Worker route before the Immigration Rules changes should be exempt from the new median salary levels when they change sponsor, extend, or settle. We would, however, expect their pay to progress at the same rate as resident workers; therefore, they would be subject to the updated 25th percentiles using the latest pay data when they next make an application to change employment, extend their stay, or settle. This is in line with normal practice."
Workers on the Health and Social Care Visa route will be exempt from the new salary threshold. The Home Office added this evening that education workers on national pay-scale occupations will also be exempt.
As previously announced on 11 December, Tom Pursglove also confirmed yesterday that there will be transitional provisions and full details will be set out in due course when further policy details are announced.
This evening's Home Office factsheet also provides some important clarifications about how the 4 December announcement will impact care workers in the UK. The Home Secretary initially announced on 4 December that care workers coming to the UK after Spring 2024 will not be allowed to bring any dependents, and care firms will be required to be registered with the Care Quality Commission in order to sponsor visas.
The new Home Office factsheet says that the following changes for care workers will now be introduced "as soon as possible" in the new year:
"• Care workers (SOC code 6145) and senior care workers (SOC code 6146) already in the route will be able to remain with their dependants, including extending, changing employer (within these SOC codes) and settlement.
"• Where a care worker or senior care worker is in the route before the Immigration Rules change, but has not yet brought dependants, they will be allowed to bring dependants during their sponsorship (on this visa).
"• Individuals who are in the UK on any other route, including where that route permits dependants, who switch into the care visa as a care worker or senior care worker after this date, will not be able to stay with (or bring over) dependants.
"• Care providers who were sponsoring workers in exclusively non-regulated activities (and therefore not required to be registered with the CQC) before the rules change should be able to continue to sponsor these workers, including for extensions to their visa on those terms, but not hire new ones."