Government officially confirms timetable as it responds to petition calling for increase to be scrapped
The Government yesterday responded to a petition and confirmed its timetable for raising the minimum income requirement (MIR) for a spouse or partner visa to £38,700 by early 2025.
Image credit: UK GovernmentLast month, the Home Secretary announced that the MIR would be increased from £18,600 to £38,700 as part of a series of measures to reduce legal immigration that would be implemented by the spring of 2024. It later emerged on 21st December that the increase in the MIR would be implemented incrementally, starting with a rise to £29,000 in Spring 2024.
While some saw the unexpected incremental implementation as a climbdown or U-turn, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak then revealed while speaking to journalists on 22nd December that the full rise to £38,700 would be implemented months later in early 2025.
The Government officially confirmed that timetable yesterday.
In its response to a petition calling for the increase to be scrapped, the Government said: "In spring 2024, we will raise the minimum income threshold for family visas to £29,000, that is the 25th percentile of earnings for jobs which are eligible for skilled worker visas. We will incrementally increase the threshold, moving to the 40th percentile (currently £34,500), and finally to the 50th percentile (currently £38,700, and the level at which the general skilled worker threshold is set) by early 2025."
The petition currently has almost 40,000 signatures.
The Government also confirmed in its response that the various ways in which the MIR can be met will remain unchanged, as will the consideration of exceptional circumstances where it may not be met. There was no information given as to whether the amount of cash savings required to meet the MIR (currently £62,500) will be increased.
As previously announced by the Home Office on 21st December, there will no longer be a separate child element to the MIR and the increase will not apply to people already on the five-year partner route.
The Government added that it will be publishing an Equality Impact Assessment on the increase in the MIR "in due course" and that it will keep all policies "under review with regards to the impact on net migration, families and equalities".
There will, of course, be a general election before 28 January 2025 and the Prime Minister has indicated it will be in the second half of this year. The opinion polls currently suggest that a change of government is likely before the full increase in the MIR to £38,700 is implemented.