Home Office Reverses Course on Proposal to Increase Family Visa Salary Threshold to £38,700

The Home Office has reversed an initial decision to raise the salary requirement for family visas from £18,600 to £38,700, instead opting for a smaller increase to £29,000. This backtrack follows criticism and concern over the impact on migration.

Home Secretary James Cleverly originally announced the hike as part of a strategy to curb UK migration numbers. However, after facing opposition, the government now plans to increase the threshold in stages, with no definitive timeframe for reaching the £38,700 mark.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom detailed the changes, noting that the current threshold permits 75% of working Britons to sponsor foreign family members, whereas the proposed £38,700 would slash that to just 30%. The updated plan aims for a first-step increase to £29,000 this spring.

Despite the absence of a set date for achieving the £38,700 threshold, Cleverly maintains that the government's revised policies will significantly lower net migration, aiming for a reduction of around 300,000 people.

Critics, including Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael and Labour's Yvette Cooper, have voiced strong objections, labeling the original proposal as impractical and indicative of systemic disarray within the government.

The salary revisions are part of broader immigration policies, including a ban on care workers sponsoring their families and a raise in the skilled worker visa minimum salary from £26,200 to £38,700. Experts from The Migration Observatory at Oxford University cautioned that such stringent regulations could impose harsher constraints on British citizens with foreign partners compared to migrant workers in similar positions. These issues gained further attention when Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms highlighted the potential disruption to the marriage plans of numerous couples during Prime Minister's Questions.