Migrants planning to travel to the United Kingdom for work purposes will be subject to several challenges after the UK’s Home Secretary announced several changes that will restrict work migration to Britain.
Among the changes are increasing the minimum general salary for occupations under the Skilled Worker Route, eliminating the ability for Health and Social Care to bring dependents to the UK, removing the salary discount for occupations on the Shortage Occupation list, and increasing financial requirements for family applications.
The new announcements are expected to become effective in the second quarter of this year, VisaGuide.World reports.
According to a report from Fragomen, the decision to increase the minimum general salary for occupations under the Skilled Worker Route will become effective on April 4 this year.
Another decision is excluding Health and Social Care Visa workers from the minimum salary increase but abolishing the ability for these persons to bring dependents to the UK. These changes are expected to become effective on March 11 this year.
At the same time, changes related to the removal of the salary discount for occupations on the Shortage Occupation list will become effective on March 14, while those related to increasing requirements for family occupations will become effective on April 11.
The changes that include increasing government fees or financial requirements are leading to an increase in application numbers and processing times.
A report from Fragomen notes that applicants should anticipate delays that will continue even after all government fee or financial requirement changes have taken place, given there will be a pre-existing backlog of applications to be still resolved.
In December last year, the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) published service standards for waiting times for decisions on visas as well as immigration applications.
According to UKVI, if a UK visa application includes all relevant information and supporting documents, then the following waiting time customer service standards will be applied:
When it comes to non-settlement visa applications submitted outside Britain, about 90 per cent of them will be decided within three weeks, 98 per cent within six weeks and 100 per cent within 12 weeks of the application date.
For settlement visa applications submitted outside Britain, 98.5 percent of settlement requests will be decided within 12 weeks of the application date, while 100 percent will be decided within 24 weeks of the application date.
As for applications for leave to remain submitted within the UK, taking into account spouses, workers and students, the standard processing time is eight weeks.