New salary threshold for UK visas still cruel, say campaigners

A partial government climbdown on the minimum salary level for British nationals to bring foreign relatives to the UK will still tear families apart and discriminate against those on low incomes, campaigners and lawyers have warned.

On Friday the Home Office published a new factsheet on its new rules legal migration, which said that from spring 2024 the threshold will increase from £18,600 initially to £29,000 – instead of the £38,700 indicated early this month.

The threshold will then increase further to £34,500 before reaching £38,700 level. But it does not say when these further increases will apply.

In a further softening of the initial proposals, people who already have a family visa and want to renew it will have to meet only the current income requirement, rather than the increased threshold, the factsheet said. This would also be the case for children seeking to join or move with parents.

Rightwing Conservatives condemned the changes as a “sign of weakness” and that would “undermine” government efforts to tackle migration.

But campaigners and experts say the existing threshold is already breaking up families and the new levels will still drive many more of them apart, especially those living outside south-east where salary levels are lower.

The migrant-led charity Migrant Voice condemned the policy as a “cruel way of separating families”.

Its director, Nazek Ramadan, estimated that increasing the threshold to £29,000 would effect between 10,000 and 20,000 people. She said: “Even with a partial U-turn, this festive season many of those working here will be scared that this is the last one they can stay with their families. No one should be banned from having a family based on where they were born or how much they earn.

Ramadan added: “The existing income requirements of £18,700 are already seeing parents having to only see their children via a computer screen this winter. Increasing it, whether to £29,000 or £38,700 later, will rip more families apart.”

Colin Yeo, a barrister and writer on immigration, said change amount to a “terrible” compromise.

Writing on X he said: “Now the govt announces its ‘climbdown’: the outrageous new rule won’t apply to spouses and partners already sponsored, only those applying for the first time. AND the income requirement will initially be lower: ‘only’ £29,000.

“It still massively discriminates against northerners, Scots, the Welsh, women, carers. It’s still way higher than the minimum wage. It’s a brutal interference by the government with the private lives of its citizens.”

The campaign group Reunite Families UK, agreed. In a statement it said: “£29,000 is still very high for most families – it excludes over half of the population from sponsoring a foreign spouse and is much higher than the minimum wage so those on lower salaries are still being told they’re family is not welcome here.

“It’s baffling why the MIR [minimum income requirement] is now going to be raised incrementally – the process is already complicated enough without this too.”

The rules on salary thresholds are part of a wider crackdown intended to reduce net migration by about 300,000. They were set out by home secretary, James Cleverly, after fury among some Tories when data released in November showed net inward migration had been 745,000 in the year to December 2022.

The increase in the family visa salary requirement was expected to contribute only about 10,000 to the overall planned reduction.