The United Kingdom: Salary Increases and Decrease in Work Visas for 2024

Key Points  

• The United Kingdom will increase minimum salary requirements and reduce pathways for dependent family members to live in the UK in 2024  

Overview  

The government of the United Kingdom (UK) announced additional changes to its immigration system that will come into effect throughout 2024. These changes include the following: 

• Increasing the Immigration Health Surcharges.  
• Reducing eligibility for dependents and spouses/partners to obtain visas. This includes revoking dependent visa eligibility for primary visa holders in health and care industries.  
  • Reducing eligibility for student visa holders to sponsor dependent family members, unless they are in post-graduate research programs.  
• Reducing care providers’ ability to sponsor migrant workers if they are undertaking activities regulated by the Care Quality Commission.   
• Increasing the minimum salary to £38,700 against the current £26,200 minimum. Certain exemptions will apply to foreign national workers in the healthcare sector. 
  • End the 20% going rate salary discount for shortage occupations and replace the Shortage Occupation List with a new Immigration Salary List, which will retain a general threshold discount. 

According to the government announcement, these measures aim to cut immigration by over 300,000 in the coming year.  

Envoy Global UK Team Insights  

Antonio Lam, Director of Immigration at Envoy Global UK, noted that these changes will make migration to the UK more difficult in the coming years and may have an impact on industries that currently rely on migrant workers. Lam observed that the new minimum salary rate is higher than UK workers’ current median average salary.  

Looking Ahead  

Continue to check the government of the UK’s website and Envoy’s website for the latest updates and information.