Why has Britain applied stricter visa measures? Reasons and Significance

The Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak, has recently announced new changes in UK Visa policies to reduce the net migration that increased by nearly 23% in just a year.

The following changes were announced by the Home Minister, James Cleverly-

• International students in the UK will no longer be able to bring dependants on their Student visa unless they are studying for a postgraduate research programme.
• The minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers’ visas also
  rose from £26200 to £38700.
• Health and Care visa holders are banned from bringing their family dependents.
• The minimum income for family visas has been raised to £38,700, from £18,600 from next spring.
• The list of jobs with a shortage of workers will be changed, and they will stop giving a 20% discount on the normal salary for these jobs.
• The number of immigrants could dip by 300,000 in the coming year.
• The annual charge foreign workers pay to use the NHS has been increased from £624 to £1,035.

The need to reduce net migration through study, work and family visas came into effect when the number of migrants reached a record high of 745,000 in 2022. The above alterations in the Visa policy by PM Sunak imply that Britain needs to take ‘radical’ actions to reduce net migration and to curb abuse.

The significant results in numbers would be:

• 140,000 fewer will come via student routes.
• 100,000 fewer will come through health and social care routes.
• 50,000 fewer will come through other skilled worker routes.
• Tens of thousands fewer will come as sponsored family members.

Conclusion

To sum up, the UK’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has made strict changes to visa rules to control the rising number of people coming to the country. The alterations affect students, skilled workers, and families, aiming to bring down the record-high migration numbers from 2022. These changes are a significant effort to manage immigration, and it’s expected to reduce the number of people coming to study, work, and join family members.