Why the UK has stopped some postgraduate students from bringing family members

The plan will also stop international students from switching out of the student route into work routes before their studies are complete. Previously, under some conditions, students could begin to work in their final semester.

What does the new rule say about bringing dependents to the UK?

According to the 2023 annual report of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), an independent public body that advises the government on immigration policy, the two main drivers of the rise in net migration of late are (i) The growth in migrant workers in Health and Social Care, and (ii) Growing international student numbers.

Earlier in May 2023, the government announced a package of measures to reduce the number of student visas being issued. Then Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in a statement, “Around 136,000 visas were granted to dependents [partner or children] ] of sponsored students in the year ending December 2022, a more than eight-fold increase from 16,000 in 2019, when the Government’s commitment to lower net migration was made.”

Part of the government’s policy included “Removing the right for international students to bring dependants unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes.”

Lowering net migration has been a central plank of the Rishi Sunak-led Conservative Party. It was also raised as a core concern in the 2016 campaign for the UK to leave the European Union and ‘Brexit’. Conservatives argued it would allow the UK to be independent of EU guidelines when it came to making decisions on immigration.

And what does the five-point programme say?

Cleverly announced the plan in December 2023 on immigration curbs, based on income levels and workers’ skills:

• Social Care workers (aid workers, clinical psychologists, nannies, palliative care workers, etc.) will not be allowed to bring dependents on their visas.
• The baseline minimum salary to be ‘sponsored’ for a Skilled Worker visa will rise from £26,200 to £38,700 (but not for the Health and Care Worker (H&CW) visa). Employers need sponsor licences to employ someone to work for them from outside the UK. So, it will become costlier for UK employers to sponsor and employ migrant workers. This will happen in April 2024.
• Changes to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The list mentions specific jobs, for which workers can be paid 80% of the job’s usual going rate to qualify for a Skilled Worker visa. SOL jobs include Biological scientists and biochemists, archaeologists, certain categories of engineers, etc. – all seen as being in short supply in the country.
• The government now plans to significantly reduce the number of jobs where it will be possible to sponsor overseas workers below the minimum salary. Changes to the list will happen no earlier than April 2024.
• The minimum income normally required to sponsor someone for a spouse/partner visa will rise in stages, from £18,600 to £29,000 and ultimately around £38,700. The first increase will be in “spring 2024” and then to around £38,700 “in early 2025”, as per the government.
• The Migration Advisory Committee will begin to review the Graduate visa system this month. A Graduate visa is an unsponsored work permit for overseas graduates of British universities. The graduate route introduced in 2021 enables international students to remain in the UK for up to 2 years for undergraduate or Master’s degrees, and up to 3 years for doctoral degrees, following the completion of their course.

Why is the visa policy for health and care workers being changed?

The Health and Care sector now accounts for 63% of all entry Skilled Workers visas granted. Earlier, policies were introduced to welcome such workers to the UK, given their shortage. “There are thousands of people up and down the country who are receiving care today that would not have been possible without this visa route,” the MAC report says. But it also raises concerns about “increasing reports of exploitation and abuse on the route.”

“We are concerned about this trend which could lead to increased shortages of healthcare staff in lower income countries,” the report adds.

Notable, Indians form the biggest group of H&CW visa holders, followed by countries such as Nigeria, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Between October 2022 to September 2023, there were 144,000 main applications for such visas, with 173,900 applications for dependents on those visas.

The concern about dependents

The report says there is a “fiscal cost to the UK of migrants bringing dependent children with them, and local public service provision may not be able to adjust quickly to the increased population.”

But, it says, “there is also a clear and substantial public value that the health and social care sector provides through care provision which such fiscal cost calculations cannot capture.”

Opposition Labour Party MP Yvette Cooper criticised the five-point plan in Parliament but spoke of the need for curbs and training domestic workers, saying, “Net migration should come down. Immigration is important for Britain and always will be, but the system needs to be properly controlled and managed so that it is fair, effective and properly linked to the economy.”

“Social care visas have gone from 3,000 a year to more than 100,000 a year, yet this spring Ministers halved the programme for recruiting care workers here. Health visas are up, yet Ministers cut training places last autumn. Visas for engineers are up while engineering apprenticeship completions in the UK have halved,” she added.