Govt proposed changes to the UK Immigration System

Tom RedfernCategories: business, business immigration, europe, human rights, immigration, student migration

A few hours ago the Government published its White Paper “Restoring Control over the  Immigration System  May 2025”. It highlights the immigration reforms which the UK Govt proposes to introduce.

The goal is to reduce the number of overseas nationals coming to live and work in the UK. These changes will not affect the right of Irish nationals who can come and live and work in the UK without a work visa.

Their headline suggests the system has been and is out of control. So just with that phrase, we have a political statement, biased towards the party that won the election, not necessarily balanced in favour of the nation as a whole.

What is proposed in the White Paper?

  1. Increasing the threshold for skilled worker visas to graduate level the purpose being to reduce lower skilled migration:
  • Para 68 of the White Paper: “We will lift the level for skilled workers back to RQF 6 and above. Salary thresholds will rise.”
  • Para 70 of the White Paper: “The Immigration Salary List which gives people discounts from salary thresholds will be abolished. The govt will ask the MAC to undertake a thorough review of salary requirements (including discounts) to ensure that international recruitment is never a cheap alternative to fair pay and to ensure they reflect the new changes to our immigration system”
  • Para 71 of the White Paper: “In relation to those who are already utilising the Skilled Worker visa, from the point that the skills threshold is raised, existing Skilled Worker visa holders will continue to be able to renew their visa, change employment and take supplementary employment, in currently eligible occupations below RQF 6; however, applicants from overseas, or those applying to switch from other routes, will have to follow the new rules.
  1. Only allowing a narrow list of critical shortage occupations onto the Temporary Shortage List, alongside workforce strategies to increase training and participation rates in the UK
  • Para 72 of the White Paper: “For occupations with a skills requirement of RQF 3-5 (below degree level) where there have been long term shortages, the Home Office will only permit use of the Points-Based immigration system on a time limited basis where the MAC has advised it is justified, where there is a workforce strategy in place, and where employers seeking to recruit from abroad are committed to playing their part in increasing recruitment from the domestic workforce”
  • Para 73 of the White Paper: “We will establish a new Temporary Shortage List to provide time limited access to the Points-Based immigration system. Occupations below RQF 6 must be listed on the Temporary Shortage List in order to gain access to the immigration system. Sectors will only be potentially added to the Temporary Shortage list if they are key to the industrial strategy or delivering critical infrastructure and following advice from the MAC.
  1. Immigration Skills Charge (ISC)
  • Para 85 of the White Paper:  “With our focus on linking skills, migration and wider labour market policies together, the govt will increase the ISC for the first time since its introduction, by 32% to bring the ISC rates in line with inflation”
  1. Global Talent:
  • Para 89 of the White Paper: “As part of our mission to promote growth, the govt will go further in ensuring that the very highly skilled have opportunities to come to the UK and access our targeted routes for the brightest and best global talent by:
  • Increasing the number of people arriving on our very high talent routes, alongside faster routes for bringing people to the UK who have the right skills and experience to supercharge UK growth in strategic industries
  • As part of that, increasing places to our scheme for research interns, including those working in the field of Artificial Intelligence, to allow businesses access to additional promising young talent
  • Make it simpler and easier for top scientific and design talent to use our Global Talent visa
  • Review our Innovator Founder visa to ensure that it supports entrepreneurial talent currently studying at UK universities to move into the visa so that they can build their business and career in the UK
  • Double the number of workers that an overseas business can send to the UK with the aim of establishing a presence in the UK
  • We will explore a targeted and capped expansion of the HPI route, looking to double the number of qualifying institutions, whilst maintaining the focus of the route on individuals that will have the most benefit to the UK workforce and ensuring that any necessary safeguards are in place   
  1. The Student route
  • Para 119 of the White Paper: “To prevent the misuse of student visas, the govt will strengthen the requirements that all sponsoring institutions must meet in order to recruit international students…”
  1. Short-Term Study
  • Para 127 of the White Paper: “We will now conduct a review of the accreditation bodies to ensure that their processes are robust and consider what further checks need to be put in place to ensure the right level of scrutiny is being applied both before an organisation is accredited, and when that accreditation is renewed”
  1. Graduates
  • Para 131 of the White Paper: “we will reduce the ability for Graduates to remain in the UK after their studies to a period of 18 months (currently it is 2 years). The Government will explore introducing a levy on higher education provider income from international students, to be reinvested into the higher education and skills system. Further details will be set out in the Autumn Budget.”
  1. Closing the social care visa route to overseas recruitment:
  • Para 81 of the White Paper: “We will therefore end overseas recruitment for social care visas. In line with our wider reforms to skills thresholds, we will close social care visas to new applications from abroad. For a transition period until 2028, we will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights, but this will be kept under review”
  1. Family Reforms
  • Para 148 of the White Paper: “Before the end of this year, we will set out a new family policy that will:
  • cover all UK residents including those who are British, settled, on work routes or refugees seeking to bring family members to the UK
  • have clear relationship requirements, designed to ensure only those in genuine, subsisting relationships qualify, reduce forced marriage and include protections for victims of domestic abuse
  • ensure those coming to the UK have an appropriate level of English language skills, to be able to effectively integrate into local communities
  • ensure the family unit has sufficient money financially to support any migrants without relying on the taxpayer through reviewing and extending the financial requirements to other dependant routes, and
  • ensure that those who serve or have served as members of HM Armed Forces, bravely protecting our country, and their dependants, have their rights to reside in the UK and become British citizens protected in line with this Government’s commitment to them, in the Armed Forces Covenant.
  • Para 148 of the White Paper: “…We will also explore tightening our Suitability Rules on the family routes, to ensure people are of the good character we expect. We will introduce changes to English language requirements for adult family dependants…”
  • Para 156 of the White Paper: “To do this we will bring forward legislation to:
  • strengthen the public interest test to make it clear that Parliament needs to be able to control our country’s borders and take back control over who comes to, and stays in the UK, striking the right balance between individual family rights and the wider public interest
  • clarify Article 8 rules and set out how they should apply in different immigration routes so that fewer cases are treated as “exceptional”, and
  • set out when and how a person can genuinely make a claim on the basis of exceptional circumstances.
  1. Enforcement
  • Para 230 of the White Paper: “We will extend the rules that apply to major banks to prevent illegal working to other financial institutions. We will review these controls to ensure they are appropriate and reflect recent advances in technology across the sector.
  • Para 231 of the White Paper: “We will work with HMRC and HM Treasury on applying immigration enforcement measures to those applying for visas, or here on visas, who have not paid taxes that they owe in the UK”
  1. Restricting dependants for lower skilled workers on the temporary shortage list and increasing salary thresholds for all visa holders seeking to bring in dependants and
  2. Increasing English language requirements for visa holders and dependants:
  • Para 253 of the White Paper: “… we will introduce new English language requirements across a broader range of immigration routes, for both main applicants and their dependants, to ensure better knowledge of English, including an assessment of improvements over time.
  • Para 254 of the White Paper: “ We will increase language requirements for Skilled Workers and workers where a language requirement already applies from B1 to B2 (Independent User) levels, in accordance with the Common European Framework for Reference for Languages (CEFR).
  • Para 255 of the White Paper: ”It is important that we ensure better integration and consistency in our requirements of family members across the immigration system so we will introduce a new English language requirement for all adult dependants of workers and students at level A1 (Basic User) to align to spousal and partner routes and will work towards increasing this requirement over time. 256. We want individuals to improve their English language skills over time as they continue their stay in the UK. We will introduce requirements to demonstrate progression to level A2 (Basic User) for any visa extension, and B2 (Independent User) for settlement.
  • Para 257 of the White Paper: “ We will increase our existing requirements for settlement across the majority of immigration routes from B1 to B2 (Independent User)”
  1. Earned Settlement
  • Para 264 of the White Paper:  “ This expansion of the Point-Based System will increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.
  • Para 265 of the White Paper:  “We will continue to offer a shorter pathway to settlement for non-UK dependants of British citizens to five years, provided they have remained compliant with their requirements, and we will retain existing safeguards to protect the vulnerable, including settlement rights for victims of domestic violence and abuse.
  • Para 266 of the White Paper:  “Through the expansion of the Point-Based System, individuals will also have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period based on Points-Based contributions to the UK economy and society. We will consult on these changes later this year.
  • Para 267 of the White Paper:  “Whilst we develop and implement the new ‘Earned Settlement’ model we will make further changes to settlement rules in the near term. These include:
  • The creation of a new bereaved parent route, allowing those in the UK on the route of a parent of a British or settled child, but who have tragically lost their child, to settle immediately.
  • Ensuring children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle. This will also include a clear pathway for those children in care and care leavers.
  1. Earned Citizenship
  • Para 270 of the White Paper:  “ We will introduce reforms to citizenship to align to earned settlement reforms, building on the expansion of the Points-Based System to settlement and citizenship.
  • Para 271 of the White Paper:  “Similar to Earned Settlement, we will increase the standard qualifying period and expand the Points-Based System to allow those with greater contributions to qualify sooner. We will also conduct a refresh of the Life in the UK test and how it operates. Finally, we will consider measures to reduce the financial barriers to young adults, who have lived here through their childhood, from accessing British nationality.
  1. There will be a separate set of new reforms for asylum and border security
  2. Refugee Employment
  • Para 83 of the White Paper: “Drawing from the experience of the Displaced Talent Programme, we will explore reforms to allow a limited pool of UNHCR recognised refugees and displaced people living overseas to apply for employment through our existing sponsored worker routes where they have the skills to do so”

When will the announced reforms come into effect?

We do not know when the suggested changes will take place. Our best guess is that the earliest they will come in is in 2026 because if the changes need an Act of Parliament to be passed, that will take many months of scrutiny. Where an Act of Parliament is not required to introduce the changes (eg increases in fees), we expect such changes to arrive in the Autumn 2025. We rely on the below and highlighted above indications:

  • Para 47 of the White Paper: “The first stage of the reforms will mean much tighter restrictions on and reductions in lower skilled migration including changes to the Skilled Worker Visa, making support for shortage occupations temporary and linking immigration with skills and training, while also doing more to support exceptional global talent to come to the UK”
  • Para 279 of the White Paper: “Many of these measures will take time to deliver their effects: some will require new legislation; others will require a change in approach across government, industry and society as a whole.

Redfern Legal LLP will continue to keep you posted concerning the UK Government reforms to immigration.

Yulia Gutkovich       email: ygutkovich@redfernlegal.com

Senior Immigration Solicitor