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Clarification on planned Spring 2024 changes.
The proposed immigration changes to both the salary thresholds and the health surcharge fee caused much confusion when they were announced on 4 December 2023. The government have now announced further amendments, and a possible implementation timeline. Suzanna Ghazal, Solicitor, reports on these further changes.
On 4 December 2023, the Home Secretary announced that there would be a significant increase in the minimum salary level threshold for skilled workers by 48% from £26,200 to £38,700 per year, starting from Spring 2024. We wrote about the anticipated changes back in December.
When the government initially announced the changes, it was unclear as to what the changes might mean for employers and also, whether the new threshold would apply to skilled worker visa holders who will need to renew their visas after the new threshold came into force.
On 21 December 2023 the government published further detail. We have now received confirmation from the government that:
Whilst there is a sigh of relief that the new salary threshold will not apply to those already on skilled worker visas in the UK, we anticipate that hospitality will be the one of the worst hit sectors for recruiting new talent from overseas. The government justifies the increase in salary threshold to ‘ensure that we do not undercut UK workers by using cheaper overseas labour and to prevent downwards pressure on wages’.
It was initially anticipated that the immigration health surcharge was set to increase on 16 January 2024. However, it now looks as if the increase will not come into force until earliest 30/31 January 2024 or potentially early February 2024. The government is set to debate the increase on 10 January 2024, and so we will know more then.
It is anticipated that the increase will be as follows:
We recommend planning your recruitment and reviewing applications in the pipeline over the next few weeks to prioritise use of the lower salary threshold and immigration health surcharge fees.
If you would like to discuss how the changes will affect your business and workforce planning, please get in touch with Chris Harber, Head of Immigration, at [email protected]. Alternatively, find out more on how we can help you with our business immigration and private immigration services.
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.
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If you have any questions relating to this article or have any legal disputes you would like to discuss, please contact the Immigration team on
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