Article Summary

The UK government has raised the minimum salary requirement for skilled worker visas to £38,700 from £26,000 and introduced new restrictions, including preventing overseas care workers from bringing dependents. These measures, aimed at reducing net migration, also include ending the 20% salary discount for shortage occupations and increasing the immigration health surcharge.

TNP AI: Key Insights

For skilled professionals considering the UK, these changes represent a significantly higher barrier to entry, particularly the nearly 50% increase in the salary threshold from £26,000 to £38,700. This also reverses previous flexibility for critical sectors like healthcare, which previously benefited from a 20% salary discount for shortage occupations and allowed care workers to bring dependents.

The move is expected to exacerbate existing staff shortages in the UK's healthcare and social care sectors, potentially impacting service delivery and increasing operational costs for employers. It also signals a broader shift in the UK's immigration strategy, prioritizing higher earners and potentially making the country less attractive for a wider range of skilled talent compared to other global hubs.

While the US H-1B visa has its own wage level complexities, the UK's explicit and substantial increase in salary thresholds for *all* skilled workers highlights an active strategy to control migration through economic levers, a more direct approach than the often-debated H-1B prevailing wage updates. This could influence how other countries, including the US, consider adjusting their own skilled visa requirements in response to economic and political pressures.