New rules restricting who can apply to live in the UK have dashed the hopes of couples planning to move to the country. From April 2024, British citizens or those already settled in the UK will need to prove they earn £38,700 before their overseas partners can join them, up from the current threshold of £18,600. You still also need to prove you’re in a civil partnership or marriage, that you plan to settle within six months, or that you have been living together for at least two years. Ministers claim the stricter rules will reduce migration to the UK and ensure families can support themselves.
Lee, for example, had planned to propose to his girlfriend Sarah, who lives in Malaysia, in February 2022. They met while studying in Leeds three years ago and were planning their future in the UK. But because of the new income threshold, he won’t be able to obtain a family visa for Sarah. “I cannot live with her and it’s destroyed me,” he told the BBC. Lee, a researcher in Belfast, earns £26,000 a year, making it difficult to reach the higher threshold.
Josie, a British citizen and scientist living in Ancona, Italy with her Italian husband, said the new income threshold is a “crazy” amount. The couple, who married in December 2020, was looking forward to moving to the UK to start a new chapter, but Josie said it’s improbable that she could earn at least £38,700 as a lab assistant at a British university. “Basically, it’s forcing us into a position that will make it very, very difficult – if not impossible – to come to the UK,” she said.
The minimum threshold was introduced to limit immigration levels which have seen a record high in recent years. The change is anticipated by the government to decrease net migration by 10,000 annually. Family visas accounted for a net migration of 39,000 in June 2023. According to the director of the University of Oxford-based Migration Observatory, the change will disproportionately impact those less likely to have higher wages, especially women and younger people, who typically earn less
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