The more than doubling of the minimum salary threshold for British nationals and permanent UK residents applying to bring family members to join them via the Family Visa route will impact hundreds of Indian weddings in the coming months.
The Family Visa category, under which long-term UK residents are able to apply for their spouses and partners to join them, are widely used by the diaspora for arranged and other weddings planned or organised in India. According to the latest Home Office statistics, 5,870 Indians were granted a Family Visa in the past year – making up one of the largest groups in a category dominated by South Asians. Until now British nationals and residents applying for a Family Visa required an annual earning of £18,600. But from Spring 2024, this threshold will multiply to £38,700.
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly told Parliament last week: “We will ensure that people bring only dependants whom they can support financially, by raising the minimum income for Family Visas to the same threshold as the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers, which is £38,700.
“The minimum income requirement is currently £18,600 and has not been increased since 2012. This package of measures will take effect from next Spring.”
Analysts flagged that this steep hike will have far-reaching impact on the family plans of those on lower incomes. Dr Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, described it as the “biggest surprise of the day” and one of the parts of the latest visa package that could have the “most significant impacts on individuals”.
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She pointed out: “This threshold determines whether British citizens can bring a foreign partner to live with them in the UK, and the level has been more than doubled. Family migration makes up a small share of the total, but those who are affected by it can be affected very significantly.
“The largest impacts will fall on lower-income British citizens, and particularly women and younger people who tend to earn lower wages. The income threshold will also affect people more if they live outside of London and the south east [England], in areas of the country where earnings are lower.”
The Opposition Labour Party also raised the prospect of many rushed weddings between now and Spring 2024 by those desperate to circumvent the new rules.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told reporters: “What we’re asking for is the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to look at this. It looks as though the committee hasn’t actually been asked to look at this for over 10 years.
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“So, they should be asked to look at this very swiftly, and to look at what the best way to approach this is, because at the moment this seems to have come out of thin air with no plan at all and because there’s a possibility that actually what this will lead to is a big increase in rushed marriages and so on in the next few months because of the changes,” she said.