Immigration update – December 2023

Resignation of the Immigration Minister and replacement appointments

On 6 November 2023, Robert Jenrick resigned from his position as Minister for Immigration, a position he has held since 25 October 2022. This was in response to the new draft bill concerning the removal of migrants to Rwanda, which he described “a triumph of hope over experience”. (NB. The bill nevertheless passed the vote in the House of Commons on 12 December)

The draft ‘Safety of Rwanda’ bill was published on 6 December 2023, which builds on the legally binding treaty signed by the UK and Rwanda. The draft bill aims to ensure that Rwanda is considered a safe country for asylum seekers, so that people who have come to the UK “illegally” can be removed there swiftly. The former Immigration Minister’s resignation was in response to the alleged failure of the bill to irrevocably and completely remove the effect of international law, in particular human rights legislation, from applying to the Rwanda policy.

Following Jenrick’s resignation, Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has divided the role in two – appointing Michael Tomlinson as Illegal Migration Minister and Tom Pursglove as Legal Migration Minister. The division of the role into two has been attributed to the significant action being taken on both illegal and legal migration. Michael Tomlinson’s prior role of Solicitor General has been filled by Robert Courts.

Changes to immigration rules

On 4 December 2023, the UK’s Home Secretary James Cleverly spoke on legal migration and confirmed the changes to immigration policy that will be implemented in 2024 (exact date unknown).  

The announcement has caused a lot of concern with a lack of clarity if the new rules will apply to those already in the UK at the point an extension application needs to be filed. The Immigration Minister has advised that transitional provisions will be announced in the New Year.

These changes include:

• Skilled workers who are on a Health & Care visa will no longer be able to bring their dependent family members. There is ongoing speculation if this will apply only to those on carer standard occupation classification job codes, with the possibility that sponsored international doctors and nurses will be exempted from this restriction. This could mean that anyone currently on a Health & Care dependent visa would not be able to extend their visa under that category, but this remains unconfirmed, and we await further detail in the transitional provisions to be announced.
  
  
• Care providers will only be able to sponsor migrant workers if they are undertaking activities which are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. This is a notable change which would impact day care operators (that don’t require CQC regulation).

• The minimum gross annual salary for overseas workers on the skilled worker route will increase by almost 50% from £26,200 to £38,700. Whilst details of the transitional provisions are yet to be announced, employers may wish to bring forward applications before the rule changes as any future extension applications will likely require the higher salary threshold to be met.

• The shortage occupation list will be abolished (as suggested by the Migration Advisory Committee in their report). This list will be replaced with an Immigration Salary List, which will still include a general threshold discount in only certain highly limited circumstances (expected to be for the health and care sector). No announcement has been made regarding other visa salary concessions for new entrants or PhD roles – more information is expected in the transitional provisions, but it’s expected that this minimum salary requirement will rise from £20,960 to £30,960 per annum.

• There will also be an increased minimum income requirement for British and Irish citizens and people settled in the UK who wish to apply for visas under the family route, for their family members (spouse and children) to join them in the UK.

• The Graduate visa route is due to be reviewed, with changes to this route expected to be announced and may go so far as a full abolition of the category.

• It has been announced previously that the number of dependents on a Student visa will be capped at one dependent per Student visa. This is expected to come into force in January 2024.

• Immigration Health Surcharge – this is not a new announcement but a reminder that from 16 January this charge will increase by 66% from £624 to £1,035 per year of the visa. The discounted rate (for students, Youth Mobility Scheme applicants and under 18s) will increase from £470 to £776 per year of visa duration. This means the IHS on a three year visa will now be £3,105 (up from £1,872) and has to be paid in full at the time of visa application.
• Fines for illegal working – from 22 January 2024, a reminder that the Home Office are tripling penalties where there are instances of illegal working, with the fine for a first breach by an employer increasing from £15,000 to £45,000 per worker. For repeat breaches the fine will increase from £20,000 to £60,000 per worker. 

Further, more detailed information is due to be released in due course.

Autumn Statement

The Autumn Statement was published on 22 November 2023 and outlines the Government’s plans for the economy.

The statement confirmed the Government’s intention to simplify and expand the UK’s Business Visitor visa and expand the Youth Mobility Scheme (commonly known as the “working holiday visa”). The Government has increased the places available on the YMS with Australia and Canada this year by 7,000 and, added a further 9,100 places for 2024, including new and expanded agreements with Japan and South Korea. This expansion is reflective of the Government’s view that these short-term visas are unlikely to attract and retain foreign talent.

The Business Visitor rules will be expanded to allow business people to engage in a wider range of permitted activities and paid engagements, taking effect from 5 January 2024. The Government also announced its intention to conduct further reforms of the policy relating to business visitors in 2024.

Specifically, there will be a relaxation of the rules.

• Intra corporate work: there is to be a relaxation in the restrictions on working with clients. The new rules will allow international employees based in an overseas group company to carry out permitted activities with clients so long as the client facing element of the work is incidental to their overseas employment and that the activities are required as part of a project delivery.

• Remote work: the business visitor permitted activity list in the Immigration Rules has been updated to specifically include remote working. Visitors are permitted to work remotely whilst they are in the UK but that remote working must not be the primary purpose of their visit. This is not a change in the position (as this was already stated in guidance) but does now provide greater legal certainty.

• Speaking at conferences: an amendment has been made to add this to the Permitted Paid Engagements list. Visitors can now be paid to give a one-off or short series of talks and speeches, where they have been invited to a conference or other event.

• Permitted paid engagement (PPE) – previously PPE required a separate visa application/permission at port. Now the right to undertake a PPE will be automatically included within any visitor application/permission. Any PPE activity must be undertaken within the first 30 days of arrival into the UK, with a right to remain in the UK thereafter for any other standard permitted visit activity. Any PPE must still be pre-booked/pre-contracted prior to arrival in the UK.
  
  
  

It is important to note that, if a visa holder (even for a short-term visa) meets one of the relevant Statutory Residence Tests, then they will be a UK resident for tax purposes and may be subject to UK tax on their worldwide income and gains for the entire tax year, which runs from 6 April to following 5 April.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss how these changes may impact you and/or your work force.

Visa applications in Pakistan

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and VFS Global (a third-party organisation which assists UKVI with biometrics appointments and the processing of documents for entry clearance applications) have introduced new measures to combat fraud and the manipulation of the appointment system at their visa centres in Pakistan.

It has come to the attention of the authorities that unauthorised agents were taking advantage of the free appointment booking system, using the ability to reschedule appointments to extort fees from customers willing to pay, as well as suggesting that they can influence outcomes of applications.

Customers are therefore strongly encouraged to use the official VFS website to make bookings for visa application appointments.

In response to this increasing abuse of the appointment system, UKVI and VFS have decided to suspend the ability for customers to use the VFS website to reschedule appointments. Customers who need to reschedule appointments will need to email VFS to submit their request.

Applicants must also collect their passports personally or send someone who applied with them. Third party passport collections are no longer permitted. Where applicants want a non-family member, who applied with them, to collect their passport, they will need to provide a letter of authorisation, clearly stating consent.

Applicants with exempt status or officials can still have their passports collected by a designated third party.

We advise you to monitor the official VFS website for further updates here: https://visa.vfsglobal.com/pak/en/gbr?_gl=1%2aqz0s6x%2a_ga%2aNzc5ODA5NzYxLjE2OTU4MjUzNTI.%2a_ga_Z8LKRKHHG4%2aMTcwMjI4OTgyNC4xLjAuMTcwMjI4OTgyNC42MC4wLjA.

Delays in processing of Defined Certificate of Sponsorship (DCoS) requests

Following raised concerns about the delays encountered in the processing of DCoS requests,

the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) contacted James Turner from the Home Office to enquire as to the reason for the increasing delays.

James Turner confirmed that some delays in the turnaround times for DCoS requests were due to an increase in the number of abusive applications from certain sectors. He did offer reassurance that the processing times would improve, however, that the current average time taken to resolve DCoS requests is approximately two weeks. This therefore means that sponsoring organisations are unable to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to the candidate they wish to recruit until their DCoS request has been reviewed and actioned, thus impacting UK work start dates from being achievable.

On Monday 27 November 2023, the Home Office introduced a new system which splits the DCoS requests of concern from the wider pool of requests, aimed at reducing delays from now on. The Home Office have also reportedly been onboarding additional staff to work through the backlog of requests and applications, to reduce the processing time for applications and bring into a normal timeframe those applications which have not been flagged by the Home Office as a cause for concern.

Sponsoring organisations are therefore advised to factor in these current delays into their business plan and timelines when proposing to bring over a skilled worker to the UK.

SMS update for offshore workers

From 27 November 2023, all sponsors of offshore workers must make notifications on the Sponsor Management System (SMS) of their offshore workers’ arrival in, and departure from, UK waters.

If you sponsor offshore workers, you must check that your information on the SMS is correct and update any details that have changed, including National Insurance numbers for users and registered company numbers for your organisation.