Following widespread backlash, the UK government has rowed back on plans to hike the salary needed to bring family members to the country from GBP38,700 to GBP29,000, the BBC reported. An estimated 300,000 non-Britons, many of them Indians, were left in shock after the increase \u2014 from the current level of GBP18,600 \u2014 was announced earlier this month as part of a plan to reduce net migration.<\/p>\n
The change of plan was confirmed by Lord Sharpe of Epsom in answer to a parliamentary question. He said the threshold would now rise to GBP29,000 in the spring, before then rising \u201cin incremental stages\u201d to give \u201cpredictability\u201d. He added that the plan was for it to eventually rise to GBP34,500 and then GBP38,700, but no dates were given. Reacting to the u-turn, the opposition Labour said the change showed \u201cTory government chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers had failed to consult properly on the new threshold, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise they are now rowing back in a rush\u201d. The government had been under duress to cut arrival numbers after net migration \u2014 the difference between the number of people coming to and leaving the UK \u2014 climbed to a record 745,000 last year. A policy document said the new threshold could contribute a \u201clow tens of thousands\u201d cut towards the government\u2019s overall target to cut legal migration by 300,000 this year.<\/p>\n
As per official statistics, 82,395 family-related visas were issued in the year to September \u2014 79 per cent to partners, 13 per cent to children and 8 per cent to other relatives. Reunite Families UK, a campaign group on UK visa rules that threatened legal action against the government over the salary limit, said the new GBP29,000 threshold was still \u201cvery high for most families\u201d. The group said the government\u2019s decision to raise the threshold gradually was \u201cbaffling\u201d, adding: \u201cThe process is already complicated enough without this too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following widespread backlash, the UK government has rowed back on plans to hike the salary needed to bring family members\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":18816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[4138,900,2121,5903,5919,1036,5917,5920,5918,339,5921],"class_list":["post-18811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-families","tag-immigration","tag-indians","tag-legal-action","tag-lord-sharpe-of-epsom","tag-parliament","tag-salary-threshold","tag-shadow-home-secretary-yvette-cooper","tag-spouses","tag-uk","tag-visa-rules"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}