New Immigration Rules Coming From 22 July 2025
Subsequent to the recently published Immigration White Paper, the Government have announced the first of the new Immigration Rules that will go live from 22 July 2025.
The recently published Immigration White Paper outlined various suggested policies aimed at reducing migration to the UK. The first of the new immigration rules will be introduced from 22 July 2025.
New Immigration Rules – What Changes Are Being Made
The primary initial changes that are to be made from 22 July 2025 to the UK Immigration Rules are:
- New Skilled Worker Visa applications: Increase to the minimum salary from £38,700 per annum to £41,700 per annum (based on not more than 37.5 paid hours of work per week).
- New Entrant salary rate (generally this will be those switching from Graduate Visa or Student Visa routes) and roles on the ISL (Immigration Salary List, formerly known as the Skills Shortage List): Increase to the minimum salary from £30,960 per annum to £33,400 per annum (again, based on not more than 37.5 paid hours of work per week).
- Standard Skilled Worker Visa extensions: Increase to the minimum salary from £29,000 per annum to £31,300 per annum (again, based on not more than 37.5 paid hours of work per week).
- Changes to minimum salary levels in the Global Mobility Visa category.
- Removal of the ability to sponsor Care Workers and Senior Care Workers from outside the UK.
- Raising the skills threshold for Skilled Worker Visas to RQF Level 6 or above (this was previously lowered and is now being raised to the previous level). This will remove a large number of occupations from those that can be sponsored.
- The Immigration Salary List (ISL) and a Temporary Shortage List will be used for a variety of roles, many of which are not at RQF Level 6 or above but are nonetheless considered to be shortage occupations where a lack of resident workers with suitable skills exist.
- Transitional arrangements will be in place to ensure that those already in the Skilled Worker Visa category prior to these changes being made are not disadvantaged.
These new immigration rules, combined with numerous other changes that have regularly been made, add significantly to the complexity of these matters for migrants already in the UK and needing to change employer or job, extend their visa, etc.
There are other changes being made that would fall outside the scope of this article. The full Home Office document outlining these changes can be found at:
Further Proposed Changes
Further changes were proposed in the Government’s previous Immigration White Paper and these include:
- Increasing the English Language requirement across various routes (for example, from Level B1 to Level B2 for a Skilled Worker Visa applicant).
- Introduction of an English Language requirement for dependants of visa holders.
- Increasing the Immigration Skills Charge. This is paid by employers when sponsoring a Skilled Worker Visa and is currently £634 per year of sponsorship for a small Company and £1,000 per year of sponsorship for a large Company, which is already a significant cost.
- Increasing the residence requirement for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from the current five years to ten years (the Government have said this will not apply to those in the family route, such as Spouse Visa holders). It is not known whether they intend to apply this only to new arrivals or if they intend to apply this to those currently in the UK (the latter would be likely to meet with significant objections).
In Conclusion…
The changes being introduced from 22 July 2025, subject to Parliamentary approval, are not particularly seismic.
Increases in costs and minimum salaries might be unhelpful for some, but many highly skilled migrants will already be exceeding these levels of income.
The level of English language required is not a huge difference and most will be able to meet this.
Introduction of an English language requirement for dependants might prove difficult for some but the intention appears to be for this to start at a low level (A1) and increase with each subsequent application.
Whilst the Health and Care Worker category has been subject to some abuse, and many sponsored workers have been taken advantage of, the sector is chronically understaffed and the reason for this category being introduced has not disappeared. It is also a sector that generally has a low salary level, but most would accept that a relatively low salary does not necessarily mean that the role is low-skilled. Indeed, care workers require rather unique personal and professional skills.