Changes to immigration rules announced by Starmer

[OneAmberFinch]

Full white paper here is extensive and announces changes to all avenues of migration - basically their approach to resolving the issues of massively increased migration from 2019-2023/4.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6821aec3f16c0654b19060ac/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper.pdf

And Starmer's commentary on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce810e3z6dkt

Handful of headline changes: default timeline to get ILR to go to 10 years instead of 5; abolishing new care worker visas; raising skills threshold for Skilled Workers back up to graduate level; increasing minimum grades required for student visas; various bits and pieces around English language requirements among several other policies

@GlitteringFeeling your DP's situation sounds similar to mine. FWIW I'm hoping there is some kind of tax payments exemption but if there's not then I'll consider transferring to a spouse visa to have the job flexibility at least.

I do wonder if this will remove the weird quirk of the current system where you can be 4.5 years into a work visa, transfer to a spouse visa and have to restart your 5 years...

(FYI to those not fully up to speed on ILR intricacies: the current rule actually IS that the default path is 10 years to ILR, it's just that there are exceptions for basically everything so people think it's 5 years. But you generally have to stay on the same visa type)

I'd love to know how social care is supposed to cope... unemployed Brits are hardly going to fill the gaps are they? Costs will shoot up, standards will fall. Good luck Granny.

What a load of waffle. All talk no action. Sorry I voted for them.

In regards to your last paragraph, I disagree. I see this line trotted out on every discussion forum, that people are " too thick" to know the difference between ' illegal' or ' asylum seeker'etc, as a sort of gotcha moment where they can they can then go on to demonstrate their intellectual superiority against the stupid, racist thickos. It's nonsense and doesn't wash anymore. People aren't stupid, they know the terminology. Do they get muddled occasionally, sure, but that's being human.

@Holluschickie probably the Middle East - both in industries which have good opportunities there. DP is American but neither of us keen to move to the US.

But who knows - maybe we won’t need
to or choose to, but if there’s better career opportunities overseas than here it would be hard to say no. If I sponsored DP as a spouse, his ILR clock would reset because of changing type of visas. It just makes you rethink priorities and there’s absolutely an emotional reaction where it feels like DP isn’t wanted here 🙁

I don't see how it can be fully state funded in the long run tbh. Not that I dislike it on principle but I just think the true costs of it (when you can't import migrants) will be too much. Maybe some combination of wages going up a bit, and people having to either care for their own family members or contribute to carers costs...

Is your partner here on a spouse visa, or is this through a worker one? Sorry if I'm asking silly questions, it's all so confusing.

Why do you think k that?

Do you really think that every single low paid care worker we have imported is dying to do care work? They do it because they have to, the same way British care workers will. Same thing.
At least the British workers might speak better English.

I agree. But some kind of plan would have been more helpful. Rather than just pulling up the drawbridge.

So not in this document then?

Why will brits suddenly have to do it? What is changing in that regard?

Why shouldn’t they do it if they need a job?

Is it the type of job only done by someone else?

We are victims of our own success.

30 years ago Doctors in the area I worked (Manchester) lost about a third of their elderly patients every winter mainly due to pneumonia. Also chronic bronchitis, flu and hyperthermia increased the morbidity of these patients.

Anyone who was 75 was considered "really old".!

Now there are improvements in housing, smokeless zones, central heating instead of coal fires and healthcare is more comprehensive, so people are living into their 90s

I can see people will be encouraged to take out private healthcare plans.

@OneAmberFinch It would be good if that quirk is sorted - very frustrating that the time on a previous visa doesn’t count for ILR at the moment.

We do absolutely intend to get married, but would be nice to do it on our terms and not because of the government! I also worry companies might not be keen to employ people on dependent visas, as all this anti-immigration rhetoric takes hold. Hopefully that’s just a pessimistic view though!

If it is then I have missed it !

I didn't say they shouldn't. I said they won't. If there was an abundance of Brits willing and able to do the work, we wouldn't have imported so many in the first place.

Not sure about that specific poster's situation (she says DP so maybe they're not married) but of my circle, which includes a lot of Skilled Worker visa people (I'm on one myself) - it's very common for the Skilled Worker to come here on their own on the work visa, then meet and start dating a British citizen at some point during the 5 years.

If you get married you can transfer to a spouse visa, but it doesn't really accelerate your path. If you switch visas your clock resets and you have to start the 5 years again.

And most people take a few years to go from meeting to getting married, so you're probably close to getting ILR on your own anyway, so everyone just waits it out.

Under the current rules, being married does mean you can skip about 1 year of waiting time between getting ILR and citizenship, but that's it.

The only benefit of switching to a spouse visa would be if you lost your job that was sponsoring you, as you would then have work rights in the UK and not have to limit yourself only to employers which sponsor.

Willing and able to do the work in return for the current low pay and bad conditions

Not at all silly to ask! He’s here on a skilled worker visa - we met in the UK. Getting married is an option, but he’s been here 8.5 out of the last 10 years so it means a lot to him to get his settled status on his ‘own’ terms. That was the route we were on, but these changes may mean we need to revisit that.

Correct. But pay and conditions can't improve much. There's no money. Which is why costs will increase and standards will fall.
I will gladly be proved wrong. Would like nothing more than for social care to improve.

Fantastic post and absolutely spot on. Starmer is like some kind of completely empty vessel that can be filled with whatever policy emerges in response to the political weather. The one thing it can't do is take a consistent stand based on genuine thought out principles. Because there's nothing there.

@JunkShopper "Starmer is like some kind of completely empty vessel that can be filled with whatever policy emerges in response to the political weather. The one thing it can't do is take a consistent stand based on genuine thought out principles. Because there's nothing there."

True and it seems he's really upset somebody/bodies because one of his London homes has been firebombed in the early hours of this morning...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14703699/Keir-Starmer-home-fire.html

Thanks for confirming. I’ve heard most of the things the pp screen shotted so they didn’t need to berate anyone.

I agree with pp on empty vessel Starmer. I don’t know how anyone can vote for someone who is as such.

@Mypinkchequebookholder what! Wow

half of London’s council housing is occupied by foreign born occupants - why? Why should we house foreign born people before our own? Genuine question. These aren’t the lawyers and doctors they promised us are they?!

in November 2020, over 1.6 million non-UK nationals were claiming at least one DWP-administered benefit. This number was 61% higher than in November 2019

1.68 million people born outside of the UK are either unemployed or ‘economically inactive’