Why UK is tightening immigration rules, how Indians will be affected

Written by Nagendra Tech

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Earlier this week, the Labour party government in the United Kingdom (UK) released a policy document of proposed measures to reform its immigration system, with the aim of bringing down net migration.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Every area of the immigration system — work, family, and study — will be tightened up, so we have more control.” He emphasised that without the rules, “we risk becoming an island of strangers.”

What measures has the UK proposed?

Pointing to a rise in work visas because certain sectors rely heavily on foreign labour, the UK has proposed that for a ‘skilled worker’ visa, the requirement be raised to the degree level from the senior secondary level (A-level). The white paper says the previous government (of the Conservative Party) lowered the threshold for skilled workers to the A-level in 2020, resulting in the number of work visas issued in 2024 being nearly twice the figure in 2019, with “a far higher proportion of lower skilled workers.”

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Applicants from abroad will no longer be given social care visas. In the wake of COVID-19, adult social care/home care workers were made eligible for ‘health and care’ visas in early 2022, for faster recruitment into such jobs.

While releasing data for 2024, the UK Home Office noted that between 2009 and 2020, “there were less than 140,000 work visas” issued each year. This number increased from 2021 onwards, peaking at 336,007 in 2023. “The increase is predominantly due to 114,023 more ‘Health and Care Worker’ visas being issued, following the expansion of the route,” the Home Office said adding, “The rise was primarily due to an increase in South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi) and Sub-Saharan African (Zimbabwean, Ghanaian, and Nigerian) nationals coming to work as care workers.”

Festive offer

Noting that there has been an increase in students staying in the UK after thUeir studies, and an increase in study visas for “lower-ranking” education institutions, the government has proposed that the term of a ‘graduate visa’ be reduced from two years to 18 months. A graduate visa — launched in 2021 — allows a student who has completed a course in the UK to remain in the country and work for two years (three in case of those with a PhD).

While the UK already has an English proficiency requirement for main visa applicants, it is now proposing language requirements for dependents as well, on the grounds that this can promote social integration.

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The government has also proposed that the minimum period to qualify for ‘settlement’ (a prerequisite for citizenship) in the UK will be increased to 10 years from the existing five years.

Why have these measures been proposed?

According to the white paper, it is an attempt to “control” migration into the UK, since inward migration “exploded” under the previous government. “Unsustainably high levels of migration” have added extra demand to public services and housing, it said, adding that migration has shifted from higher-skilled to lower-skilled.

Starmer claimed last year that Brexit was used to “turn Britain into a one-nation experiment in open borders.”

Earlier this week, Starmer said: “We do have to ask why parts of our economy seem to be almost addicted to importing cheap labour, rather than investing in the skills of people who are here…sectors like engineering where visas have rocketed, while apprenticeships have plummeted. Is that fair to Britain? Is that fair to young people…to see colleges in their community almost entirely dedicated to one-year courses for overseas students? No, I don’t think that it is.”

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The government’s plan also comes in the wake of the Reform UK party gaining ground in local elections earlier this month. Reform UK advocates for increased control over borders, and a “freeze” on immigration.

How many Indian students and workers go to the UK each year?

The number of Indian students going to the UK surged from 10,418 in 2015 to 1.39 lakh in 2022, visa data from the UK Home Office shows. In 2022 and 2023, the highest number of UK study visas were granted to Indians. In 2024, Indian student visa numbers were second to the Chinese.

In 2024, the UK restricted visas for dependents of students, allowing only postgraduate students working on research to bring dependents.

The total number of study visas issued by the UK to students of all nationalities hit a peak of 4.89 lakh in 2022 (the highest figure over a decade), and then dropped to 3.97 lakh in 2024.

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Total work visas issued to Indians saw a two-fold increase from 35,503 in 2015 to 73,778 in 2023, which is around 22% of the total number of work visas (3,36,007) the UK issued that year.

However, this figure dropped to 34,954 in 2024. The Home Office said that it has, in recent years, been applying more “scrutiny” to employers in the health and social care sector.

The largest chunk of work visas granted to Indians is in the ‘worker’ route, which is meant for skilled workers, and health and care workers. This category constituted around 70% of work visas granted to Indians in 2024.





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