Academics ‘in limbo’ waiting for details of UK visa salary rules

The UK government’s lack of clarity over new minimum visa salary thresholds is causing uncertainty among universities and leaving families “stuck in limbo”, the sector has warned.

The general minimum salary requirement to obtain the country’s skilled worker visa is set to increase by 48 per cent, from £26,200 to £38,700, under plans laid out in December by the home secretary, James Cleverly.

But the government is yet to reveal what discount will be applied to specific roles in academia – similar to what happens now – or if a discount will be applied at all, ahead of the introduction of the reforms next spring.

“Over a fortnight on from the government’s announcement, there is still little detail on the proposals and many families are caught in limbo,” Harry Anderson, assistant director of Universities UK International, told Times Higher Education.

“It is essential that the government urgently comes forward with further information to reassure those impacted by the proposed changes and guarantees that no current visa holders will be forced to leave the country when they extend or switch their visas.”

The government has also announced that it is going to increase the salary level for a family visa to £38,700, but this rise will be staggered, and the threshold will become £29,000 this spring.

Mr Anderson said the impact of the new salary thresholds and minimum income requirements for skilled worker and family visas was significant and “risks undermining the UK’s ambition to become a leading science and research superpower”.

“While we recognise there is a need to review salary thresholds given these have not been increased in recent years, a jump of nearly 50 per cent could seriously harm our ability to attract the wide and varied talent pool of skilled individuals – lab technicians, engineers, IT specialists and language assistants – which our universities rely on to succeed on a global stage,” he said.

“This is especially true if individuals are prevented from bringing their families.”

Although the general salary requirement is currently £26,200, it is slightly higher (£28,840) for professors and lecturers, and slightly lower (£24,220) for university researchers.

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London, said the Home Office was yet to do its calculations for the new threshold, but he estimated that it could be between £31,000 and £32,000 for junior researchers.

“Depending on how it works, it could be even lower, and the sector is free now to lobby if it thinks a lower threshold is justified,” he said.

“The sector needs to get a move on and work out what level of threshold it could live with.”

Professor Portes said there was clearly an economic justification for putting up the threshold and that in itself was not a bad thing to do.

“But the fact that they’ve done it without telling us any of the details or without any understanding of how this will actually work…just shows that this isn’t really about economics; it’s just political game playing and a terrible way to make policy,” he said.

“The new rules may not work out too badly, but the way it has been handled is just inexcusable and, I think, a general symptom of a government that has given up on trying to make good policy.”

The Global Talent visa, the High Potential Individual visa and the Innovator Founder visa routes remain unchanged.

A government spokesperson said: “While it is clear net migration remains too high, putting a strain on public services, we have a world-leading range of visa routes to attract international talent into our higher education sector.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com