Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced a delay in raising the family visa threshold from £29,000 to £38,700.
This change, originally planned for 2025 and introduced earlier this year by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to tackle record immigration levels, will be postponed.
The new administration has decided to hold off on this increase until the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) completes a full review of the family visa policy.
During this review period, the current threshold of £29,000 will remain in effect.
Cooper has confirmed that no further changes will be made until the independent review is finished.
The MAC will evaluate the effects of restricting migrant workers from bringing family members to the UK and consider the implications of increasing the wage thresholds.
The new government, led by Cooper, aims to reassess its strategy on legal migration, focusing on enhancing local workforce skills before turning to foreign recruitment.
Cooper has criticized the recent surge in legal migration, which jumped from 277,000 in the year to December 2022 to 423,000 in the year to December 2023, as a sign of inadequate responses to labor market shortages.
