After all the changes imposed by the Tories, is it any wonder immigrant visa applications have fallen?

It seems the number of immigrant workers, students, and their families applying for the visas fell from around 141,000 in July 2023 to 91,000 last month. This included a massive 80 per cent drop in the numbers applying for health and care worker visas – to 2,900.

This Writer thinks the lengthy list of restrictions and regulations applied by the Tories since 2020 might have something to do with it. See for yourself, with this list provided by the BBC:

In 2021, the immigration rules for care workers had been relaxed to ease recruitment problems following Brexit.

Two years later, then-Home Secretary James Cleverly announced that the government would ban care workers from bringing family dependants to the UK, as part of efforts to reduce net migration numbers.

That came after a previously-announced ban on most overseas students bringing dependents with them.Visas issued to student dependants had risen dramatically from around 16,000 in 2019 to 135,000 in 2022.

The government also increased the minimum salary for skilled overseas workers wanting to come to the UK from £26,200 to £38,700.

To qualify as a skilled worker, applicants need to accrue 70 points under the points system introduced in 2020.

Points can be gained in different ways including by having a job offer in a sector with shortages or holding a PhD.

The previous government had also proposed raising the salary someone would need to earn to bring family members to the UK from £18,600 to £38,700.

Following a backlash it reduced the threshold to £29,000 and said further increases would be introduced at an unspecified date.

Last month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, external the new Labour government would keep the threshold at £29,000 until a review by the Migration Advisory Committee was completed.

So:

There’s going to be a shortage of care workers because it will take years to bring the domestic workforce up to appropriate numbers – and vacancies could rise to unsustainable levels.

And:

Financial pressures on universities could also reach unsustainable levels due to the fall in the number of international students applying for visas.

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