The UK government published its immigration White Paper on May 12 setting out proposed reforms to the UK’s immigration system. Titled Restoring Control over the Immigration System, the government outlines its intention to “restore confidence” following “a significant increase in overall levels of migration” and a shift “away from higher-skilled migration and towards lower-skilled migration.”
As outlined in this LawFlash, policy initiatives to reverse this trend are likely to have a significant impact on employers recruiting overseas workers.
As the UK’s principal work route, the Skilled Worker visa has provided flexibility to employers in recruiting overseas workers.
Despite having historically required workers to be sponsored to perform a degree-level role (i.e., a role meeting RQF 6 or above), the skills threshold for eligible occupations was lowered in 2020 to allow A-Level–equivalent RQF 3 occupations to be eligible for sponsorship. Since this change, the proportion of Skilled Worker visas issued to those sponsored in roles below RQF 6 has risen from 10% to 60%. The government therefore intends to remove all occupations with a skill level below RQF 6 from eligibility for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route.
This change will impact approximately 180 occupations that will no longer be eligible for sponsorship, including care workers, who will be subject to a ban on overseas recruitment. However, a transition period will be introduced for care workers, during which in-country switches and extensions will be permitted until 2028, subject to further review.
Employers will then only be able to sponsor workers where the role is at least graduate level unless they are able to utilise one of the confirmed exceptions:
Minimum salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas will rise in line with the increased skill level as will the English language requirement for main applicants, increasing from the current B1 to B2 (independent user) on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
In addition to raising the skills threshold for the Skilled Worker route, the government also plans to expand and promote a number of visa routes targeted at the “very highly skilled.”
It is planned that the High Potential Individual route (which is for individuals who have graduated from a leading university outside of the UK) will be expanded such that the number of qualifying universities is doubled. This will considerably increase employers’ ability to bring graduates into the UK and may be used to fill graduate vacancies where starting salaries do not meet the Skilled Worker visa threshold, with an expectation that individuals may switch into the Skilled Worker route later in their career.
High Potential Individual visas are currently issued for a set period of two years in line with the UK’s Graduate visa route. However, to prevent abuse of the Graduate visa route, the visa period for graduates from UK universities will be reduced to 18 months.
Employers hiring recent graduates using the Graduate visa route are still expected to benefit from a reduced salary requirement when switching these workers into the Skilled Worker route as “new entrants” to the labour market.
To promote entrepreneurship, the government will undertake a review of the Innovator Founder visa, aiming to assist those studying at UK universities to build their businesses and careers in the UK.
For more established overseas businesses wishing to expand into the UK, the Expansion Worker visa route will be reformed to allow up to 10 staff members (increased from five) to come to the UK to establish the new business.
The UK operates a system allowing employers to sponsor workers coming to the UK and has long maintained the position that sponsorship is a privilege that brings with it a myriad of duties.
Historically, these duties have focused on recordkeeping and the prevention of illegal working. In this White Paper, the government wishes to expand the sponsorship regime to include a direct link to domestic skills training.
Going forward, employers are expected to contribute to the development of skills training in the UK. To this end, the government will establish the Labour Market Evidence Group to gather and share evidence about the state of the workforce, training levels, and participation in the domestic labour market.
The group will focus on sectors central to the government’s Industrial Strategy and those which are heavily reliant on migrant workers. It will then make recommendations as to whether workforce strategies are required to improve domestic training and participation, and employers in these sectors will be expected to comply with such plans.
Further, where a sector or occupation is identified as having a long-term labour shortage and a workforce strategy is already in place, and employers are contributing to domestic training, the occupation may be placed on the new Temporary Shortage List.
Replacing the Immigration Salary List (which will be abolished), this new list will allow below-degree-level roles to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker route on a time-limited basis. This is expected to benefit occupations linked to industrial strategy or critical infrastructure, including many roles in the construction sector. However, individuals sponsored in these roles will not be permitted to bring family members.
In addition, the government is considering whether certain RQF 6+ roles should be subject to workforce plans, where evidence suggests an overreliance on migrant labour.
Employers will also be expected to contribute more financially to skills training via a 32% increase to the Immigration Skills Surcharge, a fee payable when assigning certificates of sponsorship. The fee, currently £1,000 per year for large sponsors and £364 per year for small or charitable sponsors, will rise to £1,320 and £480 per year, respectively.
Under current rules, individuals are generally eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain (also referred to as “settlement” or “permanent residence”) after living in the UK for five years under the Skilled Worker or another eligible route.
To ensure that only those who have significantly contributed to the UK’s economy and society gain the right to settle and, in due course, obtain British citizenship, the government plans to double the qualifying residence period from five to 10 years.
The principles underpinning the Points-Based System will be extended to both settlement and citizenship applications, meaning individuals must “earn” their right to be granted these statuses.
There will be limited exceptions, including:
To qualify for settlement and citizenship, individuals must already demonstrate an English language proficiency and pass the Life in the UK test. Both will be reformed:
As part of its overarching objective to “restore control” over immigration, the government has placed renewed emphasis on enforcement.
Employers must continue to carry out compliant right to work checks and ensure they are meeting their sponsorship obligations. The government intends to introduce “innovative financial measures, penalties or sanctions” to encourage compliance, and has highlighted reforms under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently progressing through Parliament.
The Bill includes provisions to expand the illegal working regime to cover businesses engaging self-employed gig economy workers and subcontractors, potentially exposing employers to civil penalty fines of up to £60,000 per worker (see our April 2025 LawFlash).
Employers should monitor updates closely, ensure proper staff training is in place, and seek legal advice to respond to any Home Office enquiries or compliance visits.
While the White Paper sets out the government’s policy intentions, changes will require amendments to legislation and the Immigration Rules before implementation.
Employers should consider performing the following actions in the interim:
If you have any questions or would like more information on the issues discussed in this LawFlash, please contact any of the following: