Foreign worker visas set to double in five years, Home Office forecasts show: Report

LONDON Oct 30: Foreign worker visas are set to double in the next five years as people are recruited to take “skilled” jobs in occupations with shortages, such as social care, internal Home Office estimates show, Telegraph newspaper reported.

The number of “in-country” visas granted to foreign skilled workers is expected to rise from 204,000 in 2023/24 to 584,000 in 2028/29, according to the Home Office projections.

That is on top of a further 200,000 skilled workers visas granted to applicants coming into the UK in 2028/29, a similar number to the 205,000 in 2023/24. That would mean an overall annual increase in foreign skilled workers from 409,000 to 784,000.

Home Office ministers Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are pushing for curbs including increasing the salary threshold for foreign skilled workers from the current rate of £26,200 to around £34,500.

This would bar migrants from lower paid jobs and force employers to invest in training UK staff.

They are also considering reducing the number of foreign care workers, currently standing at 120,000 a year, and further restrictions on migrants bringing their families to the UK.

Miriam Cates, the Tory MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: “Our manifesto committed to reducing net migration, so it is very concerning Home Office officials expect the exact opposite over the next few years, with loopholes in our visa system allowing those who have come to the UK for one reason to stay here for another.

“Unless we close these loopholes, the UK will not escape the chronic low productivity rates that result from our dependence on workers from abroad.

“There is little incentive for employers to train up British young people or invest in technology when work visas are being handed out like sweets.”

The Home Office report, an impact assessment on the hike in the health surcharge that all immigrants have to pay, does not explain the increase in “in-country” migrants taking skilled worker visas.

However, immigration experts suggested it could be due to record numbers of foreign students switching to work visas after completing their studies, workers seeking to renew their visas and other foreign nationals switching to the work route.

Alp Mehmet, the chairman of Migration Watch, said: “This is inevitable, as we warned would happen in the absence of limits, lower earnings thresholds and the light control that came in with the points-based system.

“It will also mean a kick in the teeth for British workers as employers will continue to avoid training them up.”

A Home Office spokesman said the projections were based on historic trends rather than being official forecasts.