UK Tightens Visa Policy For Work, Study; Toughens Permanent Residency Requirement

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a major crackdown on UK immigration to reduce migration numbers through tougher rules on work and study visas.

Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street on Monday, Starmer said the country needed a “clean break from the past” to fix a “broken” immigration system.

He pledged that net migration, which stood at 728,000 in the year to June 2024, according to the UK Home Office, would fall “significantly” under his government.

“Migration will fall, that’s a promise. Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control. Enforcement will be tougher than ever,” he stated.

The Prime Minister said that under the new plans, overseas care workers would no longer be eligible for UK visas.

“For years, we’ve had a system that encourages businesses to bring in lower-paid workers rather than invest in our young people. That is the Britain this broken system has created. It ends now,” Starmer said.

Other key measures include raising the English language requirement for visa applicants and extending the minimum period of residency required to apply for permanent settlement from five to ten years.

Starmer said the changes would “back British workers” and reward “those who genuinely contribute to Britain’s growth and society. Settlement in this country must be a privilege that is earned, not a right automatically granted.”

The announcement comes ahead of the publication of the government’s long-awaited immigration White Paper later today, which is expected to lay out the full details of the policy shift.

Some proposals may require new legislation and are unlikely to take effect until the next parliamentary session in 2026.

The government aims to cut the number of lower-skilled workers entering the UK by 50,000 next year, with immediate changes expected in the care sector. However, critics have raised concerns about the impact on staffing in key industries.

Amy Clark, commercial director of a care home chain in Cornwall, told BBC Radio 4 that ending overseas recruitment would create “significant problems”.

“We are very reliant on foreign workers,” she said. “Recruiting locally is very, very difficult,” she said.

This should be one of the areas of agreement by both the Labour and UK Conservative Party who are currently advocating for a deportation bill to curb immigration.

Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, had on Friday called on Starmer to adopt a bill proposed by her party that would stop about two million immigrants from getting automatic British citizenship by next year.

“From next year, two million immigrants could automatically claim British citizenship. That’s nearly twice the population of Birmingham,” Badenoch stated.

“We’ve introduced a deportation bill because we are committed to bringing immigration down.”

The bill, unveiled on May 6, outlines strict measures to reduce immigration.

Among its key provisions are the deportation of all foreign criminals, mandatory age checks, tighter visa regulations, limiting the use of the Human Rights Act in immigration cases, making asylum support repayable, and denying permanent residency to those dependent on government benefits.

Badenoch had previously proposed a stricter immigration policy that would extend the waiting period for British citizenship to 15 years.

Meanwhile, the Home Office is expected to publish the full immigration White Paper by the Labour governmentlater on Monday.

UK Tightens Visa Policy For Work, Study; Toughens Permanent Residency Requirement is first published on The Whistler Newspaper