What are Sir Keir Starmer’s new immigration rules?

Published

4 months ago

May 12, 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer has promised to bring down migration numbers by tightening up the rules on those allowed to come to the UK.

The prime minister promised his new plan will reduce net migration – the difference between immigration and emigration – by the end of this parliament in 2029.

Details of the plans have been published in a white paper, a government document that outlines policy proposals before being introduced as legislation.

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Sky News has combed through the white paper to bring you the details.

Language requirements

All visa routes will require people to have a certain level of English proficiency.

People coming with the main visa holders – dependents – will also have to have a basic understanding of English, which they currently do not.

The level of proficiency needed depends on the visa, with a skilled worker visa requiring at least upper intermediate level. Currently, it requires just an “intermediate” level.

To extend visas, people will have to show progression in their English.

Settled status

Currently, people have to live in the UK for five years before they can gain settled status.

Under the new plan, they will have to live in the UK for 10 years.

However, “high-contributing” individuals such as doctors and nurses could be allowed to apply for settled status after five years.

A new bereaved parent visa will be created so those in the UK who have a British or settled child that dies can get settled status immediately.

Settled status gives people the right to work and live in the UK for as long as they like, and provides them with the same rights as citizens, such as healthcare and welfare and the right to bring family members to live in the UK.

People with settled status can then choose to apply for British citizenship.

British citizenship

People can qualify sooner for citizenship by contributing to UK society and the economy, like settled status.

The Life in the UK test will be reformed.

Social care visa

This visa, which allowed care workers to come to the UK due to a shortage, will not exist anymore.

There will be a transition period until 2028 when visa extensions and switching to the visa for those already here will be allowed.

Skilled worker visa

People wanting to come to the UK on a skilled worker visa must now have at least an undergraduate university degree. The minimum was previously A-levels.

There will also be tighter restrictions on recruitment from overseas for jobs with “critical” skills shortages, as well as strategies to incentivise employers to increase training and participation rates in the UK.

Very highly skilled people, in areas the government identifies, will be given preferential access to come to the UK legally by increasing the number of people allowed to come through the “high talent” routes such as the global talent visa, the innovator founder visa and high potential individual route.

A limited pool of refugees will be allowed to apply for employment through the skilled worker route.

Study visas

People on graduate visas will only be allowed to remain in the UK for 18 months after they finish their studies.

Currently, students finishing degrees can stay for two years if they apply for the graduate visa, or those finishing PhDs can stay for three.

Institutions sponsoring international students will have their requirements strengthened, with those close to failing their sponsor duties placed on an action plan and limits imposed on the number of new students they can recruit.

Sponsors, who can cover tuition fees and living costs, include overseas governments, UK government scholarships, UK government departments, UK universities, overseas universities, companies and charities.

Humanitarian visa

The Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan humanitarian visa routes will remain.

However, the government will review the effectiveness of sponsorship arrangements for those schemes so businesses, universities and community groups can “sustainably” sponsor those refugees.

Domestic worker visa

To help prevent modern slavery, the government will reconsider this visa, which currently allows foreign national domestic workers to visit the UK with their employer for up to six months.

Businesses

Companies wanting to bring people from abroad to work for them in the UK will have to invest in the UK first.

To prevent exploitation of low-skilled workers on temporary visas already in the UK, the government will look at making it easier for workers to move between licensed sponsors for the duration of their visa.

The right to family life

A growing number of asylum seekers have used the “right to family life” – Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – to stop their deportation.

Legislation will be introduced to “make clear it is the government and parliament that decides who should have the right to remain in the UK”.

It will set out how Article 8 should be applied in different immigration routes so “fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional'”.

Foreign national offenders

The Home Office will be given powers to more easily take enforcement and removal action, and revoke visas in a much wider range of crimes where people did not serve jail time in other countries.

Deportation thresholds will be reviewed to take into account more than just the length of their sentence, with violence against women and girls taken more seriously.

Enforcement

Sir Keir said the immigration rules – at the border and in the system – will be more strongly enforced than before “because fair rules must be followed”.

People who claim asylum, particularly after arriving in the UK, where conditions in their home country have not materially changed, will face tighter controls, restrictions and requirements where there is evidence of abuse of the system.

Other governments will be made to play their part to stop their nationals coming to the UK, or from being returned.

Sponsors of migrant workers or students abusing the system will have financial penalties or sanctions placed on them, and they will be given more support to ensure compliance.

People on short-term visas who commit an offence will be deported “swiftly”.

Scientific and tech methods will be explored to ensure adults coming to the UK are not wrongly identified as children.

eVisas, which have now replaced physical documents, will help tackle illegal working and support raids on those overstaying their visas or on the wrong visa.

Major banks are legally obligated to refuse current accounts to individuals suspected of being in the UK illegally and to notify the Home Office. This will be extended to other financial institutions.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘Mr Fixit’ is likely to be a recipe for conflict

Published

4 hours ago

September 1, 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer's 'Mr Fixit' is likely to be a recipe for conflict

After a torrid time before the summer break, Sir Keir Starmer has reshuffled his inner circle again on the first day back.

This has become something of a habit.

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Although none of the Number 10 team are household names or public figures, the tally of those cycling through the top jobs is worth noting.

As of now, he’s had four chiefs of staff – the incumbent returning to the job, two cabinet secretaries with a third rumoured to be on the way and five directors of communications – a job that routinely fails to last a year these days.

The lesson this tells us is that when there’s blame to go around, Sir Keir is happy to apportion it to his closest aides.

In an interview today, the prime minister was clear that these changes are about moving to a new phase of government, more focused on delivery.

A delivery phase implies legislation completed and a focus on implementation. Bluntly, this is not the case or an accurate assessment of the job that now needs to be done.

The autumn term is not about implementation.

It’s about filling the £20bn to £40bn black hole we expect to emerge in the autumn budget, as well as continuing to deal with an uncertain world globally, and deciding on massively tricky domestic issues like reform of special educational needs and whether to revisit welfare reform.

We are still at the “big choices” section of this parliament, not the delivery phase.

The big choice in Sir Keir’s reset on Monday has been to bring in his own Mr Fixit into Downing Street.

He chose a mid-level cabinet minister, Darren Jones – until today the number two in the Treasury – and has parachuted him into his office to oversee policy.

This is an appointment, I’m told, that was pushed and encouraged by Rachel Reeves because of Mr Jones’ role in the spending review.

As chief secretary, Mr Jones is meant to have gone item by item through every department’s budget. He knows where the financial bodies are buried and will be a major alternate source of advice for Sir Keir to individual cabinet ministers.

This is undoubtedly a recipe for conflict. There are already some around the cabinet table who found Mr Jones’ style a touch brusque. His fans say this is part of why he is effective: he is prepared to challenge what he’s told, is an independent thinker and unafraid to challenge big beasts.

He will now play this role permanently, on behalf of the prime minister, and structurally, this means he is bound to be disliked by several of these colleagues who will no doubt, in time, seek to undermine him, just as he will challenge them and have the last word with Sir Keir.

No matter that some might be surprised at the choice, as a fiscal and reforming hawk, since few would put him on the same ideological wing of the party as the prime minister. He is also a late joiner to the Starmer project, although joining in opposition spent years longer than some as chair of the business select committee rather than taking more junior roles.

This is now immaterial. He is responsible for making Sir Keir’s government work in practice. His colleagues could do worse than to sincerely wish him good luck and leave him to it, as there is a great deal to be done.