The government ignored its own advisers’ recommendations that it should lower the minimum income requirements for family visas before raising the threshold by £20,000 this week, openDemocracy can reveal.
On Monday, home secretary James Cleverly announced that British citizens and those settled in the UK will now need to earn more than £38,700 a year to have their family join them, up from £18,600 previously.
The change, which comes into effect this spring, goes against the advice of the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which urged the government to lower the income requirements three years ago.
