United Kingdom | Immigration | UK immigration updates

Immigration 

United Kingdom | UK immigration updates 

Summary

There have been a number of UK immigration updates this week, which are summarised below: 

• Firstly, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has now published its review of the Graduate route and has recommended to the Home Office that the route should remain in place in its current form. 
• UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) have confirmed Pre-Settled Status holders will benefit from automatic extensions of their status every two years.
• UKVI have issued clarification regarding Right to Work Checks for BRPs expiring on 31st December 2024.

The detail

Migration Advisory Committee publishes review of the Graduate route 

The Graduate visa allows recent graduates from UK universities to remain in the UK for two years (three years if completing a PhD) and work without restriction. Since its introduction in 2021, it has proved very popular with 114,000 a year being issued plus another 30,000 dependents.

The UK government commissioned the MAC to review the route as part of its plan aimed at reducing net migration to the United Kingdom. The MAC was asked to determine whether there was any evidence of abuse of the route including the route not being fit for purpose. 

The MAC concluded that the route should remain in place in its current form, noting that the Graduate visa route had broadly achieved and continues to achieve its objectives.  These objectives included increasing the attractiveness of the UK as a destination of study and retaining talent upon graduation (and therefore contributing to the UK economy.)  Importantly,  the MAC confirmed that it had not found any evidence of significant abuse of the Graduate route, in terms of deliberate non compliance with the immigration rules.

The following recommendations were also made:

• Greater collaboration between government and the HE sector could be fostered to support the government’s desired labour market objectives for the route
• International students should be could be better integrated into priority occupations and sectors
• Introducing a mandatory registration system for international recruitment agents
• Introducing a requirement for universities to provide confirmation of the course outcome (e.g. class of degree) on the Student route, in addition to confirmation that a course has been successfully completed which is currently required.

Employers will welcome the outcome of the MAC’s review with the Graduate visa route providing a further route to hire overseas talent, particularly given the recent significant increases to the minimum salary required to sponsor a migrants work permit. It is important to note however that the MAC’s recommendations are advisory only and not binding on the UK Government. 

Automatic extension of Pre-Settled Status leave every two years

Further to the UKVI’s earlier announcement regarding the automatic extension of pre settled status by two years just before it’s due to expire, they have now issued confirmation that this will be the case every two years. Therefore where an individual, for example, does not qualify for Settled Status, their status in the UK will be protected via automatic extensions every two years until they are eligible to apply for Settled Status. 

Right to work checks for BRP holders expiring on 31st December 2024

As part of ongoing Home Office digitisation, all current BRPs are due to expire on 31 December 2024 even though an employee’s immigration permission might be valid beyond this date.

This has generated some questions around whether further right to work checks are required to provide a statutory excuse beyond 31 December 2024.

The Home Office has confirmed that they will update their policy to state that where an employee’s  most recent right to work check was undertaken on a physical BRP that expires on 31 December 2024, this expiry date refers to the document only, and not to the holder’s immigration status. 

A repeat check is not needed until the employee’s permission is due to expire and Employers will maintain a statutory excuse against a civil penalty if initial/repeat checks were undertaken in-line with the guidance that applied at the time the check was made.

Employers will therefore not need to do repeat checks on those people where they have recorded immigration permission expiry dates beyond the expiry of their BRP.

It is recommended that employers check their records for 31 December 2024 expiry dates and make a record of the actual expiry date of the immigration status, which may be later.

Contact us

For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:

Lyudmyla Davies  
Partner (Solicitor)

Ian Robinson
Partner 

Andrea Als
Director (Solicitor)

Tom Marsom
Director (Solicitor)

Lucy Vaux
Senior Manager (Solicitor) 

Further information on Vialto Partners can be found here: www.vialtopartners.com

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