UK announces ban on some international students bringing family members

Current law allows graduates studying courses of nine months or longer to bring their partners or children to the UK.

According to a reporter in London, on May 23, the British Government announced that it would remove the right of some foreign students to bring dependents to the country.

The move is aimed at reducing net immigration, which hit a record high last year.

The number of dependents on immigration visas following foreign students into the UK has increased at an unprecedented rate, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said.

The Home Office hopes the new measures, aimed primarily at graduates (not those on research programmes), will help to significantly reduce immigration and prevent abuse of student visas to find work in the UK.

Ms Suella Braverman said this was a fair measure, allowing the government to better protect public services while still supporting the economy by allowing the most contributing students to continue coming to the country.

Current law allows graduates studying courses of nine months or longer to bring their partners or children to the UK.

However, the UK government said the number of dependants accompanying students had increased eightfold since 2019, to 136,000 in 2022.

The new measures, which will come into effect from January 2024, were announced ahead of the UK government's announcement of its estimated net migration for 2022 on 25 May.

In the first six months of 2022, the UK's net immigration hit a record high of 504,000.

Ms Braverman believes the new measures will help net migration fall back to pre-pandemic levels in the medium term.

In addition, the UK will not allow international students to change their immigration purpose from study to work before their studies have ended. Student visas make up the largest share of UK immigration visas, with 486,000 of these visas issued in 2022.

British Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged to reduce legal immigration.

Last week, he said he was considering measures to reduce the high numbers of people arriving in the country as part of his pledges ahead of next year's UK election.

High levels of legal immigration and growing pressures on public services have long had a significant impact on British politics and were one of the main drivers of the Brexit process in 2016.

Net migration to the UK is set to hit a record high in 2022, reaching around 700,000, according to estimates from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS).

According to VNA