UK Home Office Backs Down on Family Visa Salary Hike in Win for Migrant Families

Migrants seeking a family visa can breathe a tentative sigh of relief as a Home Office issued report has suggested making it easier for families to move over to the UK.

The minimum income requirement (MIR) for family visas is currently set at £29,000 ($39,170) but could be lowered by several thousand pounds per the Migration Advisory Committee's (MAC) report released on Tuesday.

In it, the MAC suggested that a lowered MIR range between £21,000 to £28,000 ($28,364 to $37819) would be more reasonable, and that potential options based on their methodology 'cluster around the region of £23,000 to £25,000 ($31,065 to $33,767).'

'A threshold at this level would allow most British workers in full-time minimum-wage jobs to qualify,' they added.

Family visas have been a key focus of Keir Starmer's crackdown on net migration, yet they only make up 5% of total UK visa applications. The MAC report comes just weeks after Starmer said the UK is at risk of becoming an 'island of strangers.'

As reported by The Guardian, many families like Camille Auclair and Moisés Álvarez Jiménez have been drastically affected by last year's MIR increase.

The young couple who married two years after meeting in Mexico in 2017 were robbed of having a child because Moisés was unable to afford the family visa.