UK Immigration White Paper 12 May 2025 – Key Legal Reforms

The UK Government has published its 2025 Immigration White Paper, outlining a series of significant proposals intended to inform future legislation concerning the legal migration framework. The White Paper, published on 12 May 2025, introduces a number of major reforms that, if implemented, will substantially alter existing routes under the Points-Based Immigration System and beyond.

In her foreword, the Home Secretary makes clear that the White Paper is focused on reforms to legal migration, noting: “Later this Summer, we will set out further reforms to the asylum system and to border security in response to irregular and illegal migration, including plans for new legislation building on the new measures already set out in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently passing through Parliament.”

This distinction signals the Government’s intention to maintain momentum on broad reforms to the UK’s immigration landscape, with both legal and irregular migration remaining firmly under legislative scrutiny.

Key Proposals

Some of the key recommendations include the following:

• Doubling the qualifying period for settlement in points-based routes from five to ten years
• Reducing the duration of the Graduate Visa to 18 months
• Increasing the Immigration Skills Charge by 32%, and
• Introducing a new “Temporary Shortage Occupation List” for sub-RQF Level 6 roles, while concurrently closing the Health and Care Worker visa route for social care occupations.
• Elevating English language requirements and extending them to adult dependants of workers and students (at A1 level)
• Establishing a new immigration route for bereaved parents, and
• Launching a revised global talent initiative, reportedly based on the “Talent Beyond Boundaries” concept.

Work reforms

The immigration system must be linked to skills and training requirements here in the UK, so that no industry is allowed to rely solely on immigration to fill its skills shortages.

• We will lift the level for skilled workers back to RQF 6 and above. Salary thresholds will rise.
• We will increase the Immigration Skills Charge for the first time since its introduction in 2017, by 32% in line with inflation.
• We will close social care visas to new applications from abroad. For a transition period until 2028, we will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights, but this will be kept under review.
• We will establish the Labour Market Evidence Group to draw on the best data available in order to make informed decisions about the state of the labour market and the role that different policies should play, rather than always relying on migration.
• We will launch new requirements for workforce strategies for key sectors where there are high levels of recruitment from abroad.
• We will establish a new Temporary Shortage List to provide time limited access to the Points-Based immigration system. Occupations below RQF 6 must be listed on the Temporary Shortage List in order to gain access to the immigration system.
• Access to the Points-Based immigration system will be limited to occupations where there have been long term shortages, on a time limited basis, where the MAC has advised it is justified, where there is a workforce strategy in place, and where employers seeking to recruit from abroad are committed to playing their part in increasing recruitment from the domestic workforce.
• We will explore how to ensure that employers, using the immigration system, are incentivised to invest in boosting domestic talent, including options to restrict employers sponsoring skilled visas if they are not committed to increasing skills training.
• We will introduce reforms to allow a limited pool of UNHCR recognised refugees and displaced people to apply for employment through our existing skilled worker routes, where they have the skills to do so.
• We will go further in ensuring that the very highly skilled have opportunities to come to the UK and access our targeted routes for the brightest and best global talent.

Study reforms

The immigration system must be linked to skills and training requirements here in the UK, so that no industry is allowed to rely solely on immigration to fill its skills shortages.

• We will strengthen the requirements that all sponsoring institutions must meet in order to recruit international students. 
• We will raise the minimum pass requirement of each Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) metric by five percentage points, so that – for example – a sponsor must maintain a course enrolment rate of at least 95% and a course completion rate of 90% in order to pass the compliance threshold.
• We will implement a new Red-Amber-Green banding system to rate the BCA performance of each sponsor, so that it is clear to them, the authorities and the public which institutions are achieving a high rate of compliance, and which are at risk of failing.
• We will introduce new interventions for sponsors who are close to failing their metrics, including placing them on a bespoke action plan designed to improve their compliance, and imposing limits on the number of new international students they can recruit while they are subject to those plans.  
• We will require all sponsors wishing to use recruitment agents for overseas students to sign up to the Agent Quality Framework, designed to maintain the highest standards of agent management, and ensure that institutions cannot simply outsource their responsibility to ensure that the individuals whose visas they are sponsoring are genuinely coming to the UK to study.  
• We will ensure there are arrangements, for future international student recruitment, for sponsoring institutions to demonstrate that they are considering local impacts when taking its decisions on international recruitment.
• We will conduct a review of the Short-Term Study accreditation bodies to ensure that their processes are robust and consider what further checks need to be put in place to ensure the right level of scrutiny is being applied both before an organisation is accredited, and when that accreditation is renewed.   
• We will reduce the ability for Graduates to remain in the UK after their studies to a period of 18 months. 
• We will explore introducing a levy on higher education provider income from international students, to be reinvested into skills. 

Enforcement, compliance and deportation

The rules must be respected and enforced – from our crackdown on illegal working to the deportation of foreign criminals.

• We will tighten up the rules we apply both at the border, and within our immigration system, to make it easier to refuse entry or asylum to those individuals who break the rules or break our laws.
• We are introducing measures so that where people do break the rules or break our laws, there are stronger powers and proper enforcement in place to track them down, arrest them, and remove them from our country.
• We will simplify the rules and processes for removing foreign national offenders and take further targeted action against any recent arrivals who commit crimes in the UK before their offending can escalate.
• We will strengthen border security by rolling out digital identity for all overseas citizens through the implementation of eVisas and new systems for checking visa compliance, replacing the former Biometric Residence Permit cards. 
• We will introduce tighter controls, restrictions and scrutiny of those who attempt to abuse and misuse the immigration system, and who arrive with a pre-existing intention to claim asylum on, or after, arrival, when there has been no material change in their home country to warrant such a claim.  
• We will continue to take steps to tackle illegal working, continuing to surge resource into the key sectors where illegal working is taking place – including in the gig economy – and using eVisas and modern biometric technology to support our Immigration Enforcement raids – facilitated by the 1,000 staff redeployed into enforcement and returns since the election.
• We will build on existing banking measures to ensure these reflect advances in technology and work across Government to take action against those who have not respected the rules by failing to pay tax owed.
• Later this year, we will set out more detailed reforms and stronger measures to ensure our laws are upheld, including streamlining and speeding up the removals process.  
• It is right that we take action against foreign national offenders in the UK before they get the opportunity to put down roots in the UK, and that we do what is necessary to protect local communities and prevent crime.  

Integration and community cohesion

The system must support integration and community cohesion, including new rules on the ability to speak English and the contribution that people bring to the UK.

• We will increase language requirements for Skilled Workers and workers where a language requirement already applies from B1 to B2 (Independent User) levels, in accordance with the Common European Framework for Reference for Languages (CEFR). 
• We will introduce a new English language requirement for all adult dependants of workers and students at level A1 (Basic User) to align to spousal and partner routes and will work towards increasing this requirement over time. 
• We will introduce requirements to demonstrate progression to level A2 (Basic User) for any visa extension, and B2 (Independent User) for settlement. 
• We will increase our existing requirements for settlement across the majority of immigration routes from B1 to B2 (Independent User). 
• We will reform our settlement and citizenship rules by expanding the Points-Based System and increasing the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.
• Individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.
• We will continue to offer a shorter pathway to settlement for non-UK dependants of British citizens to five years, and we will retain existing safeguards to protect the vulnerable, including settlement rights for victims of domestic violence and abuse. 
• We will create a new bereaved parent route, allowing those in the UK on the route of a parent of a British or settled child, but who have tragically lost their child, to settle immediately. 
• We will also conduct a refresh of the Life in the UK test and how it operates and consider measures to reduce the financial barriers to young adults, who have lived here through their childhood, from accessing British nationality.
• We will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle. This will also include a clear pathway for those children in care and care leavers.   

Further Home Office Reports

Further detailed analysis of the impact on work and student visa routes has now been published, with additional commentary to follow.

• Skilled Worker route evaluation: This report explores the experiences and activities of international workers and sponsoring employers accessing the Skilled Worker visa route.
• Student route evaluation (wave 2): This report explores the experiences and activities of international students and university sponsors accessing the Sponsored Study visa route.
• Sponsored Work and Family Visa earnings, employment and Income Tax: Research findings regarding the earnings, employment, and Income Tax liabilities of visa holders on Sponsored Work and Family routes in financial year 2023 to 2024.
• Graduate route evaluation: This report explores the experiences and activities of those accessing the Graduate visa route.
• High Potential Individual (HPI) route evaluation: Results from a Home Office commissioned evaluation exploring the experiences and future plans of HPI visa-holders and their dependants.