Government White Paper – 2018
The government published its long-delayed White Paper on the UK’s post-Brexit immigration system in December 2018. Reflecting MAC’s recommendations to prioritise higher skilled people and to avoid preferential treatment for EU citizens, the White Paper advised that policy should:
- aim for migration to reach sustainable levels but do not include a numerical target;
- prioritise skilled workers, propose no cap on workers earning over £30,000 a year;
- propose no limits on unskilled migrant workers from low-risk countries but limit their stay to 12 months with no access to social security benefits.
The Paper also recognised the need for flexibility in future trade negotiations with other countries. The UK would likely come under pressure to relax its immigration rules.
To avoid cliff-edge effects after Brexit, the government said it would phase in new rules from 2021. in February 2020, the government announced new rules to apply from January 2021.
The White Paper ignored the impact of Brexit in removing the benefit of Freedom of Movement from 65 million UK citizens. Britons who want to live and work in Europe would now be subject to the visa requirements of the destination country. The same would also apply to UK migrants already living in Europe who wished to move between EU countries.
EU Settlement Scheme
For EU citizens living in the UK, a new EU Settlement Scheme (‘EUSS’) required EU citizens to apply for permanent residence in the UK. The government assured citizens that this scheme would apply in the event of no-deal.
The Settlement Scheme, allowed those who have been in the UK for five years to receive Settled Status. Also, it allowed those who had been here less than five years to hold pre-Settled Status until they met the requirement.
EU citizens could apply for residency online, and the Scheme required less documentary evidence than previous applications for permanent residence.
As of 30 September 2025, since the scheme launched in 2018, the Home Office had issued 4.3 million settled status grants. Further, an estimated 1.5 million people held pre-settled status, though this figure does not necessarily reflect current residents, as some may have left. The most common nationalities were Romanian, Polish, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Please go to ‘Implementing the WA’ in the section on Transition period negotiations for more details.
Sources:
HMG, The UK’s future skills-based immigration system, December 2018
Home Office, How many Indefinite Leave (Settlement and EUSS settled status) and Citizenship grants have been issued in the UK?, November 2025
Post-Brexit immigration system
The post-Brexit immigration system treats EU workers the same as non-EU citizens pre-Brexit. The key criterion is a job offer from a qualifying employer for a qualifying position.
In broad terms, government policy aimed to attract “the brightest and best” while reducing lower-skilled immigration.
The post-Brexit immigration system is more restrictive, costly, and less flexible for EU citizens than pre-Brexit.
Interestingly, the biggest single user of work visas is the health and care sector. This is dominated by either public sector employment (NHS) or public-sector contracts (social care). The level of future demand for overseas workers will partly depend on expanding the domestic training pipeline. It will also depend on improving staff retention in health, and pay and conditions in social care.
Initially, EU citizens had to:
- have a job offer from an approved employer with a sponsor licence;
- meet a salary threshold, which can vary by occupation;
- at least £25,600 in most cases (jobs on the shortage occupation list require a salary of at least £20,480)
- demonstrate English language ability at a certain level;
- fulfil additional criteria, such as educational qualifications or specialised skills
- jobs not classified as ‘skilled’ – meaning RQF3 (roughly A-levels) or above – are usually ineligible
- a short-term scheme for seasonal agricultural workers has expanded over time, reaching 45,000 places in 2023
- a special ‘Health and Care Visa’ was introduced in 2020, just before Brexit but:
- its provisions were virtually identical to those for visas health workers already had access to, albeit with lower fees.
- initially care workers were not eligible for this visa, but it was extended to include them in early 2022. responding to substantial shortages
- the post-Brexit system also includes some unsponsored work visas that allow migrants to do jobs at any skill level, albeit on a temporary basis.
- the post-study work regime for graduating international students – closed during the period of immigration restrictions in 2010-2012 – was reintroduced, rebranded as the ‘graduate route’. A new ‘High Potential Individual’ route offers similar rights to people graduating from highly ranked universities outside of the UK. These visas target graduates, but in practice can apply to any job.
- In addition, the Youth Mobility Scheme offers 2-3-year visas to nationals of certain countries with reciprocal agreements.
- This did not include any European nations. However, the government said that it remained open to negotiating bilateral deals with EU counterparts.
For non-EU citizens, the new post-Brexit system is more liberal. The salary requirement was just over £4,000 lower than it was before Brexit. Middle-skilled jobs such as skilled trades are newly eligible for sponsored work visas. There are also more opportunities for graduates to get unsponsored work visas.
Refugees and asylum
The UK’s post-Brexit asylum and refugee policy has been less directly affected. Pre-Brexit, it was primarily under the control of the UK government, although EU membership did influence UK policy.
Important policy changes over the last few years include:
- UK has moved to restrict its regular asylum system, through which the Home Office processes applications for protection from those who have reached Britain.
- Only people coming to the UK via ‘safe and legal’ routes will be given refuge. This implies opting out of the global asylum system, which premises hearing people’s claims for asylum regardless of the safety or legality of their route.
- The post-Brexit period has seen the biggest movement of refugees to the UK since at least World War Two. Since the end of the transition period, the government has granted status under humanitarian routes to around 437,000 people. Of these, about 85% (just under 400,000) are Ukrainians or Hongkongers.
With Brexit, the UK withdrew from:
- the EU’s Common Asylum System, which meant loss of access to EURODAC, the EU’s fingerprint database, for monitoring asylum seekers across Europe.
- the Dublin system, which allows the transfer of some asylum seekers between EU members, but pre-Brexit, the UK removed only a few asylum seekers under the system.
Source:
UK in a Changing Europe, Immigration after Brexit: where are we going?, March 2023
Labour government changes
The Labour government (from June 2024) left most of the above post-Brexit system in place and later added more restrictions aimed at reducing immigration. It introduced and proposed further restrictions following its White Paper on immigration in May 2025.
Restrictions introduced under Labour include:
- increasing the general skilled worker salary threshold first from £26,200 to £38,700 and, then, in 2025 to £41,700 per year (roughly in line with inflation):
- abolishing the 20% going rate discount for migrants working in shortage occupations;
- a planned increase to the £29,000 threshold for family migrants is currently on hold.
- closing the Skilled Worker route for social care;
- making some middle-skilled occupations ineligible for work visas;
- ending the remaining middle-skilled workers’ ability to bring partners or children to the UK;
- skills threshold for Skilled Worker visas has been raised to degree-level qualifications:
- middle-skilled jobs in industries like construction now only qualify for this route on a time-limited basis – for these, a new temporary shortage list was created, which will be subject to periodic review by the MAC;
- people coming to the UK for such jobs will no longer be eligible to bring dependants with them.
- in September 2025, the government substantially restricted refugee family reunion;
- from October 2025, most applicants for Skilled Worker visas, and the new High Potential Individual visa, must demonstrate proficiency at B2 level (A-Level equivalent) in reading, writing and understanding English (up from the B1 level, GCSE equivalent).
Skilled Worker visa grants fell by 73% in the twelve months to 30 June 2025, compared to the same period a year before. Sharp declines were visible in health and care, as well as other sectors – visa grants fell by 77% and 46%, respectively.
Further declines can be expected, reflecting the impact of the new restrictions, as well as tighter Home Office scrutiny of sponsorship applications in the care sector and enforcement of the law on sponsors.