Government confirms introduction of higher MIR from 11 April 2024

Today the government laid in Parliament the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules that will introduces changes to the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) for applications made from the 11^th of April 2024.

The changes introduce include:

• Increase to the MIR to £29,000
• Amount of savings increased to £88,500 (amount of the new MIR x 2.5 + £16,000)  (£29,000 x 2.5 + £16,000 = 88,500)
• There won’t be a separate child element as before so if the person is able to meet the 29,000 threshold they will also be able to sponsor children to come to the UK without requiring an additional amount for children as before.

Important to note:

Compared with before people under the Appendix Armed Forces have now a different MIR and rules with people under the Appendix FM.

These are the key changes:

• Their MIR will be at the same level of the Armed Forces salary minimum threshold currently £23,496.
• This will similarly no longer include an additional income requirement for children.

As with the main income rule, people generally need to have had the required amount of savings in their account(s) for six months before applying.

Here are the links of the three key documents published today:

• Statement from the Legal Migration Minister
• Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules 
• Explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes to the Immigration Rules.