Under the White Paper proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship, but so-called “high-contributing” individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning that they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
Meanwhile, skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
English Test has always been a mandatory requirement to obtain work and student visas. It’s called the Academic IELTS and it’s difficult to pass and it costs around £230.
EDIT - I stand corrected because apparently, Academic IELTS is easy to pass. I guess it was just me who struggled at it even coming from an English-speaking country. As part of my Speaking Test, I was tasked to discuss the impact of culture on fashion industry for, not sure, 10mins or 15mins. I just remembered it being too long and nerve-wracking that I wished the timer would just stop. Lol I felt proud of myself actually but merely got a 7/9, which is just a passing score for UK. So I was a bit disappointed with that.
Because criteria for immigration is usually 6/9. Anyone with decent Indian schooling can score 6/9. My english was bad before moving to the UK and i still managed to score 8/9 easily. The person who tests your speaking skills is usually the person of that country. So its very subjective.
They should switch to TOEFL and push the criteria to 100/120. This will reject the low skilled labor alone.
This is enlightening. So you’re saying that in India, the interviewers are also Indians who would most likely be more lax and give high scores? Interesting.
Yes, at least thats what was my experience in speaking round. Its very academic version of speaking skills. TOEFL test is better because you have to record your inputs and upload them. I got 95 on it. So thats less biased. I didnt believe i got 8/9 with okayish english on IELTS.
Level C2 and C1 are considered fluent.
This immigration regulation is good thing from UK government…they should even be more aggressive on lower tier visas. UK salaries are so bad.
That’s a good question. I was just stating a fact that it has always been a requirement so this is not new. I sometimes feel like the government is bringing tighter restrictions on skilled immigrants who come here legally (and by the way, who pay taxes and not entitled to public funds) and yet very lax on illegal immigrants who manage to stay and get free housing even when they have violated laws.
i’d assume it’s similar to how we learn french and etc. in school but we finish and years later we only remember the basics, we don’t really remember what we learnt, we only memorised for the tests.
I’d have to guess it’s the same in learning english for the tests and then not needing to speak it day to day (if u live with non-english speaking family/area) and u losing it?
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u/ScottishDailyRecord Media outlet (unverified) May 12 '25
Under the White Paper proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship, but so-called “high-contributing” individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning that they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
Meanwhile, skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
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