New English language rules set to impact immigration applicants

The government is planning to raise the bar on English language skills for people applying to live and work in the UK, and the changes could have a direct impact on employers.

Under proposals set out in the Immigration White Paper, the required standard of English will increase across multiple visa routes, including Skilled Workers and adult dependants. The aim, according to the government, is to support integration and improve employment outcomes, but for employers, the reality may be more complex. We’ll speak to an immigration expert about that.

At the heart of this is a shift in the required level of English, moving from level B1 to B2 for most workers, and that is a significant jump. To put it simply: A1 is basic survival English - enough for everyday phrases and simple conversations. B1 is functional, everyday English for work or study which allows someone to manage routine tasks and communicate reasonably well. B2 is confident, fluent English, suitable for professional roles and social integration, with the ability to handle more complex topics and speak with ease.

Under the new rules, applicants will need to meet these higher standards at every stage, not just for entry, but also for visa extensions and settlement. Adult dependants, who were often exempt until now, will also be brought into scope.

For employers who rely on overseas workers to fill persistent skills gaps, especially in sectors like care, hospitality, and construction, this could make recruitment more difficult, delay onboarding, and shrink the pool of eligible candidates.

So let’s consider that. Shara Pledger is an immigration expert and earlier she joined me by video-link from Manchester to discuss it. So does the shift to B2 present a challenge for employers trying to fill their skills gaps?:

Shara Pledger: “Yes, absolutely, and I think that's absolutely the key point to land on as a starting point for this. There are certain roles where there are very technical or quite specialised skills that are needed but those aren't necessarily transferable skills when it comes to English language learning, whether that's from the case of being comfortable with using the English language or just re-entering that very formal sort of testing environment that a lot of people probably wouldn't have been in since school. So it can really sort of throw a candidate regardless of the level of their education or whatever their particular skills needs be. Now, some of those sectors that you mentioned are going to have other difficulties within the immigration rules as things change, as we see things like skill level and salary level also increase. We certainly know that industries that are offshore based, so for example, shipping and energy, a lot of those vessels are not using English as their main language anyway. So the idea that individuals are going to have to now need to meet this really quite sophisticated level of English language, and formal testing of English language at that level, is going to be difficult for some candidates, for sure.”

Joe Glavina: “How might this influence recruitment planning, Shara? Presumably, employers will need to allow more lead-in time for recruitment, especially when sponsoring workers under the Skilled Worker route.”

Shara Pledger: “Yes, as these things change, there'll obviously be different goal posts for candidates to need to reach in order to be successful and while we see a lot of individuals go through the current requirement for English language testing without any difficulty there are certainly some that do find it quite challenging and looking at the results that they would receive, they wouldn't necessarily, on their first try, score the points that are needed for the new level which is obviously just that bit higher. So it does mean that it will be practically useful, I think, for employers to box in a bit of extra time in case resits are needed, for example, and also people might want more time to prepare. Being able to sort of have those conversations, use reading and writing at a certain level, might be something that they're quite comfortable with but moving up to that extra notch might be something with which they feel a bit more uncomfortable, and just allowing a bit of time for maybe a refresher course or just an opportunity to go through some dummy tests, will certainly be to the benefit of some candidates.”

Joe Glavina: “This is at the white paper stage, and there’s a lot in it, but I noticed in your LinkedIn post you said these particular changes could be implemented in fairly quick time - in the coming months, or even weeks.”

Shara Pledger: “As you say, the white paper has a lot of proposals in it and some of them will be quite difficult to introduce and some will need very substantial redrafting in relation to the immigration rules. Something like this with the English language requirement it’s not really the case. It's going to be the case of just changing, literally, B1 to B2 in some of the areas of the rules and then adding in this new A1 requirement or A2 requirement in others. So this is one of the changes that we can foresee being introduced relatively quickly, probably within the next few months. So we are anticipating it by the end of the summer, really. There'll need to be a little bit of lead in time because obviously internationally, all of those centres are going to need to make sure that they are set up for the right level of testing and are offering the right level of test, but once those practical barriers are overcome there's really no reason why this couldn't take effect really quickly. So this is one of those changes from the white paper that we do foresee will be coming in sooner rather than later.”

Joe Glavina: “Finally Shara, a word on the potential extra costs for sponsors as a result of this change.”

Shara Pledger: “A lot of the time when we're working with clients in relation to the sponsorship of their workers, employers will be supporting those applications made by the individuals in some way, and often that's financially. Now it needs to be considered that there might be additional costs that will be associated with this testing. So if an individual is going to need to do a bit of English language tuition, who’s going to be covering that and if they fail the test the first time and they need to submit again who’s going to cover the cost of that? We obviously have dependents who are applying so are employers going to look at sort of covering the cost of that as well? Depending on the country where an individual is sitting their English language test and applying for their visa, they might need to travel quite a long way to reach one of the approved test centres and, again, that might come at a bit of a financial cost to the individual. So as with many things to do with immigration at the moment, working out where those costs might be creeping up, and having a very clear plan in place of who is covering those and in what circumstances, will be really important. One of the messages that we always try to share with clients is that consistency is really key, and having a clear policy is very, very valuable to an employer. So it's worthwhile considering the wider practical implications of what on face value seems like a fairly small and self-contained change.”

The Immigration White Paper is called ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration System’ and was published on 12 May. We have included a link to it in the transcript of this programme for you.

- Link to Immigration White Paper