Immigrants 'have to earn £35,000' to settle in UK - from 2016

Migrant workers will need to earn at least £35,000 to qualify for settlement in the UK, says the Home Office.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the change - from April 2016 - would help cut the number of non-Europeans and their dependants granted settlement each year from 60,000 to 20,000.

The pay threshold will apply to people wanting to remain permanently after more than five years working in the UK.

Those who don't qualify will be ordered to leave the UK after six years.

The pay threshold is the first time that a British government has imposed an economic test on the right to settlement in the UK. For decades, settlement has been granted on the basis of length of time living in - and ties to - the UK, recognising that people who have been living in the country for five years have made it their permanent home.

Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants to reduce annual net migration to "tens of thousands" from the current level of around 250,000.

It is aiming to bring the figure, which includes students and the families of visa holders, to below 100,000 by 2015 - a year before the latest restriction is due to come into force.

Read more via Source - BBC.CO.UK