Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Gaza have arrived in the UK following a successful application for a visa as a dependant of someone in the UK on a (a) work and (b) student visa since 7 October 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Border Force does not hold the information in an easily accessible format, therefore the information requested cannot be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for visas for Palestinian nationals were (a) rejected and (b) approved in (i) October 2023, (ii) November 2023, (iii) December 2023, (iv) January 2024 and (v) February 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish data at the level of detail requested, however, we do publish data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work and sponsored study visas granted are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.
Every attempt is made to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.
The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab).
The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Gaza are awaiting the results of their applications for a visa as a dependant of someone in the UK on a (a) work and (b) student visa, who applied (i) on and (ii) before 7 October 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish data at the level of detail requested, however, we do publish data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work and sponsored study visas granted are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.
Every attempt is made to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.
The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab).
The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas for Palestinian nationals (a) are being processed, (b) have been approved and (c) have been rejected since 1 October 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish data at the level of detail requested, however, we do publish data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work and sponsored study visas granted are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.
Every attempt is made to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.
The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab).
The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for a skilled worker visa in (a) December 2023 and (b) January 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office makes every attempt to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.
The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has issued on whether Skilled Worker Visa applicants whose overall band score in the IELTS English Language exam satisfies Home Office requirements but one area is below the minimum requirement can be issued with a visa.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A migrant must pass all elements of an IELTS test, or one of the other English language tests which are acceptable, at the required level for a Skilled Worker visa. Because English Language is a mandatory requirement, there is no such guidance for migrants who fail to meet that requirement.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there is a cap on weekly working hours for charity worker visas.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There is no cap on weekly working hours for those with permission on the Charity Worker visa route. However, visa holders must be undertaking voluntary fieldwork that does not fill a permanent position, even if this is on a temporary basis.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Oral Statement of 4 December 2023 on Legal Migration, Official Report, column 42, on what evidential basis his Department proposed preventing overseas care workers from bringing family dependants to the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As the Prime Minister has made clear, current levels of migration to the UK are far too high. The long-term plan the Home Secretary has announced would mean around 300,000 of the people who came to the UK last year would not have been able to come.
Care workers were added in February 2022 as a temporary addition to address acute shortages in the social care sector. This has since seen a rapid increase in numbers of people arrive with over 80,000 visas issued to main applicants in the last year to this September alone, bringing a further estimated 100,000 dependants.
The Government will reduce the numbers on the Health and Care visa route by removing the right for care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants from spring 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to this Oral Statement of 4 December 2023 on Legal Migration, Official Report, column 41, if he will publish the evidential basis that increasing the salary threshold for family visas will achieve its policy objectives.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Investigative work has been undertaken across Government to support decision making in this process; analysis will be published in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many spouse visas were issued to people with incomes between £18,600 and £38,700 in (a) the UK and (b) Northern Ireland in 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of spouse visas issued to people with incomes between £18,600 and £38,700 in (a) the UK and (b) Northern Ireland in 2022 does not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.
The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)