Karen

Reform official platform does support controlled high-skilled migration, branded under its "Smart Immigration" policy. ​While the party campaigns on freezing all "non-essential" immigration to achieve near-zero net migration, it makes explicit exceptions for high earners, healthcare workers, and those with critical skills needed by the British economy. ​How Reform UK plans to control and restrict skilled migration: ​• Freeze on Non-Essential Migration: Routine and low-skilled work visas are frozen. Exceptions are strictly limited to essential healthcare roles and exceptionally high-skilled workers. • Scrapping Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR): Under their plan to overhaul settlement, permanent residency (ILR) would be abolished. Instead, foreign workers must reapply for 5-year renewable work visas with significantly higher salary thresholds, strict English fluency standards, and zero access to public funds or welfare. • Acute Skills Shortage Visas (ASSVs): Where proven domestic skill shortages exist, temporary visas will be issued only if the employer provides a 1-for-1 domestic training or apprenticeship match for a British worker, ending long-term reliance on overseas labour. • 20% Employer National Insurance Tax: To incentivize businesses to hire and train British citizens first, Employer NI would rise to 20% for foreign staff (up from the standard rate for British workers). Small businesses with 5 or fewer staff and health/care workers are exempt. • Student & Graduate Visa Crackdown: International students would be barred from bringing dependants, and post-study graduate visas would be restricted strictly to those holding designated essential skills. ​In short: Reform UK is not proposing a total ban on all foreign workers, but rather a heavily taxed, strictly temporary visa system designed to force employers to train British workers first. Pls ❤️🔁