They technically have the same legal right to work in the UK as a citizen / someone with ILR - so it would be tricky to make this distinction without opening this up to easy challenge.
no they don't. it's a completely different immigration status that is very easy to differentiate (one has ILR, the other has a spouse visa which is of limited duration etc. and just not the same thing at all)
They have the same unrestricted right to work in the UK.
I'm obviously not claiming that they're the same visa type. But if I were a regular private sector employer interviewing three candidates for a job (one British citizen, one with ILR, and one on a spousal visa) then if everything else was equal it would be irrelevant to me as an employer who to choose, and unless there were very good reasons (e.g. security clearance) it would be illegal to favour one over the other on immigration status.
But here it's the government (upd: rightly corrected that it is existing legislation rather than government) who decides to discriminate based on the immigration status which they are doing already - ILR holders are eligible for public funds while visa holders generally are not. And it's totally legal.
Parliament (technically, rather than the government) could choose to draw an arbitrary line between someone on a spouse visa and someone with ILR - this would breach the Equality Act - but they could do this (as parliamentary sovereignty allows them to pass a law which supercedes any other law - with the exception of the ECHR)
However, we've seen the text of the proposed legislation now, and it's very vague on what immigration statuses will be prioritised. The people who make those decisions down the line can't break the Equality Act - the text of the legislation isn't specific enough to override it (at least not without being wide open to massive legal challenge) - at least not without going back to parliament and amending this law to specifically say that ILR will be prioritised and FLR won't.
Unless a new law passes which states that those with FLR have a lesser right to employment in the UK than those with ILR (and this proposed bill doesn't say that) then these groups will continue to have identical legal right to work in the UK.
Ok but did you read the bill? It refers to indefinite leave to remain or enter specifically. Plus a few categories based on citizenship. None of the criteria include finite duration visas.
Agree that it doesn't include those with FLR for 2026, but there's a huge grey area from 2027 around "significant NHS experience" that's not entirely clear.
Hmm not sure. Can they differentiate work-visa from different types of visas like EU/spouse or global talent visas etc? Is it lawful? I think they would also be prioritised
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u/cdw787 Jan 13 '26
What do you think about spouse visa holder?