I can't seem to find an article where they say that in my googling - can you share a link?
Did you try looking on the Sky site? It was an article on their website on the day these changes were announced. That Sky article was also reported on immigrationboards.com; you can also use their search engine to find that post to find the article.
All I can find is Yvette Cooper warning it will "lead to a big increase in rushed marriages".
She will know that there is always a last minute rush when easy/abused routes to the UK are closed down because that happens all the time.
Any future changes (not just immigration) are always on the gov.uk site for everyone to read. Sometimes the UK gives notice they are changing visas to the UK and other times they just close that route to stop further abuse of that visa.
I think that the UK gave notice before of the income requirement of 18.6 to sponsor a partner?
@ksand24 will likely know.
The law to bring in the Immigration Health Surcharge for those who use the UK immigration routes (the EU said the UK still had to give free healthcare to those on their routes in the UK) had years notice of that charge as a Bill had to go back and forth through Parliament and the Lords to become law. Even when that Bill got Royal Accent and became the Immigration Act 2014, the IHS didn’t start until 6 April 2015.
The latest I saw before this latest announcement of changes, was the UK recently giving notice that those on Student visas will not be able to bring their dependants with them on course starting from 1 January 2024, unless they are on a PhD or other doctorate RQF level 8, or a research-based higher degree. Some universities then quickly started courses in November and December this year, with papers reporting in some countries that people were paying thousands to agents to try to get a Student visa on a course before that date.
Not that a Student visa leads to ILR. The UK has already had to close abuse on the Student visas before, to stop these who can't find a work/partner sponsor, from remaining in the UK. That includes the new agreement with India to take back their overstaying citizens, many of whom arrived on a Student visa and then couldn’t find a work sponsor, or who were trying to claim their child born in the UK is stateless as they decided not to register them as an Indian citizen.
The Tier 1 (General) visa that was meant to be for those that were highly skilled, was closed without warning when many were found to be not highly skilled at anything much and couldn't earn 35K(?) :in any job as they didn’t need a work sponsor; to renew their visa. Some then left the UK, some found a partner to sponsor them; some lied on the applications by claiming they were also self employed as well as employed to make the 35k (and some even got that renewal) but were removed at a later date for deception.
The Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) visa: the UK also gave notice,that those who applied for that visa from 6 April 2010 would not be able to have ILR after 5 years. That those who applied before 6 April 11, could get ILR after 10 years but only if they stayed with that same sponsor.
The Investor visa was closed without warning. The Entrepreneur visa was closed and replaced with a visa for those who would bring something new to the UK.
Etc,
etc
The two routes to stop the open door immigration to the UK, were also given notice to allow those who couldn’t find a work sponsor to get to the UK, to still get to the UK before that closing date.
1.The Immigration Act 1971 was brought in to end Commonwealth citizens moving to the UK, unless they have the skills for a visa or marry somebody who will sponsor them.
2. That same Immigration Act 1971 also ended the EU routes to the UK; for EEA citizens and non-EEA citizens on various EU routes; unless they can get a skills visa or marry somebody who will can sponsor them.
There will always be changes.
