Britain announces post-Brexit immigration policy

Citizens of the European Union will not receive preferential immigration status post-Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Tuesday. The new policy represents Britain’s biggest shift in immigration policy in a generation. Currently, all EU nationals can live and work in Britain under the bloc’s free-movement rules, but the new immigration policy gives migrants with skills needed by the nation priority over low-skilled migrants.

Under the proposed rules announced at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, applicants from any country wanting to settle in Britain will have to meet a salary threshold and they will only be able to bring their family to live with them if they are sponsored by their employers. “For the first time in decades, it will be this country that controls and chooses who we want to come here,” May said.

The British government confirmed its previous commitment that the 3 million EU citizens currently living in the country can stay, regardless of whether the U.K. reaches an agreement with the EU regarding immigration before Brexit.