Labour has vowed to review new foreign worker visa rules if the party wins the general election later this year.
The Migration Advisory Committee would be asked to investigate the impact of preventing workers bringing dependents to the UK and increasing salary thresholds, Labour confirmed on Tuesday.
Reforms to restrict care workers from bringing family to Britain came into force on March 11, while the minimum wage workers from abroad must earn will begin to rise significantly from April.
The government hopes the new laws will get record migration levels down.
But opponents have argued the rules will put a strain on families and lead to staff shortages, particularly in the care and hospitality sectors.
Labour shadow minister Chris Bryant on Monday confirmed the party would not reverse the ban on foreign students bringing dependents to the UK, but could not say whether it would continue the restrictions for health and care workers.
“I don’t know what the Labour Party position on that is,” he told the BBC. “I’m not going to make it up.”
He added: “If the danger is we end up having nobody able to do social care or any of the other professions that we desperately need in the UK then that’s going to have to be a problem that we will have to return to.”
On Tuesday Labour said it would ask the Migration Advisory Committee to review the new rules for care workers and salary thresholds and make a decision based on its findings.
A spokesman for shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the party had “supported the restrictions on dependents for post graduate students on short courses” and “will always look at the evidence and take a sensible approach”.
“We would like to see a full assessment from the Migration Advisory Committee on the details,” they added.
The party also called for a “proper” social care workforce plan, including a Fair Pay Agreement.
Labour has previously supported an increase in the general salary threshold for foreign staff following warnings about the exploitation of lower paid migration.
Sadiq Khan is among the senior Labour politicians who have criticised the government’s new visa rules branding them “economic own goal”.
He said: “Pulling up the drawbridge on thousands of foreign workers and their families is the latest example of the Government pursuing damaging economic policies in order to look tough on immigration. “Migrants are critical to London and the nation’s economy and public services.”
An increase to the salary required for those arriving on a Skilled Worker Visa, from £26,200 to £38,700, will start from April 4.
The minimum income threshold for those bringing dependents to the UK on family visas will go up in stages starting on April 11. From this date workers will need to be earning at least £29,000-a-year to bring a family member from abroad – up from £18,600.
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