The Y-Axis Blog

A review of the UK highly skilled migration route (Tier 1) by the Migration Advisory Committee has lead to the release of a number of recommendations on key areas.

The Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations aim to maintain the Tier 1 skilled migration route to attract the ‘”brightest and best” to come to the UK to work.

The main UK immigration recommendations include:

• People with an undergraduate degree as their highest qualification should be allowed in under Tier 1 general route, subject to high previous earnings;
• The points available under the Tier 1 general route are updated to ensure the most highly skilled immigrants are admitted;
• The initial leave to remain entitlement under the Tier 1 general route is reduced from three to two years, with a three year extension subject to evidence that the individual is in highly skilled employment. (more…)

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD and PAUL SONNE  

The U.K.’s proposals to tighten its citizenship process and make prospective Britons act more British brought renewed criticism from some immigrant and business groups, which accused the government of seeking populist headlines that will make it harder to attract talent.  (more…)

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) presented revisions to the Shortage Occupation List for Tier 2 (skilled workers) to the UK Government. The UK Government accepted MAC’s full recommendation, and made the policy effective on June 15, 2009.

Occupations on the updated list include various types of engineers, medical practitioners, scientists and teachers. View the full list here.

The Shortage Occupation List allows you to skip a step in the immigration process when hiring skilled workers (for a position on the list) by sidestepping the Resident Labor Market Test. Otherwise, the test will be required to show that there are no candidates within the European Economic Area to fill the position.
 
Currently there is an 11% increase (compared to Q1 2008) of issued UK employment permits, and with the recent revision of the occupation list, the percentage of issued work permits is expected to continue to grow.

Source :UK Home Office, 2009

Foreign workers and students from outside the European Union will have to pay £50 as ‘migrant tax’ when they arrive in Britain to help ease the impact of their stay on public services.

Click here to read the complete article

16 Mar 2009, 0317 hrs IST, IANS 
 
LONDON: Squeezed by tighter immigration rules, caterers and restaurants serving Indian food in Britain say they need a specialized curry college to save an industry facing “catastrophe”.

A London School of Curry is being proposed by leaders of a 3.5 billion-pound industry who say a new points-based immigration system is making it hard to source qualified chefs who can cook an Indian meal.

Under the points-based system, chefs imported from South Asia not only have to know their cooking skills but also be high earners and possess formal qualification besides a good knowledge of English. Restaurants found flouting rules face stiff fines and immigration department has raided many eating places in Britain recently. (more…)

Measures to raise the bar for foreign workers wishing to enter the United Kingdom, and to give domestic workers a greater chance of applying first for United Kingdom jobs, were unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today.

Jacqui Smith pledged to use the flexibility built into the points-based system (PBS) to respond to changing economic circumstances - helping British workers through the hard times of the recession.

The Government has already suspended tier 3 of the PBS to ensure no foreign national from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) can come to the United Kingdom and work in a low-skilled job.

Jacqui Smith announced three significant changes to support British workers and to be more selective about the migrants coming to the United Kingdom from outside the EEA. From 1 April the Government will:

strengthen the resident labour market test for tier 2 skilled jobs so that employers must advertise jobs to resident workers through JobCentre Plus before they can bring in a worker from outside Europe;
use each shortage occupation list to trigger skills reviews that focus on up-skilling resident workers for these occupations, which will make the United Kingdom less dependent on migration for the future; and
tighten new criteria against which highly skilled migrants seeking entry to the United Kingdom are judged, by raising the qualifications and salary required for tier 1 (General) of the PBS to a Master’s degree and a minimum salary of £20,000.

Hi Harshada/DurgaPrasad,

Good News!… I have received HSMP UK Tier 1 Visa.

I would like to say Thanks to Harshada, DurgaPrasad and Y-axis because of BEST QUALITY OF SERVICE, PERSONAL ATTENTION, COMMITMENT AND DEDICATION. Thanks a ton for all the Service, guidance and for all the Information you have for shared!

Thanks and regards,

KK