UK visa scheme for highly skilled foreign workers sparsely used

A few years ago, the UK government introduced a visa scheme for highly skilled foreign workers which has been used sparingly used with around only 12% of them being availed of in the last three years.

Introduced in 2011, the failure of the visa scheme, officially known as the Exceptional Talent Visas scheme under Tier 1, could hurt the UK, making it lose out on an opportunity to plug the shortage of skills in the technology and engineering sectors.

Although the government had made 3,000 visas available under the Tier 1 scheme, only 361 applications have been received since 2013.

These visas were introduced with an intent to hire qualified foreign nationals in various disciplines including engineering, digital technology, arts, science, medicine and others.

According to the partner of a private client law firm, perceptions of people with regard to immigration may have been making the government unwilling to allocate adequate resources into the scheme. But encouraging talented personnel to come to UK is a priority for the country, the partner said.

This scheme, which is being most widely used to encourage talent from the field of arts at present, will surely show encouraging results in the future. If people from other faculties, such as technology, also make use of this visa scheme, it will definitely give a much needed shot in the arm to the fledgling fin-tech sector in Britain, the law firm partner added.

Indians who are unaware of this scheme can contact overseas career consultants close to their homes to know more about it.