Proposed abolition of Tier 1 (General) and Tier 1 (Post Study Work) Visas from April 2011

The UK Home Secretary, Theresa May, on 23 November 2010 announced caps on Non-EU workers in Tier 2 category from April 2011 and the abolition of Tier 1 (General) and Tier 1 (Post Study Work) categories. Tier 1 will be replaced by category called "exceptional talent" with an allocation of mere 1000 visas per annum.

How it will affect Highly Skilled Migrants?

It may affect the ability of highly skilled migrants to fully realise the benefits of free market and may lead to wrong decisions in terms of choosing the right company. Currently, highly skilled migrants can come here without a job offer in order to gain knowledge about various companies and are free to choose a company after good degree of engagement via interviews and meetings with the company staff. If Tier 1 General is scrapped as planned, they can only come if sponsored i.e. they will get tied to a company. Migration is a big decision and the truly highly skilled people are already making money in their own countries whether in developing or developed world. They are here to help UK deal with skilled shortages and in return get perhaps clean environment and better infrastructure especially if they are coming from developing countries. The new regime will be a great barrier in attracting those people who we really need.

How it will affect Businesses?

The number of people a business can sponsor in a given time is limited since the introduction of interim limits in July 2010.

The announced final cap on Tier 2 visas from April 2011 will further restrict the availability of Tier 2 visas. In this background, each Tier 2 visa allocation will be done very carefully by businesses. UK businesses will surely lose the ability to test a worker's skills over a reasonable period before they take a decision to sponsor him under tier 2 as is the case now with candidates who can work for up to 2 years in a Tier 1 post study work visa.

Moreover, there will be little scope for one-to-one interviews with potential Highly skilled migrant candidates as they won't be able to come here without a job offer as is the case now. The employers will have to rely heavily on technology such as video conferencing which may not prove to be a 100% effective as a replacement for real interviews.

In both cases, there will be reluctance to sponsor somebody without having adequate engagement with the candidate. Also, unlike the previous "Work Permit" system, the introduction of sponsorship regime couple of years ago made it costly to sponsor non-EU workers which coupled with these changes may discourage small, high tech innovative companies to take chances with non-EU candidates.

This may potentially lead to recruitment of a person who is less skilled but has a right to work in the UK. Skills upgradation of the local workers is an essential but costly and slow process. Skills upgradation is the responsibility of all the stakeholders and not just the businesses and it is feared that business will be forced to train people thus sharing disproportionate financial burden.

As per the European Union's CEDEFOP, the European Economic area working population will start shrinking from 2012 onwards. There is a danger that this shrinking population combined with existing acute skills mismatches and abolition of Tier 1 General will compel some of the businesses to relocate in order to have a reasonably priced and reliable supply of skilled manpower without all the bureaucracy and burden attached with sponsorship regime.

Are you the one who will be affected by these proposed changes? Do something now!!

If you were dreaming of applying as a Tier 1 General migrant, or if you were thinking of hiring a person from outside the EU for a hard-to-fill vacancy in the UK, then you must act now before it becomes considerably difficult after 1 April 2011. You should contact an experienced immigration adviser in your country who has a good knowledge of UK Immigration rules or you can contact us on +44 (0)2080901930 or visit our website www.immigrationangels.co.uk for more information.

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