Details of the Government’s radical changes to the work visa route have been unveiled by the Home Office, including laying out the criteria for its annual limit. These changes are part of the Government’s new annual limit on non-EU workers, which will take effect on 6 April.
At the end of last year the Home Office announced that 20,700 visas will be made available to skilled workers applying through Tier 2 of the Points Based System, as well as 1,000 visas under a new exceptional talent route. Under the new system, employers will have to apply for a certificate of sponsorship (COS) from the UK Border Agency for a specific post if they wish to bring someone to the UK – this is a change from the current system which gives businesses an annual allocation. The Government has also announced that employers filling a vacancy that attracts a salary of £150,000 or more will not be subject to the limit on the number of COS that may be allocated.
The annual limit of 20,700 COS will be divided into 12 monthly allocations. Due to the likely demand in the first month, 4,200 COS will be made available in April. After that the limit will be set at 1,500 places per month. Any places that are unused each month will be rolled over to the following month. Workers from outside the EU who want to come to Britain will need to have a graduate level job, speak an intermediate level of English, and meet specific salary and employment requirements. Immigration minister Damian Green commented that the Government’s aim is not seeking zero or negative net migration. The aim is to reduce the level of migration down to the levels of the 1990s – tens of thousands each year, not hundreds of thousands. These changes will be made by way of amending the ‘Immigration Rules’ before 6 April 2011.
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