Tightening on Immigration

On 23 November 2010 the Home Secretary announced new measures to control the number of workers from outside Europe that can come to the UK. The Home Office is also restricting Tier One of the Points Based System (PBS) to all but ‘entrepreneurs, investors and people of exceptional talent,’ while also tightening the intra-company transfer route, which will sit outside the annual limit.

The government has committed to:

- Introducing an annual limit of 21,700 for those coming into the UK under the ‘skilled’ and ‘highly skilled routes’.

- Raising the minimum salary to £40,000 for those coming through the intra-company transfer route for more than 12 months;

- Restricting the ‘highly skilled’ tier of the PBS to all but entrepreneurs, investors and the exceptionally talented;

- Requiring occupations in Tier Two to be at graduate level.

A new consultation will be launched before the end of the year focusing on Tier Four of the PBS (the student route ) which currently accounts for two thirds of migrants entering the UK each year.

Debbie Sumitra

Published on 20/01/2011