From April, the basic requirements to enter Britain under the Tier 1 category of the points-based immigration system will be raised.
Amid rising unemployment, Britain is putting in place new immigration restrictions on professionals from India and other non-EU countries so that existing jobs are first offered to local workers.
From April, the basic requirements to enter Britain under the Tier 1 category (highly-skilled) of the points-based immigration system will be raised. Over 25,000 people, including many from India, last year entered Britain under Tier 1 system—the route which offers access to Britain’s labour markets to highly skilled individuals, such as scientists and entrepreneurs, who can come in without a specific job offer.
The qualification and minimum salary levels (drawn before coming to the UK) for Indian and non-EU professionals will be raised to masters degree and 20,000 pounds from the current requirement of undergraduate degree and 17,000 pounds.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith is expected to announce the new measures soon as part of a 10-point plan which aims at cutting overall levels of immigration by next year.
“We have put immigration controls in place that allow us to raise or lower the bar on the migrants who can come to the UK... Now in response to the global recession, we are setting out how we will now be even more selective,” Smith told The Sunday Telegraph.
Only those industries officially recognised as having a skills shortage will be able to recruit from outside the European Union. Other changes could include migrants’ families banned from Britain.
The plans are part of a new drive to use the flexibility of the government’s “points-based” system.
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