Home offices are refusing visa applications and NHS and other key employers are facing major staff crisis after Britain hit its cap on visas for skilled non-European workers for the third time in arrow.
For the first time in seven years when then monthly quota reached in December and January , the lawyers expected it to be a blip. But now they are amidst fears of it turning into a long-term problem.
Migration experts predicted that the doctors and other healthcare staff, software developers and scientist will be among the first group to be turned away.
Around a third of the tier-2 work visas launched by the Home Office is for the medical and other staff working under the NHS.
The coming quarterly immigration figures are expected to reveal an increasing evidence of Brexodus over the past year. There will be an accelerating decline in the numbers of EU nationals coming to work in Britain while a major number returning home.
Mails were sent out to the UK employers and businesses by the Home Office last week that stated their application for the certificates of sponsorship needed to recruit mostly highly skilled workers from outside the EU had been refused as they did not meet the minimum point score set for the February quota.
Nichola Carter, an immigration specialist at Carter Thomas solicitors mentioned that the information he received appeared the threshold for rejection in February could be around the £50k mark. Initially it was thought that December and January were just blips but now it feels like this could be a long-term issue.
The call foe NHS workers to be removed was already made and the government will have to step in now and either change the points or create exemptions.
The applications were refused for clients last week.
Unless the salary will be at least £159,600, the jobs offered to skilled workers from outside the EU that are not on the official shortage occupation lists have to be advertised in Britain first for a set period.
Some of the employers are now willing to pay £65,000 for a job they were previously offering a salary of £35,000 for just to make sure they get a visa in the next round of allocations Carter said.
The immigration law firm Fragomen confirmed that the cap had been reached for the third time.
A Home office spokesperson said that the tier 2 visa route is intended to fill gaps in the labour market. It is important that their immigration system works in the national interest, ensuring that employers look first to the UK resident labour market before recruiting from overseas.
Tags: Carter Thomas, Fragomen, NHS, Nichola Carter, UK visa
