In The Press

Eastern Eye has written on the UK-India CEO Forum which was held on 18th April 2018 at Francis Crick Institute, wherein UK and Indian Business leaders talked about tax regimes, trade and investment. Lord Gadhia was quick to suggest that the UK was losing out on hiring IT specialist from Asian because of tougher visa rules. Many solicitors believe the rules need to be reviewed as it is impacting on many different industries and hindering UK international recruitment opportunities. In order to employ a Tier 2 visa applicant from outside the UK, employers must prove that they are unable to fill that position with a British national. If a Tier 2 applicant has more points, they will receive first priority. In 2016, an applicant needed 21 points to meet the visa requirements. As of March 2018 applicants need 56 points, nearly 3 times that amount. Vicash Ramkissoon, Business Immigration Director at Duncan Lewis, warns that the worst is yet to come: “The monthly cap on skilled workers is now likely to be exceeded five times in a row. This will hit tech companies the hardest, given the current shortage of skilled staff in the sector. If this trend continues, it is likely that the UK will lose its international appeal for attracting the brightest talent in the industry, especially software en­gineers from the Indian subcontinent.” He believes transparency and collaboration is the answer: “This situation calls for an open dialogue between the Home Office and the tech sector to propose solutions, such as adding ‘in demand’ IT roles to the shortage occupation list or making them exempt from the annual cap altogether. The most practical solution would be to assess trends over the last few months where the monthly quota has been exceeded and to consider increasing the following monthly allocation in line with demand from all business sectors. However, this is unlikely, given the current obsession with controlling net migration.”