New Announcements on Immigration

Sajid Javid, the new Home Secretary is keen to make his mark, and in light of the negative publicity around Windrush, it is not surprising that one of the areas he has been keen to make positive headlines is on immigration.

There have been two welcome announcements in the last week from government on immigration; first on removing doctors and nurses from the skilled tier 2 visa cap, and second a ‘statement of intent’ on giving EU nationals ‘settled status’ in the U.K. after Brexit.

Here is a summary of the policy behind those headlines.

Tier-2 cap changes

Currently, the skilled visa route (Tier-2) for people outside of the EU is capped at 20,700 a year. This is then broken down each month. If the cap is hit for a month, visa allocation is then determined by salary level, based on a statistical calculation. While until December 2017 this had rarely been the case, since then the cap has been reached every single month. As a result this year most have had a salary cap of around £50,000. This has meant any applications for salaries below this level were rejected. This has caused huge problems for the NHS which saw hundreds of doctors and nurses being turned away as well as other sectors such as accountancy, tech and engineering.

The government have now announced that doctors and nurses will be taken out of the cap. As these roles take up around a third of the visas this should free up visas for other roles in other sectors as well as bringing down the high salary thresholds we’ve seen recently. This is positive news and something we welcomed.

Settled status

The government have now confirmed that any EU national that has lived in the U.K. for 5 years by 30 December 2020 (the end of the transition period) will be able to apply for “settled status”, which provides them with indefinite leave to remain in the U.K. even after the end of freedom of movement.

Those who are resident in the U.K. for under 5 years will be able to apply for pre-settled status which allows them to temporarily stay here until they have reached the 5-year mark and then apply for full settled status.

The Home Office have said they plan for the system to be as smooth and easy to use as possible. It will cost £65 for an adult settled status application and £32.50 for a child (under 16). Those who already have indefinite leave for remain do not need to pay for this application. There will be an app that applicants can use to process which will use biometric and facial recognition software.

Applications for settled status are due to start from 31 March 2019, and the deadline will be 6 months after the end of the transition period on 30 June 2021.

As recruiters, you should ensure both your EU staff and candidates are aware of these rules and update your clients - keep them informed. If you are keen to retain your EU staff you may want to consider paying for their settled status application, or at least ensure it is as easy as possible for them to achieve this, such as by providing access to the app at your workplace.

We will be providing more advice for members in this area so watch this space.