Minimum Salary for Tier 2 Work Permits to Rise to £30,000 as UK Immigration gets Tougher for Non-EU Migrants

If you think 2016 was a tough year for non-EU migrants, 2017 is about to get even harder, especially for anyone considering coming to the UK on a Tier 2 (General) working visa, such as a nurse.

The Immigration Act 2016 will see the Home Office bring in sweeping changes from April to the Tier 2 General work permit rules, including increasing the minimum salary requirement to £30,000, with no transitional arrangement for those sponsored between 24 November 2016 and April 2017. 

Nursing will remain on the Shortage Occupation List, as there are still thousands of nurse jobs in the UK. But for the first time employers will be required to carry out a ‘Resident Labour Market Test’ before assigning a nurse a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), even if the job is on the national shortage list.

The new minimum salary will automatically exclude many jobs and is above the UK average income, such as band 5 NHS nurses who start as around £26,000,

In addition, a new ‘Genuineness’ test will mean that Tier 2 applicants must satisfy the Home Office or entry clearance officer that they genuinely intend to undertake and are capable of undertaking the job for which the CoS is assigned.This could include attending an interview for entry clearance visas or further leave to remain.

Employers will be hit by a new tax or 'Immigration Skills Charge' of £1000 per year, per migrant to 'encourage' them to invest in training resident workers. There will be an exemption for PhD occupations, Tier 2 (ICT-Graduate Trainees) and Tier 4 students switching to Tier 2. The Home Office will also have more powers to search and seize documents from an employer, such as wage slips and time sheets, in order to build a case against them and an illegal worker.

Migrants will no longer have a 28-day ‘grace period’ in which to apply for further leave to remain, which means you could be branded a visa overstayer on your immigration record.

UK settlement rules are being tightened from April 2016, after which some Tier 2 visa holders will have to be earning a minimum of £35,000 per annum in order to apply for permanent residency or indefinite leave to remain. If you do not meet the salary requirement, you will not be able to stay in the UK for longer than six years and will not be able to reapply for another Tier 2 visa until you have completed a 12-month ‘cooling-off’ period outside the UK.

The Brexit, or leave EU vote, will do little to curb European immigration in the next few years as arguments rage over what type of exit Britain wants. This week the Supreme Court ruled that the Article 50 process, the mechanism required to trigger UK's exit from the European Union, must be put before MP's in Parliament. And with EU leaders insisting that free movement of labour is non-negotiable when it comes to thrashing out any trade deals, it looks like the only option for Home Secretary Amber Rudd to reduce immigration to the UK is to continue restricting non-EU migrants.

Across the pond in America today, Donald Trump has announced a halt on the U.S. refugee immigration programme for a temporary period. In his inauguration speech Trump spoke of 'America first' and wants to boost employment for resident workers. However, America still has a shortage of around one million nurses and the IT sector in the U.S and UK needs to attract the brightest and best for their growing digital economy.

The Immigration Act will have a number of consequences for Tier 2 employers and migrant workers. I will be giving you further guidance on the settlement (ILR) changes, as well as other changes, such as Tier 4 student visa switching rules, in future articles.

See also:

Uber offering free English courses to migrant worker drivers

Immigration Act 2016 - main highlights in a nutshell

Special Report

Buy Property With None Of Your Own Money....

Mark Homer explains the strategies that have helped thousands of people buy property with none of their own money.

You can obtain the report free, by clicking here...

EU Immigration to UK Tops 2 Million but Care and Nursing Vacancies Unfilled

The number of EU migrants living and working in Britain now exceeds two million, official figures reveal today.

According to the figures, more than a million migrant workers are from eastern European countries, such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria who migrated to the UK since the EU expanded in 2004.

Combined with non-EU migrants, there are over 3.2 million foreign nationals working in the UK, up by over a quarter of a million in the last year alone.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the total number of foreign nationals working in the UK has increased by 257,000 or 15% over the past year.

One in ten workers are now non-British, compared with one in twenty seven in 1997 when Tony Blair came to power.

There are now 189,000 employees from Bulgaria and Romania, an increase of 19% on a year ago, which coincides with the lifting of restrictions on working in the UK on 1 January last year.

Newest EU entrants from Croatia are also being deterred from coming here by a similar 7 year restrictions on working in the UK.

Croatian citizens need permission to work in Britain, which can take the form of a Tier 2 Work Permit, for instance for a Nurse or Doctor, or a yellow card permit to work whilst studying.

Britain’s growing economy is clearly attracting immigrants according to experts.

Carlos Vargas-Silva, of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the reason migrants were moving to Britain was because they can easily find jobs.

He said: 'As long as the EU economy remains weak and the UK economy is strong, you are going to see more people come in.'

You don’t need to be an Oxford Professor to work that one out, but Carlos has a point.

Britain’s economy is growing whilst the economies of most EU countries, burdened by the Euro and EU regulations, have been going downhill for years.

This week in Brussels, Prime Minister David Cameron is hoping to come away with a renegotiated deal and prevent an EU exit vote by British voters in a forthcoming referendum vote.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said there were still two million more people in jobs than in 2010.

'On top of that, today's figures show job vacancies at a near record high - evidence of the continued confidence of British businesses, and potential for further growth in the UK economy.

'Our one nation government is helping millions across the country to succeed and achieve their full potential. I was particularly pleased to see that wages are continuing to rise - meaning that hard-working people will see a real difference in their pay packets.'

Unemployment has fallen by 221,000 in the last year, and long-term unemployment has been reduced by 210,000 since 2010.

Despite unemployment figures exceeding 1.8 million, there are 735,000 UK job vacancies, an increase of nearly 70,000 since last year. 

There is an acute shortage of nurses and care workers in the UK, with NHS hospitals and private care homes crying out for staff. 

Currently, my own clients have have hundreds of job vacancies for nursing and care staff all over England and Wales.

Migrant workers are needed to fill the vacancies, as many British workers do not want the jobs. In the last few weeks I have witnessed local workers not even bothering to turn up for interviews.

If you are an overseas nurse or care worker (EU citizens only) and would like to work in the UK, email your CV.