UK Employers

The Home Office has again started processing Certificate of Approval (COA) applications that would have failed under the previous Home Office guidance.

The requirement to obtain a COA for couples who wished to marry or enter into a civil partnership where one or both parties is not settled in the UK was introduced in the Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004. However if the couple were to marry in the Anglican Church (Church of England), then a COA is not required.

A major trade union, Amicus, has written to the Home Office expressing its concerns that the work permit scheme is allowing foreign workers to gain UK based information technology (IT) jobs at the expense of UK IT professionals.

The Home Office has announced a new category of the Training and Work Experience Scheme (TWES) which is to be called Medical Training Initiatives (MTI).

MTI is intending for individuals sponsored by certain medical organisations. The Home Office states that the purpose of the scheme is to train medical professionals who will then return to their home countries to practice. The UK has been heavily criticised in the past for encouraging medical professionals from developing nations to move to the UK, bringing their talents and qualifications with them.

The Home Secretary, John Reid, has released his report addressing the proposed overhaul of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate over the next four years.

The short-term strategy is to identify high risk people, high risk countries and trafficking routes, in order to stem the immigration crisis. Thereafter, the plan is to re-introduce exit controls, install a visible border presence and to embrace bio-metric identification requirements for certain countries. A new action plan by the criminal justice agencies will additionally tackle the removal of foreign national prisoners.

The Home Office has recently reported that migrants pay £2.5 billion more in taxes than is paid to them in benefits. The figure contradicts the widely held belief that migrants cost the British economy money and jobs. Recently some British newspapers have reported that migrants will cause a rise in council tax; something which the new Home Office figures suggest is not the case.

The Home Secretary, John Reid, has revealed part of his plans to reform the Immigration & Nationality Directorate (IND).

The IND is the government body responsible for all immigration matters but the department has been plagued with negative press stories in the last few months. It has now admitted that there are an estimated 400,000 450,000 failed asylum seekers still residing in the UK. This contradicts an estimate given by the Home Office last year of about 280,000.

It was reported that the Home Secretary John Reid, is considering plans to penalise company directors whose firms employ illegal immigrants. However the Home Office has not confirmed the plans.

Work Permits (UK) has confirmed that with effect from 14 August 2006, registered nurses will be removed from their shortage occupation list and replaced with the following:

Nurses employed or engaged in the NHS at band 7 or 8 of Agenda for Change, or those employed or engaged in one or more of the following specialties:

This firm is widely experienced in respect of preparing and submitting successful HSMP applications and our success rate is between 98% and 99%, which is extremely high.

As a result of the recent changes to permit free training, which mean that non-EEA doctors must now apply under a different immigration category in order to be permitted to work in the UK, we are undertaking HSMP applications on behalf of many doctors who are affected.