Working for UK Employers

The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) has added the profession of Chartered Quantity Surveyors to the National Shortage Occupation List.



The National Shortage Occupation List is a list of jobs where it is recognised that there is a shortage of workers within the labour market in the UK and that employers may not be able to fill the post with a UK or European Economic Area (EEA) worker. In such cases, employers do not need to undertake a labour market search to demonstrate that there is no-one within the EEA who can fill the job before applying for a work-permit for the worker.

The UK Immigration rules make provision for young people, aged 17 to 30, from certain countries, currently the countries of the Commonwealth, to come to the UK for up to two years as working holiday-makers. One requirement is that a working holiday-make

The Commission of the European Union (EU) has submitted a proposal for European Union legislation (a directive) providing for common sanctions against employers of third country nationals staying illegally in EU Member States. The UK Home Office has prepared an Explanatory Memorandum on the proposal, signed by the Minister of State for Nationality, Citizenship and Immigration in the UK Home Office, Liam Byrne MP.

The Memorandum says that the UK government:

‘supports the general purpose of the draft Directive, which is that Member States introduce, coordinate and enforce similar measures on the prevention of illegal migrant working.’

The UK is not obliged to sign up to the new European legislation if and when it comes into force but has the option of opting in to the new legislation if it wishes to do so.  At this early stage, the Explanatory Memorandum gives no indication of whether it will exercise its power to ‘opt-in’.

Considerable media attention has been given to the United States' offer to give skilled foreign workers the opportunity to settle permanently in the United States of America, an offer that was withdrawn almost as soon as it was made. On 12 June 2007 the US State department published its June Visa Bulletin. This said that almost all the foreign workers previously considered eligible for a visa sponsored by a US employer could apply for the coveted ‘green card’, giving them the right to live and work permanently in the US. The deadline for applications was 2 July 2007. But on 2 July 2007 the US State Department issued an update to the June Visa Bulletin. This said that, with immediate effect, there would be no further authorisations of green cards based on employment.

The House of Lords in the UK parliament is continuing its scrutiny of the proposals for new immigration legislation in the UK, the UK Borders Bill.

Much of the debate in the Grand Committee of the House of Lords has been about proposals that people given leave to enter (a visa) or remain in the UK should carry a biometric identity document. The UK currently does not have a system of identity cards for nationals, although it has passed a law, the Identity Cards Act 2006, that would allow it to introduce such a system in the future.

The UK Home Office is consulting on proposals radically to ‘simply’ UK immigration law. The consultation paper includes a discussion of the Points-Based system being introduced for those coming to work or undertake economic activity in the UK.

The UK Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, has stated that:

‘We will expand the background checks that are being done where highly skilled migrant workers come into the country. Where people sponsor them, we will ask them to give us their background checks.’

In NM (“leading an independent life”) Zimbabwe [2007] UKAIT 00051, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) considered the meaning of ‘leading an independent life’, within the provisions of paragraph 197 of the UK Immigration Rules.  This rule sets out the circumstances in which dependent relatives of people who are not settled (i.e. do not indefinite leave to remain, ILR) in the UK, for example the dependent relatives of work permit holders or people in the UK under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) are permitted to remain with their relatives in the UK. 

In BO (Domestic worker – connection with Sponsor) Nigeria [2007] UKAIT 00053, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) gave guidance on the requirements of Para 159A of the Immigration Rules HC 395, the provision in the rules relating to applications for entry clearance by domestic workers seeking to work in a private household in the UK. The purpose of the rule is to allow a UK based employer to bring a domestic worker, employed for over a year by the employer overseas, to work in their household in the UK.

On 19 June 2007, Ukvisas, the joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Home Office department dealing with applications for entry clearance (visas) at British posts abroad, published the 14th Report of Ms Linda Costelloe Baker, the Independent Monitor for entry clearance applications without right of appeal except on grounds of human rights and race discrimination.