10 July 2005

Passport curb hits the City's high-flyers

From The Sunday Times

THE government has been accused of disrupting the lives of foreign-born professionals planning to settle in Britain by changing immigration rules.

Skilled workers from outside the European Union have been told they must spend no more than an annual six weeks abroad in the four years before they are given indefinite leave to remain -the final step to a British passport.

Lawyers claim the new guidelines could potentially affect as many as 750,000 people, many of them in information technology and financial services -just the kind of skilled immigrants Labour claims it wishes to attract.

Previously, applicants were told they could safely stay outside the country for 90 days a year. This could often be stretched to allow for longer holidays or some business trips.

The changed requirements are thought to result from a new and stricter interpretation of existing rules rather than from any legal change, but the effect may be just as severe.

"This will cause absolute mayhem in the City," said Roger Gherson, a leading immigration lawyer, who last week applied for a judicial review of a Home Office decision to deny residency to one of his clients, an international property developer. "We are talking about the sort of people who have businesses in Britain, families elsewhere and homes in several countries."

The policy has already begun to affect foreign workers. Ray Galvin, a New Zealander, said he had been told by officials that he had failed the citizenship qualification.

Galvin, 54, a Cambridge University graduate, has already been told he will not be allowed to stay because he has spent too much time out of the country on school exchanges. He speaks fluent French and German and works as a liaison officer for the European partner schools of a large comprehensive in Cambridgeshire.

"It is very bad for Britain to send out this message," said Galvin. "It will discourage firms from hiring people and discourage skilled people from bothering to come here. My MP is involved and I'm hoping it's just a glitch."

Once the Home Office rejects a foreign worker under this test, it has the power to terminate a work permit visa and an individual's right to remain in Britain, at short notice. There are fears that skilled professionals may move to Ireland, whose economy is booming.

The apparent chaos over immigration schemes for skilled workers may embarrass Charles Clarke, the home secretary, who has made a commitment to ease the entry of skilled immigrants to Britain. A consultation is under way on the introduction of a points system similar to one used for would-be entrants to Australia, which ranks applicants according to education, wealth and professional skills. Last week, the Home Office denied the existence of the six-week rule, but immigration lawyers said civil servants had repeatedly spelt out the policy to them in recent months.

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