Introducing the Highly Trusted Sponsor - Important changes to Immigration Rules for Tiers 1, 2 and 4
22 March 2010
The Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has announced changes to the criteria for permission to enter or remain in the United Kingdom for Tiers 1 and 2 of the Points Based System, as well as in several other areas. These are contained in a new Statement of Changes in the Immigration Rules (HC 439) which was also laid before Parliament on 18 March 2010.
The changes will come into force on 6 and 7 April 2010, but applications submitted to the United Kingdom Border Agency (the UKBA) before that date will be considered under rules as they were before the changes.
What are the changes?
The UKBA's announcement focuses on the changes to the requirements to be met by people who are either in the UK as Highly Skilled Migrants under the Tier 1 (General) category or as skilled workers under Tier 2. These changes follow recommendations made to the Agency by the Migrant Advisory Committee.
However the changes affect a far wider range of people including students, temporary workers, those seeking asylum in the UK and, in an interesting move, the family members of people serving in the UK's armed forces, who are now exclusively allowed to apply for settlement in the UK even if they are not yet 21 years old.
Overall the changes are to the detail of the requirements for entry under Tiers 1, 2 and 4 (Students), and do not affect the general criteria of these Rules. The most significant changes are as follows:
Changes to Tier 1 (General)
To some extent the requirements for entry or for leave to remain under the Tier 1 General subcategory are relaxed by these rule changes. People who have a Bachelor's degree - or no degree - will qualify for entry clearance under Tier 1 provided their earnings are high enough. As the rules stand currently points are only awarded for a Bachelor's degree where the applicant already has or was last granted leave to enter or remain as a Tier 1 (General) Migrant, Highly Skilled Migrant, Writer, Composer or Artist or a Self-Employed Lawyer.
The Rule changes will also permit applicants to score points for their age if they are under 40. At the moment no points are available for age unless the applicant is under 32.
The changes are also restrictive however. Points for previous earnings will only be available for earnings of £25,000 or more – compared with £20,000 currently.
The conditions of the grant of leave to enter or remain also become more restrictive. Successful applicants will not be able to work as a professional sportsperson, to prevent people from applying under Tier 1 (General) and thereby evading the requirement to be endorsed by their particular sport's UK governing body, which is a condition for leave to enter or remain under Tier 2 and Tier 5.
At the moment successful applicants for entry clearance get 3 years leave. They then get 2 more years if they apply successfully for an extension. This will be reversed by the Rule changes so that the initial grant of leave will be for 2 years and extensions will be for 3 years.
The restriction on employment will now include employment as a dentist in training as well as a doctor in training. There is an exception to this restriction for people who have a degree in dentistry or medicine from a UK educational establishment.
Changes to Tier 2
The most striking change here is that the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) subcategory will no longer lead to settlement in the UK. At the moment it is possible for applicants to switch from this subcategory into Tier 2 (General) while continuing to work for the same employer.
There are also adjustments in the points allocations for previous earnings. Applicants will only get points for earnings of £20,000 or more instead of the current £17,000 or more. Similarly 15 points will be awarded for a Masters' degree in place of the 10 points now in place.
To reflect the value of workers in "shortage occupation” more of the required points will be awarded to the people who fall into this subcategory of Tier 2 (General) than are awarded generally for sponsorship in the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) subcategory.
The Rules in respect of applications for leave to remain under both Tier 1 and Tier 2 are altered so that if the applicant had to prove his or her English language skills in a previous application and managed to do so, there will be no requirement to do this again to satisfy the requirements for further leave to remain.
Changes to Tier 4
As was reported on this site on 19 February 2010 the Agency brought in changes reducing students' entitlement to work for no more than 15 hours per week in term time to no more than 10 hours with effect from 3 March 2010.
Now the Agency has changed the main Tier 4 Rule 245ZX (h) so that anyone studying a course which contains a work placement must be sponsored by a "Highly Trusted Sponsor”. Sponsors are currently rated as "A” or "B” – so the changes introduce a new kind of Sponsor. This is explained in a new amendment to Rule 6, which defines the expressions used in the Rules. Similarly only Highly Trusted Sponsors will be able to give Confirmations of Acceptance for Studies to applicants studying below degree level.
This novel form of Sponsorship has today (22 March 2010) been further explained in a special announcement on the Agency's website.
Changes to Tier 5
The changes here are of no great significance. The Rules are being amended to exclude employment as a dentist in training so as to reflect the similar alterations in Tiers 1 and 4. The same restrictions are imposed for the family member of anyone with leave under each of these Tiers so that they too cannot work as a dentist in training.
Changes to the English language requirements
Rules 33C to 33F are changed so as to harmonise the language requirements to be met by applicants in Scotland with those applied in the rest of the UK.
There are further changes to ensure that applicants are not abused by private sector providers of the English for Speakers of Other Languages courses. Applicants will now have to get their qualifications from an "accredited college”. Only publicly funded colleges subject to inspection by government agencies specified in the amended definition of Rule 33C will be "accredited”.
Changes to marriage visa age policy for spouses, civil partners unmarried or same sex partners of the UK armed forces
The government's decision to raise the minimum age for people seeking settlement in the UK from 18 to 21, and its consequent change to the Immigration Rules in November of 2008 was justified by concern to protect the possible victims of forced marriage. According to the explanatory notes to the Statement of Changes:
"This change is required to reflect the fact that unlike civilian couples, the armed forces deserve special consideration to reflect the unique circumstances in which they operate including the need to deploy at short notice. The additional support provided by the Armed Forces to its families during deployments gives a Service person a degree of reassurance when they are deployed on operations and is more efficiently delivered if the family live close to the Service person's duty station. The MOD is unable to replicate the full range of families support to those who have to remain in their country of origin. Continual separation places both partners under additional strain and hence renders Service personnel less effective. MOD [the Ministry of Defence]'s view is that the armed forces will be more operationally effective if they are no longer concerned about their partners being preventing from entering the UK.”
Changes to the Rules relating to asylum and humanitarian protection
Since 1 December 2007 the Immigration Rules have obliged the Secretary of State to ensure that anyone interviewed in connection with his or her asylum application is asked to approve the contents of the record of the interview. This record usually consists of the written notes taken by the interviewing officer. This obligation is now removed from the Rules on the basis that there are adequate alternative procedural safeguards to ensure the accuracy of what is contained in the record.
There is also an "exclusion” measure changing the rules so that people will not be given humanitarian protection in the UK if they have committed crimes not so serious as war crimes or terrorist offences but nonetheless amounting to one or more "undesirable behaviours”.
These changes will affect people applying for further leave to remain and for entry clearance in various ways. Failure properly to be aware of them and of their implications in individual cases could result in an application to the UKBA's being refused.
Anyone who may be affected by these changes is strongly advised to seek professional legal advice.
