Change to National Shortage Occupation List
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.
If an occupation is not on the list, an employer wishing to employ someone to do the job in question must demonstrate that they have made a genuine attempt to recruit a worker from the EEA (including the UK) and that this attempt has failed. This would normally be done by going through a public recruitment procedure using methods that the Border and Immigration Agency accepts as genuine and credible. This is normally evidenced by providing details of advertising, applicants and the recruitment process.
Apart from shortage occupations there are a limited number of circumstances in which UK employers do not need to carry out a resident labour market test. These include posts under the broad headings of Intra-Company Transfers (ICT), board level posts, posts bringing a significant level of inward investment to the UK and sponsored researchers.
The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) plans to create a new Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which will be made up of a team of independent experts to advise Government on where in the economy there are shortages that could sensibly be filled by migration.
