UK Immigration News

As of 6 April, 2017, teachers applying for Tier 2 visas outside of the UK to work for employers with Tier 2 Sponsorship Licences will be subject to criminal record checks as part of their application. Nursery, primary and secondary school teachers will be required to provide criminal record certificates as part of new legislation.

Following the latest Tier 2 visa allocation meeting, the number of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) that went unused from the 2016/2017 annual limit stands at 288, according to UK Visas and Immigration data. The department published its March report citing that its figures were correct as of 29 March, 2017.

Two top health unions are urging UK home secretary, Amber Rudd, to excuse the NHS National Health Service from the new, UK  Visa Tier 2 immigration skills levy applicable to non-EU overseas doctors and nurses. The British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) say the Immigration Skills Charge, which came into force on 6 April, will hit NHS budgets hard.

Following the Tier 2 visa allocation meeting, the number of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) available for March 2017 stands at 2,169, according to UK Visas and Immigration data. The department published its February report citing that its figures were correct as of 23 February, 2017.

Construction consultancy firm, Arcadis, says that the UK construction industry must recruit more than 400,000 workers every year for the next five years, the equivalent of hiring one new construction worker every 77 seconds until 2021. According to Arcadis, the UK construction sector won’t have enough workers to cope with the demand for housing.

Arcadis calculated that, should the UK increase the number of homes it builds every year to 270,000, which exceeds the current Government target of 200,000, more than 370,000 workers would be needed to meet demand.

UK schools desperate to recruit teachers are hiring foreign educators on Tier 5 visas rather than Tier 2 visas, according to the anti-immigration Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The government committee published its ‘Review of Teachers’ report recently and found that schools are turning to the short-term, Tier 5 visa to plug a chronic skills shortage.