UK Immigration News

Having had its Tier 4 visa sponsorship licence to recruit international students revoked the fate of the London School of Business and Finance's (LSBF) Tier 2 Visa sponsorship licence to employ overseas workers from outside the EU remains unknown. After losing its Tier 4 visa sponsorship licence, hundreds of international students who now have to leave the UK are demanding their money back.

In order to stay in Britain for longer than six years under the Tier 2 visa scheme, non-European nationals working in the UK probably need to apply for indefinite leave to remain. To apply for permanent residence they will soon need to earn at least £35,000 annually (AUS$72,000 per year.) New visa rules affecting Tier 2 visa holders are being implemented beginning in April 2016, which will affect workers from outside the European Economic Area. Alongside Americans and Indians, Australians receive the most British work visas.

UK Visas and Immigration has published its monthly Tier 2 Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) allocation report for January, which gives an indication of the number that will be available for the month of February. Employers with a Tier 2 visa sponsorship licence will be pleased to see that there will be good availability of COSs in February 2016.

A new study has found that the UK, along with the Netherlands, has the greatest percentage of 'immigrant-origin' MPs. The findings are the result of an international project – 'Pathways to Power' – which studied the political representation of immigrant-origin MPs across Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

The London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) - one of the UK's largest private colleges – has had its Tier 4 sponsorship licence, which allows them to recruit non-EU students, revoked. The LSBF lost its sponsorship licence after the institution failed its annual compliance check, which all Tier 4 visa sponsors are subjected to. At the time of writing we have no news on the LSBF Tier 2 sponsorship licence to employ skilled workers from outside the EU that was also suspended from September 2015.

The owner of a small chain of curry houses across Kent - a county in South East England - says that being unable to recruit chefs from Southern Asia due to tough uk immigration rules is causing major problems for his restaurant chain. In an interview with The Economist, Pasha Khandaker says that he was forced to close one of his restaurants eight months ago; others in his chain continue to struggle.