UK Immigration News

UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has been blasted by airlines for ignoring calls for an emergency UK visa for aviation workers. Amid travel chaos at UK airports, which marred the recent school half-term holidays for thousands of Brits, airline bosses accused Shapps of failing to tackle shortages by refusing to adjust the UK’s Shortage Occupation List. 

 

A UK immigration scheme targeting top scientists has flopped after only one person was granted a UK visa in its first year, according to a report published by New Scientist. The scheme, which is intended to encourage Nobel Prize winners and other scientific award winners, was launched in May 2021.

 

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCPG) has warned that the UK visa system is likely to deter overseas GPs, who have completed British GP training via working for the NHS, from wanting to work in Britain. The RCPG’s sharp rebuke toward the Home Office comes amid the UK government’s struggle to add 6,000 more GPs by 2024.

 

The number of foreign nationals granted a UK visa in the last 12 months has exceeded 1 million, representing the highest ever figure on record. According to official Home Office figures, 994,951 UK visas were issued in the 12 months to March, while 113,000 BNO visas were granted to Hong Kong nationals fleeing controversial security laws imposed by China.

 

The UK’s much anticipated High Potential Individual (HPI) visa, set to launch on 30 May, has sparked huge controversy after excluding African universities from a global universities list used to select those eligible for High Potential Individual visas. Critics have voiced their concerns that graduates of African universities will not be eligible for HPI visas.

 

The Home Office has been urged to do more to promote the UK graduate visa scheme after a recent APPG for International Students revealed that employers ‘don’t understand’ the immigration route. 

 

Speakers at the APPG event, held in London, agreed that the graduate visa route is an attractive proposition for international students, but had concerns over costs and employer awareness of the scheme.