UK Immigration News

The UK government has been forced to extend an emergency UK visa scheme aimed at attracting foreign truck drivers amid low applicant numbers. Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that 127 EU workers had applied for the visa, only for the government to correct the number to 27 shortly afterward.

 

By Sanwar Ali: Frequently you need a job to obtain a long term residence visa. This can be very difficult to do. Many employers say that they will not employ you unless you already have some type of visa that allows you to work. However, much of the time the only way that you can work for the employer is if they sponsor you for a work visa! In reality in many cases, it may be too expensive and difficult to obtain some sort of visa to work in the destination country.

Anti-immigration think-thank, Migration Watch UK, claims that the number of UK immigration enforcement staff assigned to tackling illegal entry into Britain has dropped from 5,121 in 2018-19 to 4,855 in 2020. Meanwhile, the Home Office has reportedly cut its UK immigration budget from £462 million in 2018-19 to £420 million in 2020-21.

 

The Home Office is reportedly reluctant to offer UK work visas to asylum seekers, despite growing demands to allow refugees to work in Britain. Priti Patel’s department is resisting calls for asylum seekers to be allowed to work, even after a public intervention from Patel’s cabinet colleague, Dominic Raab, who said he would be ‘open-minded’ about the proposal. 

 

Following a UK government announcement that a temporary UK visa will be launched for foreign truck drivers in an effort to ease food and fuel shortages, bosses in retail, hospitality and care have launched an appeal for a temporary visa to combat growing staff shortages. Retail giant, Next, led the charge in urging the government to relax UK immigration rules.

 

The Home Office has unveiled a ‘roadmap’ outlining plans to invest heavily in IT system changes to speed up the process of applying for a UK visa sponsorship licence for employers. Announcing changes to the UK’s points based sponsor licence system, the Home Office said: “Our goal is ensuring the UK is a global leader in helping employers access overseas talent.”