LONDON, Feb 06 (APP)-The United Kingdom on Wednesday announced its new Australian-style points based immigration system (PBS) for highly skilled foreign workers applying to come to Britain.
The regulations will start coming into force on February 29 when any highly skilled foreign nationals currently working in Britain who want to extend their stay will need to apply under the new system.
In April, the new system will begin to be rolled out overseas starting from India. By the summer the new highly skilled system will operate worldwide, said a Home Office announcement.
The Highly Skilled tier 1 will build upon the success of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme by continuing to attract the most talented people with the skills the UK needs to remain a global leader in the fields of finance, business, and technological innovation.
The announcement follows the completion in January of the Border and Immigration Agency’s global rollout of fingerprinting for all visas three months early. Now every person in the world coming to the UK on a visa has their fingerprints taken and their details checked against watch-lists – if they’re on the list for the wrong reason they can’t come in and could be banned from applying to come again for up to 10 years.
Under the new system applicants will need sufficient points to qualify for entry to the UK to train, study and work. Points are awarded according to objective criteria such as qualifications, previous earnings, age and UK experience. It also introduces a formal link between applicants and their sponsors who will have a better idea of the likelihood of success of the application.
Tier 1 is the first of five tiers of the PBS due to be rolled out over the next 12 months. Tier 2, targeting skilled workers with a job offer and Tier 5, for temporary workers such as musicians, actors and sportsmen will both come online in the third quarter of 2008. Tier 4, for students, will follow at the beginning of 2009. There are no plans to introduce tier 3, which covers low skilled routes.