New immigration and visa routes into the UK have been announced
04 November 2021
Last week's budget contained some positive news on the immigration and visa front. Following an indication earlier this year that additional immigration routes would be introduced, the Chancellor unveiled further details of how the government wants to facilitate innovation in business through visa reforms providing UK businesses with access to the international talent and skills that they require.
The Scale-up Visa will be launched in Spring 2022 and is aimed at attracting highly-skilled individuals to help the UK's fastest growing businesses. This fast-track visa will not require sponsorship and will be open to applicants who meet the language proficiency requirement and have a high-skilled job offer (with a salary of at least £33,000) from a UK business that satisfies the criteria of a scale-up company (for example, companies that have grown at 20% a year over the previous 3 years).
In addition, from Spring 2022, the Global Business Mobility Visa will be available to help overseas businesses seeking to establish a presence in, or transfer staff to, the UK. This is likely to build on the existing intra-company routes available for global businesses.
The above visa routes are in addition to the industry-specific measures currently being taken to address the shortage of HGV drivers, poultry workers and pork butchers.
The government has also announced the launch of a Global Talent Network in 2022, which will work with businesses and research institutions to identify the skills required by the UK's science and technology sectors. Talent will, initially, be proactively sourced from the Bay Area and Boston in the US and Bengaluru in India.
The expanded Department for International Trade Global Entrepreneur Programme will also be maintained, allowing an extra 100 innovative and highly skilled entrepreneurs into the UK each year.
Although further details of the above proposals are awaited, they signal a positive step towards increasing the number of highly skilled individuals that are able to enter the UK which is welcome news for employers.
