Have a question?
033 3772 0409

Business Immigration Solicitors

Government confirms changes to immigration rules (29 October 2020)

Date: 29/10/2020
Duncan Lewis, Business Immigration Solicitors, Government confirms changes to immigration rules

The government has produced changes to immigration rules a document containing over 500 pages. The majority of changes are taking effect on 1 December 2020, whilst some changes in relation to EU and ECAA applications are to take effect on 31 December 2020, the night we exit the European Union. Changes to Hong Kong and British overseas nationals will come into effect on 31 January 2021.

These changes provide the foundation for the UK’s Points-Based Immigration System, which will apply from 1 January 2021. This will affect newly arriving EU, EEA, and Swiss citizens (except Irish nationals) and the changes build upon the measures outlined in the policy statements published by the Government in February and July 2020.

The Home Office has introduced a range of guides for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens planning to enter the UK from 1 January 2021. They have also created individual country pages on gov.uk with translated information across 24 EU languages.

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens arriving in the UK on or before 31 December who wish to work, study or visit should not apply through the Points-Based Immigration System. If they want to stay in the UK after 30 June 2021 they should apply to the EU Settlement Scheme upon arrival in the UK. Commonwealth citizens can continue to apply for a UK Ancestry visa to live, work or study in the UK.


Right to Work checks

Employers will need to check a job applicant’s right to work in the same way as present until 30 June 2021. Guidance on employing EU, EEA and Swiss citizens in the UK, covering Right to Work checks is available on gov.uk.

Introduction of the Skilled Worker route

The Skilled Worker route is for both EEA and non-EEA nationals who wish to come to the UK for the purpose of working in a skilled job that they have been offered. It replaces the Tier 2 (General) route. The key characteristics of the new route will be the same – an applicant must be sponsored to do a specific job, which meets skill and salary requirements, by an employer that has been licensed by the Home Office. The main differences between the Tier 2 (General) route and the Skilled Worker route are outlined below:


  • The minimum skill threshold is being broadened from graduate occupations to occupations skilled to RQF level 3, roughly equivalent to A-levels or Scottish Highers. Applicants will not need to hold a formal qualification; it is the skill level of the job they will be doing which determines whether the threshold is met.

  • The general salary threshold is being lowered from £30,000 a year to £25,600 a year. As is currently the case, sponsors must pay their skilled workers a salary which equals or exceeds both this threshold and the “going rate” for the occupation, whichever is higher. Going rates are being updated in line with newer salary data and the recommendations of the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).

  • Sponsored workers may be paid less than the above amounts, depending on the tradeable points they are awarded. Applicants must be awarded 70 points in total. Meeting the mandatory criteria (sponsorship, skill level and English language skills) will result in 50 points. An applicant may be awarded the remaining 20 tradeable points through a combination of points for salary, a shortage occupation or a relevant PhD qualification.

  • The cap which currently applies under Tier 2 (General) is being suspended. This will reduce the end-to-end process for sponsoring skilled workers by up to four weeks.

  • There will be no requirement for sponsors to undertake a Resident Labour Market Test. This will remove at least a further four weeks from the end-to-end process for sponsoring skilled workers. Sponsors must still be seeking to fill a genuine vacancy which meets the skill and salary thresholds of the new route.

  • The criteria used to identify a “new entrant to the labour market” is being amended.

  • The 12-month “cooling off period” and six-year maximum length of stay in the route are being removed.

  • The £35,800 salary threshold for settlement applications is being removed. Instead, sponsors must pay their skilled workers a salary which equals or exceeds £25,600 per year and the going rate for the occupation.

  • Those sponsored in shortage occupations or listed health or education occupations may be paid £20,480 per year but their salary must equal or exceed the going rate for the occupation. Other salary reductions permitted through tradeable points will not apply to settlement applications.


Changes to the Intra-Company Transfer rules

The Intra-Company Transfer route is for established employees who are being transferred by their employer company to do a skilled role in the UK. The Intra-Company Graduate Trainee route is for employees who are being transferred by their employer company to a role in the UK as part in a structured graduate training programme. The route has been revised and has a points-based format, making it much easier for users to navigate the requirements and to unify several crosscutting requirements with other routes. The main changes are:

  • A change is being made to the cooling-off requirement. Instead of migrants being barred from re-entering the UK as an ICT for 12 months after departing, they will be permitted to hold Intra-Company Transfer leave for up to 5 years in any 6-year rolling period or up to 9 years in any 10-year period for high earners.

  • Provisions for high earners will be unified to a single salary threshold of £73,900. Workers with salaries at or above that threshold will be permitted to hold Intra-Company Transfer leave for up to 9 years in any 10-year rolling period and are exempt from the requirement to have worked for the overseas business for 12 months prior to entering the UK.

  • In-country switching into the Intra-Company Transfer route will now be easier. However, applicants will still need to be an existing employee with a period of overseas experience prior to applying unless they are a high earner.



Visitors

The rules for visitors will be simplified. The changes to the route are modest, and it remains to be seen if the route will be further reformed in the medium-term to better facilitate business travel following the end of the transition period.

Changes include:

  • Allowing standard visitors to study at an accredited institution for up to six months

  • Making a correction to state that drivers on international routes may collect as well as deliver goods and passengers

  • Removing the requirement for volunteering to be ‘incidental’ to the main purpose of the visit

  • Allowing academic visitors who are experts in their field to extend their stay in the UK to a total of 12 months



New extension route for Turkish workers and businesspersons

This route will become available from 11 pm on 31 December 2020 under a new Appendix ECAA Extension of Stay. The aim of this appendix is to enable Turkish workers, businesspersons and their existing family members to proceed to settlement on the broadly the same criteria as currently, with the exception that domestic criminality thresholds will apply for considering conduct taking place after the end of the transition period.


Unchanged categories

Categories that have been simplified but are not intended to contain changes to immigration policy include:

  • Tier 2 Minister of Religion

  • Tier 2 Sportsperson

  • UK ancestry

  • The Tier 5 Temporary Worker routes for seasonal workers, youth mobility, religious workers, charity workers, creative and sporting workers, and those coming to work in the UK under international agreements or government authorised exchange schemes

  • Start-up

  • Innovator



Expedited sponsor licence processing

In a separate announcement, the Home Office has confirmed it will be introducing a new £500 fee from 12 November 2020 for the priority processing of sponsor licence applications.



Author Tamana Aziz is a director in the business immigration department at Duncan Lewis. Her specialist practice includes immigration applications under EU law, business immigration under the Points Based System (PBS), complex appeals (including deportation and country guidance cases) in Immigration Tribunals, the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Contact Tamana on 020 3114 1130 or at tamanaa@duncanlewis.com


For all Business Immigration related matter contact us now.Contact Us

Call us now on 033 3772 0409 or click here to send online enquiry.
Duncan Lewis is the trading name of Duncan Lewis (Solicitors) Limited. Registered Office is 143-149 Fenchurch St, London, EC3M 6BL. Company Reg. No. 3718422. VAT Reg. No. 718729013. A list of the company's Directors is displayed at the registered offices address. Authorised and Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority . Offices all across London and in major cities in the UK. ©Duncan Lewis >>Legal Disclaimer, Copyright & Privacy Policy. Duncan Lewis do not accept service by email.