Bulgarian Ambassador to the UK Konstantin Dimitrov has told The Telegraph newspaper that the Home Office has not rejected any applications to live and work in the UK from Bulgarian citizens in the last six years.
Bulgaria and Romania are due to have border restrictions lifted on them from 1 January 2014, giving the two countries’ citizens freedom of movement across other EU member states – and the right to work across the EU, including the UK.
Mr Dimitrov said that although Border Agency staff were supposed to decline a visa to work in the UK if a job can be taken by a British citizen, he has not heard of any refusal regarding visa applications from Bulgarian citizens wanting to work in the UK since 2007, when Bulgaria joined the EU. He added that the only cases he was aware of involved the refusal of accession worker cards – for example, if a Bulgarian worker had not supplied essential information such as evidence of qualifications.
The Home Office has said it does not publish records regarding the number of work permits refused to Bulgarian immigrants – and Labour has said it intends to table questions in Parliament on the issue.
Mr Dimitrov has said that Bulgarians moving to the UK are not immigrants as they have freedom of movement like other EU citizens such as the French, Germans and Dutch.
It is estimated that every year, between 8,000 and 10,000 from Bulgaria come to the UK to work.
Mr Dimitrov says that he is not expecting numbers to increase after 1 January 2014.
Professions which are suffering staff shortages in the UK are currently exempt from work permits.
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