Latest Immigration News
Changes to the Shortage Occupation List
Friday, 8 February 2008
With effect from 18 March 2008, 38 healthcare-related occupations will be removed from the national shortage occupation list for work permits. The posts which will be removed are:
Dentists
Consultants in dental specialities (except consultants and specialists in paediatric dentistry, which remain on the list).
Consultant posts in the following specialist areas:
accident and emergency;
additional dental specialities;
cardiothoracic surgery;
clinical radiology;
dermatology;
endocrinology and diabetes mellitus;
endodontics;gastroenterology;
general internal medicine;
general surgery;
histopathology;
infectious diseases;
medical oncology;
neurosurgery;
obstetrics and gynaecology;
ophthalmology;
otolaryngology;
paediatric cardiology;
palliative medicine;
psychotherapy;
public health medicine;
respiratory medicine;
rheumatology;
trauma and orthopaedic surgery; and
urology.
General medical occupations:
dietician;
biomedical scientist or medical laboratory scientific officer;
occupational therapists;
pre-registration cytogeneticists; and
speech and language therapists (employed at Agenda for Change band 5 or 6, or independent sector equivalents).
Nurses:
Not all nursing occupations are being removed from the list. The details below set out those we are removing and those that remain on the list.
The following nursing occupations are being removed from the list:
midwives; and
audiology;
sleep or respiratory physiology;
neurophysiology;
cardiac physiology;
clinical radiology; and
pathology.
However, the list of shortage occupations still includes registered nurses employed at bands 7 and 8 or their independent sector equivalents and registered nurses employed in the following specialties:
operating theatre nurse; and
critical care nurse (nurses working in wards with a Level 2 or Level 3 classification).
New application forms
Friday, 8 February 2008
New and revised immigration application forms are to be specified for applications made on or after 29 February 2008. These forms will be available later this month.
If you are making your application before 29 February, you must do so on the existing form, which is marked 'version 04/2007' or 'version 05/2007'. If you are applying on or after 29 February, you must use the new form which will be dated '02/2008'.
Points based system (PBS)
Friday, 8 February 2008
Details of Britain's new Australian-style points based immigration system (PBS) were announced on 6 February as the Government published the rules for highly skilled foreign workers applying to come to the UK.
The regulations will start coming into force on 29 February 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 when anyone from India who wants to work in the UK as a highly skilled migrant will need to apply under PBS. By the summer the new highly skilled system will operate worldwide.
The new scheme will be rolled out first in India as it is Britain's most important market for highly skilled migrants.
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.
Life in the UK Test
Friday, 8 February 2008
Applicants who apply for settlement but do not meet the knowledge of language and life requirement currently have their applications considered instead as an application to extend temporary permission to stay in the United Kingdom (we call this 'further leave to remain'). This arrangement was advertised as coming to an end on 31 January 2008. However this has been extended and such applications will continue to be considered for further leave to remain. The Home Office has not yet announced when this concession will end.
Fingerprint checks
Friday, 8 February 2008
In January the Border and Immigration Agency's global rollout of fingerprinting for all visas completed 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.
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