Britain to announce student visas crackdown

Britain is to outline a crackdown on people arriving on student visas Monday as
it bids to tighten its immigration system, described by a minister as "largely out of control".



Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party has promised to cut net migration from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands annually.



Shortly after taking power in May as head of a coalition government, Cameron introduced an annual cap on the number of economic migrants from outside the European Union.



Immigration Minister Damian Green said the government had inherited a system which was "largely out of control" and described the number of foreign students being let in as "unsustainable", in comments quoted by the BBC.



In a speech Monday, he is to call for "smarter immigration controls," according to extracts pre-released by the Home Office.



New Home Office research has revealed that of 186,000 foreign students granted visas in 2004, more than one-fifth were still in Britain five years later. Officials fear many may be working illegally.



The number of visas being issued to students and their dependants had risen to over 300,000 by this year, the figures added.



Green will say that Britain needs "smarter immigration controls -- controls which bear down on the numbers coming and welcome those we really need here."



He will add: "We cannot assume that everyone coming here has skills that the UK workforce cannot offer and we will not make Britain prosperous in the long-term by telling our own workers not to bother to learn new skills as we can bring them all in from overseas."



In separate comments to the Daily Mail newspaper, he added that while the cap on migrants had been "controversial," it was not in itself enough to cut net migration.



He added: "I want a student visa system which encourages the entry of good students to highly trusted institutions but which scrutinises much more closely or cuts out entirely those who are less beneficial to this country."

New UK visa norms to help Indian professionals

 Source:27 Mar 2010, 0500 hrs IST, Ishani Duttagupta, ET Bureau


NEW DELHI: The recent changes announced by the UK government to the Tier-I and Tier-II—highly skilled and skilled migrant—visa categories will benefit some sections of professionals from India. “The points-based system, which is reviewed from time to time by the migration advisory committee, gives us the flexibility to revise the criterion to get people with the required skills into UK’s labour market,” Chris Dix, regional director , South Asia and the Gulf, UK Border Agency (UKBA), told ET.

The changes, which will become effective from April 6, will reintroduce the bachelors degree as a points-scoring criterion for Tier-I and will also allow people with no formal academic qualifications to apply under the category if they earn over £1,50,000 annually.

While both these steps will help increase the available skills pool under Tier-I , the differentiated points for sponsorship under the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) categories for Tier-II is being welcomed by most companies in India who need to transfer staff members to the UK.

Tier-II is being split into three sub-categoriesestablished staff with a minimum of 12 months experience in the company to fill posts that cannot be filled by a resident worker; graduate trainee for new graduates with a minimum of 3 months experience with the company to come to the UK for structured training for up to 12 months and skills transfer for new employees with no previous company experience who are coming to UK solel\y for reasons of skills transfer for a maximum stay of 6 months.

“India is a very important country for us for both Tier-I and Tier-II categories. The changes are aimed at scouting for the best available skills without adversely impacting the labour market in the UK. For the Tier-II changes, we had consulted with companies in UK and India as well, before making the decisions,” Mr Dix said. While Indians form the largest number of work permit holders under Tier-II globally , there were 5,200 Tier-I visas issued in India last year, up from 3,000 the previous year.

Meanwhile, the temporary suspension of Tier-IV student visa operations in North India has been partially lifted with applicants under foundation degree or above courses being allowed to put in their applications. Others applying from North India still need to go to Chennai or Mumbai centres to put in their papers. “We are working on streamlining the Tier-IV visas and will soon be introducing a highly trusted sponsor scheme for institutions in UK. We are also putting in place a new English language testing scheme for student visa applicants,” Mr Dix said. Around 57,000 student visas were issued for UK from India last year.
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