General skilled migration program uk

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Irish citizens can continue to freely enter, live and work in the UK. You will not have to give your fingerprints. The points-based system includes a route for skilled workers who have a job offer from an approved employer sponsor.

For example, if you have a job offer in a shortage occupation or have a PhD relevant to the job. Details of how the points system works are in the further details document. It allows highly-skilled scientists and researchers to come to the UK without a job offer. You can apply for a visa to study in the UK if you:.

A new graduate visa is available to international students who have completed a degree in the UK. All migrants looking to enter the UK for other reasons such as work or study will need to apply for entry clearance in advance. Check what is permitted under the visitor immigration rules before travelling to the UK as a visitor.

You must apply for a Marriage Visitor visa if you want to visit the UK to get married or register a civil partnership. You may need to apply for a Marriage Visitor visa if you want to visit the UK to get married or register a civil partnership. Citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States of America, Singapore and South Korea - with a biometric chip in their passports - can continue to use ePassport gates to pass through the border on arrival.

The rules for family reunion, asylum and border crossing checks are outside of the points-based system. In addition, we will continue our generous visitor provisions, but with simplified rules and guidance. We expect to treat EU citizens as non-visa nationals meaning they can come to the UK as visitors for six months without the need to obtain a visa. We will also unilaterally allow EU citizens to continue to use e-gates, but we will keep this policy under review.

There will be no change to the arrangements for the Common Travel Area. We will not be creating a dedicated route for self-employed people. We recognise that there are several professions where there is a heavy reliance on freelance workers. They will continue to be able to enter the UK under the innovator route and will in due course be able to benefit from the proposed unsponsored route.

The UK already attracts world class artists, entertainers and musicians and we will continue to do so in the future. They can receive payment for appearances at certain festivals or for up to a month for a specific engagement, without the need for formal sponsorship or a work visa. From the end of the transition period we will introduce a single, consistent and firmer approach to criminality across the immigration system. We will apply this to everyone seeking to come to the UK, wherever they are from.

Currently, EU citizens are subject to different thresholds for criminality than those from the rest of the world. Existing UK rules for non-EU citizens are both stricter and more specific.

The application of the current EU public policy test is less certain and predictable in practice than we would like. People coming to the UK from any country in the world for the purpose of work or study, other than some short-term business visitors and short-term students, will need to obtain a visa for which they will pay a fee.

We will levy the Immigration Skills Surcharge on employers and the Immigration Health Surcharge on the same basis as now. For employers sponsoring skilled migrants, the process will be streamlined to reduce the time it takes to bring a migrant into the UK by up to eight weeks. We intend to further reduce this through additional enhancements to the system. Migrants will make their application online and most EU citizens will enrol facial biometrics using smartphone self-enrolment; fingerprints will not initially be required.

Most EU citizens will be issued with an e-visa which confirms their right to be in the UK. The online checking service will be used by EU citizens to demonstrate their immigration status and their rights and entitlements, where permitted, when accessing work and services. For many EU citizens, their status will automatically be available when seeking to access benefits or the NHS. Non-EU citizens, including those who are the family members of EU citizens will, for the time being, continue to be provided with physical evidence of their status.

Access to income-related benefits will be the same for EU and non-EU citizens arriving after January ; it will only be permitted after indefinite leave to remain is granted, usually available after five years of continuous residence.

There will be exceptions for those who arrive outside of the points-based system. Ensuring migrants can evidence their status is at the heart of our new system and underpins an approach to compliance that is fair and robust when responding to those that abuse our hospitality. As a transition measure, employers, landlords and public service providers will continue to accept the passports and national identity cards of EU citizens as evidence of permission during this period, up until 30 June We intend to open key routes from Autumn , so that migrants can start to apply ahead the system taking effect in January Employers not currently approved by the Home Office to be a sponsor should consider doing so now if they think they will want to sponsor skilled migrants, including from the EU, from early Our vision for our border system is to both protect the public and enhance prosperity.

We will continue to invest in biometrics and technology which will improve security and the passage of legitimate travellers through the border. This transformation will result in a fully digital end to end customer journey, requiring everyone except Irish nationals to seek permission in advance of travel.

We intend to phase out the use of insecure identity documents for newly arriving migrants and will set out further details on this shortly. This means most migrants will use a passport when arriving at the border. The citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States of America, Singapore and South Korea, who possess biometric passports, will continue to be able to use e-gates to pass through the border on arrival.

The government, in delivering on its manifesto commitments, has considered relevant views, evidence, and analysis in finalising this policy. A programme of engagement will begin in March to raise awareness of the new system, ensuring those affected by the changes are fully aware of what it means for them and understand how the system will operate. We will also work closely with stakeholders to understand their views on the implementation of the points-based system.

Engagement will be via multiple methods, across the whole of the UK, and will focus upon those sectors most impacted including small and medium sized enterprises. We will build on the success and experience of implementing the EU Settlement Scheme with opportunities for face to face engagement with officials, who will go to every region of the UK, alongside traditional communication and media channels. We will work with key countries around the world, including EU Member States, to explain how the new system will operate.

Although the MAC expect an increase in non-EEA migration, given the difficulties in forecasting migration flows it did not attempt to predict future non-EEA migration flows. These will be affected by a wide range of factors including and beyond migration policy. The MAC modelling gives a broad overview of impacts but does not include detailed eligibility rules within each route — for example the impact of any additional fees or changes to administration costs which will affect behaviour.

More detailed analysis on the points-based system and individual routes will be published shortly. In most cases, references throughout this paper to citizens of the European Union also relate to citizens of the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Mode 4 refers to commitments that the UK takes in free trade agreements in respect of the temporary entry and stay of business persons. These commitments typically cover business visitors, intra-company transfers and contractual service suppliers and independent professionals.

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