Immigration Policy Changes

by Katy Murcutt - Paralegal

19 July 2010, filed under Consumer

The long awaited official changes to the UK’s immigration policy have come into force today. The changes will directly impact the amount of immigrants allowed to stay in the country from one month to the next.

The current immigration consists of several Tiers which each require the applicant to earn a set amount of points to be legible. Of each stage, it is Tier 1 that has faced the most modifications overall.

The new points requirements for applicants under Tier 1 has increased to 100 points from 95 points, with the intended result of this by the coalition government to mean that fewer people will qualify for a Tier 1 visa.

Each month there shall be a limit set for the number of applicants who may receive a Tier 1 visa. This means that if your application is received after that months limit has already been reached, your application will wait until the next available month for your application to be considered where the limit has not yet been reached.  A final blanket limit will be put into effect in April 2011.

If you have already been granted a Tier 1 visa under the previous immigration scheme and you are already in the UK and are applying for either an extention to your visa or you are in the UK under a different immigration Tier and you wish to change to a Tier 1 visa, your application will be considered under the previous immigration points requirements and not the new, more stringent requirements.

If you are currently in the UK under a more unusual immigration category, it is likely that you will be subject to the modified immigration rules to earn more points to remain in the UK.

Further to this, if you are wanting to apply to the British Consulate or at a British Embassy and you are not already in the UK, you will be subject to the new requirements under the immigration policies that came into force today.