UK likely to relax immigration cap

United Kingdom, 18th November: The UK government is most likely to relax cap on immigration levels to help businesses in the UK.

David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, is expected to announce an increase in the total non-EU immigrant skilled workers allowed into the nation every month.

Businesses in the UK had been criticizing the stance of the UK government for restricting the number of skilled immigrant workers to be allowed into the nation. They maintain that UK businesses are in dire need of skilled immigrants for work in the UK.

Apart from UK businesses, several renowned political personalities including Boris Johnson, the London mayor and Vince Cable, the UK Business Secretary had been pressurizing the UK government to soften its stand on the UK immigration cap keeping in view the economic damages it might cause in the UK.

Mr. Cable had stated that he had received several warnings by some of the senior UK business leaders regarding the relocations of the companies to overseas due to such constraints.

Currently, 2,600 skilled immigrant workers from non-EU nations are allowed into the UK. However, the limit is likely to be increased in order to aid those applying for UK Tier 1 visas and UK Tier 2 visas.

The monthly limit for UK Tier 1(General) visa had been reached by the 10th of November this year.

Hence, it can be quite clearly understood that the UK Tier 1 visa is immensely popular since it does not require an offer of job in the UK in order to become eligible for applying under this UK visa category. Moreover, the applicant for a UK Tier 1 visa can work for any UK employer.

The government is most likely to raise the limit of immigration cap to around 4,000 monthly by the next year in order to fill the demand for high skilled immigrant workers needed by the UK businesses.

The government is also expected to announce the details of the permanent cap on UK immigration later this month.
The MAC(Migration Advisory Committee) is going to announce its comprehensive list of recommedations to the UK government in this week. The committee had been analysing the impact of the UK immigration cap for some time now.