UK releases UK immigration cap details

United Kingdom, 9th November: Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary has provided details of UK immigration cap on November 7.

Speaking about the restrictions to be included in the UK immigration limits, the Home Secretary said some of them would be introduced on foreign students and immigrant skilled workers wanting to move to the UK to live and work here.

Among the restrictions in the plans of UK immigration cap include reductions in the number of foreign students seeking UK student visas for pursuing under-graduate courses. Such foreign students comprise nearly 50 percent of the total international students coming to the UK on UK student visas.

The total annual intake of foreign students coming to the UK for studying here is currently 320,000.

Meanwhile, the restrictions will not be applicable to the foreign students coming to the UK for pursuing degree-level study courses in the UK universities.

She stated that the aim of new restrictions are to attract only the best foreign students to the top UK universities while reducing the number of those students whose sole aim is to use the route of UK student visas for overstaying here.

Speaking about the exemptions on ICTs (Intra-company transfers) from the UK immigration cap, May clarified that although such transfers will not be covered under the UK visa annual cap, however, the exemption would only be available to high-skilled workers meeting the criteria of minimum salary of around £40,000 annually or some other criteria to make sure that such workers are coming here for doing specialist or managerial level jobs.  

Each year, a total of 30,000 skilled migrant workers are allowed to come and work in the UK under ICTs.

She also stated that the UK government is going to end the right to British Citizenship for foreign students and skilled migrants coming to the UK each year. Around 100,000 skilled migrants move to the UK each year to live and work in the UK. And such proposals mean an end to the dream of nearly 120,000 immigrants aiming to gain UK citizenship citizens each year.

The speech of UK Home Secretary May was in response to the critical report published by the home affairs select committee that the immigration cap will not affect around 80 percent of prospective immigrants wanting to come to the UK every year and will be ineffective in controlling UK immigration levels.