This has been revealed by the UK government recently.
200 UK Tier 1 tech visas annually—The newly announced UK visa route for allowing foreign IT workers(Exceptional Talent) to come and work in the UK will have an annual cap of 200.
The UK visa scheme was announced by the UK PM David Cameron in the month of December last year. UK Tier 1 Tech visa scheme will have an annual cap of 200 visas for enabling foreign IT workers to come and work in the UK.
It needs to be noted that the actual number of UK Tier 1 tech visas(exceptional talent) to be issued to foreign IT workers may be quite low each year. The reason is that it is very difficult for foreign IT workers to get qualified for such UK visas.
And this becomes all the more clear keeping in view that just seven foreign IT professionals could gain UK Exceptional talent visas in the year 2011. Requirements for applying to UK Tier 1(Exceptional Talent) visa—
• In order to apply for UK Tier 1(Exceptional Talent) visa, one needs to be from outside the EEA(European Economic Area) and Switzerland;
• And one needs to be endorsed as a globally recognized leader/emerging leader in the chosen field in medicine, humanities, science, engineering, arts or digital technology.
1,000 foreigners allowed under UK Tier 1(Exceptional Talent) visa—UK Tier 1(Exceptional Talent) visa scheme offers a maximum of 1,000 UK visas to foreigners for coming to the UK annually. There is no need of any offer of job in the UK before coming here. Moreover, such foreigners do not require any sponsor.
The only requirement is getting a DCB(Designated Competent Body) endorsement.
Which are the designated DCBs by the UK government?—Well, the UK government has recently designated another DCB namely Tech City. Other DCBs already designated by the UK government include the British Academy, The Royal Academy of Engineering, Arts Council England, and The Royal Society. All these DCBs are eligible for endorsing 200 or 300 applications of foreigners annually.
But, due to tougher requirements, only a couple of foreigners can get UK Tier 1 (exceptional talent) visas each year. The UK needs to introduce simpler requirements for enabling foreign IT workers to avail suck UK visas.