Prime Minister David Cameron will unveil a sweeping immigration crackdown on Monday aimed at discouraging migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving to Britain when EU restrictions on their right to travel and work there expire next year.

Under his plans, access to National Health Service will be curbed, new migrants will have to wait up to five years for social housing, fines for employers who hire illegal workers will be doubled, and landlords who let to illegal immigrants could face fines too. READ MORE

Immigration Rule Changes from 6th April 2013

The Home Office recently published a Statement of Intent setting out the government’s response to the Migration Advisory Committee's recommendations on the Tier 2 Codes of Practice, as well as detailing other immigration related changes.

The Statement of Changes to the Immigration rules was laid before Parliament last week.

the following rule changes, effective 6th April, have been made:

•             The Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) application process will be split into two; an initial application to the Designated Competent Body, followed by an application for entry clearance or leave to remain. A further change to the rules will allow migrants in any Tier 2 category to switch into Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent), not just those in Tier 2 (General), as presently.

•             The Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) category will be expanded to include additional places for talented MBA graduates from UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and will also include the UK Trade and Investment's elite global graduate entrepreneur scheme. A further rule change will see the current annual limit of 1,000 places increased to 2,000 places within the limit.

Tier 2 will see a number of changes to the lists of skilled occupations, salary requirements and minimum salary thresholds, and the Resident Labour Market Test. Other changes include:

• Tier 2 migrants who leave the UK and whose leave expires are subject to a 12 month “cooling off period” before they can return to the UK. A change is being made to remove the impact of this policy on the ability of businesses to recruit very senior staff, and so from 6th April, the “cooling off period” will no longer apply to sponsored Tier 2 migrants with an annual salary of £152,100 or more.

• Tier 2 Intra-Company Transferees earning £152,100 a year or more will be exempt from the current requirement to demonstrate their English language ability when they extend their UK stay beyond three years.

• From 6th April 2013, Tier 4 students successfully completing a PhD at a UK HEI will be permitted to remain in the UK for 12 months on a Tier 4 visa, giving them a longer period in which to find skilled work or to set up as an entrepreneur.

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Changes ahead for Tier 4 Student Route

Migration Watch UK said the Government must tighten up the student system despite a warning from almost 70 chancellors, governors and university presidents that crackdowns could lead to foreign students going elsewhere, costing the British economy billions.

Study remains the most common reason for migrants coming to the UK and the row comes after the chancellors wrote to David Cameron last month, encouraging him to do more to boost the number of overseas students even further.

Britain attracts around one in 10 students who study outside their home country, generating around £8 billion a year, "with forecasts suggesting that export earnings from this activity could more than double by 2025", they told the Prime Minister.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said that while the report made important points, it was "wrong in calling for international students to be counted within the UK's migration figures".

"The chancellors were calling for the Government to remove international students from net migration figures in order to make a clear distinction between temporary and permanent migrants for the UK's own internal policy purposes," she said. "International students come to the UK for a period, then they go home. The small numbers who wish to stay after their studies must then apply for another visa. If that application is unsuccessful, they must return home."

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "We are glad that Migration Watch agree with us that overseas students should remain part of the net migration figures and that action needs to be taken to prevent abuse of student visas. That is why we are introducing a raft of changes to the student visa route."

Visit our website for more UK immigration news and information on studying in the UK 

Immigration Rules will stop 30,000 relatives moving to the UK

The Home Secretary maintains there is no absolute right to family life in the UK and she will ask MPs to back her today by passing a parliamentary motion, pressuring judges to consider economic and public order before rights to family life - a right guaranteed under the European convention on human rights.

"In the interests of the economy or controlling migration or public order, those sorts of issues, the state has a right to qualify the right to a family life," Ms May told BBC's Andrew Marr on Sunday. If judges don't comply, the government will consider legislating changes.

But lawyers say Ms May's "motion" has no force and no practical application other than to pressure judges whose job is to apply the law independent of parliament.

"A law amending the human rights act or the proper application of judicial thinking or approach to human rights issues would almost certainly be contrary to the convention," London-based public and immigration lawyer Jawaid Luqmani told Channel 4 News.

Ms May's comments come weeks before the UK introduces "financial independence" rules that will make it difficult for tens of thousands of immigrants to bring their families to join them in Britain.

As of July, immigrants will have to earn £18,600 or more to bring in a non-EU foreign spouse, rising to £27,200 for three children. The probationary period for non-EU spouses rises from two years to five. Elderly relatives who will become a burden on the NHS or social welfare will be banned.

Right to family life

The right to a family life is enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, however, so any new UK legislation forcing judges to consider the government's priorities would be a direct challenge to British judges and European law.

Some analysts suspect Ms May's "motion" is rhetoric to boost the government's profile in the midst of economic chaos, trouble with extraditing terrorist suspects and rancour within the police department over Ms May's handling of the force.

"The motion may be a salvo to seek to reassure the public or elements of the public who are convinced that the human rights provisions are a charter for wrong doers to remain unpunished or to remain in the UK in all cases," Mr Luqmani told Channel 4 News.

Challenge to democracy

"In a democratic state where judges are appointed to act independently of government, it is inconceivable that the secretary of state should be seeking to remove the independent judicial thinking," he added. "I would hope that many judges will be able to remain oblivious to the threat."

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "We will shortly be announcing a major overhaul of the existing family migration rules, to reduce burdens on the taxpayer, promote integration and tackle abuse."

The reforms are also designed to protect the public from foreign criminals who try to abuse human rights laws to avoid deportation.

"We plan to make it clear when the rights of the law abiding majority will outweigh a foreign criminal's right to family and private life," he said.

Statement of Intent

EMPLOYMENT ROUTES

From April 2012, applicants for Tier 1 Entrepreneurs and Graduate Entrepreneurs, and legacy Tier 1 (General) cases will be required to show: £3,100 for entry clearance applications and £900 for leave to remain applications

As at present, Tier 1 (Investor) and Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) migrants and their dependants will be exempt from the maintenance requirement.

Tier 2 and Tier 5 migrants will be required to show funds of £900.  As at present, if they have an A-rated Sponsor, the Sponsor may certify maintenance for them.Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 5 dependants will be required
to show:  £1,800 for dependants of migrants who have been in the UK for less than 12 months
£600 for all other dependant

Theresa May to split up UK Border Agency

Home Secretary Theresa May has said the UK Border Agency will be split in two following revelations that hundreds of thousands of people were let into the country without appropriate checks.

She told MPs the UK Border Force would become a separate law-enforcement body with its own distinctive "ethos".

Chris Mason BBC Political corespondent reports;

Opinion polls regularly suggest immigration ranks highly among people's top political issues. One person's idea of handling it well will, of course, differ from the next person's.

The perception of a home secretary not knowing what's been going on is very damaging. So, like the Labour government before her, Theresa May has responded to these latest revelations with a demand for structural change within the civil service.

Back in 2006, her predecessor John, now Lord, Reid, described the immigration system as "not fit for purpose" and possessing "inadequate" leadership.

The changes led to the creation of the UK Border Agency, which itself will now be split in two.

Most accept the management of our borders has to be risk-based. On average, a bus load of pensioners returning home from a holiday on the Algarve is likely to pose less danger than a flight arriving from Yemen.

Equally, there is an acceptance from many that the implementation of the Home Office's ideas has to be led by those civil servants actually at the border.

But mistakes will always rebound on an incumbent secretary of state. Immigration is just one of many issues that make being home secretary one of the toughest gigs in government.

My opinion;

A usual tack for government to re-brand and shift responsibility from one set of bureaucrats to another in the vague attempt to demonstrate something constructive is being achieved.

Student visa changes will damage the UK, says IoD

Politicians from all parties should stop pandering to the anti-immigration lobby, according to the Director-General of the IoD, Simon Walker:

“The Government’s moves to eject foreign students after graduation unless they earn at least £20,000 working for Home Office approved companies are a retrograde step which will continue to diminish both Britain’s higher education sector and its global influence.

“Most non-EU students come from emerging economies where the youth population is growing and education is highly prized. In business and geo-political terms it is particularly vital that future leaders from BRIC nations, the Middle East and other strong economies of the future have had a positive formative relationship with the UK. Other countries welcome such students: Britain makes it difficult and artificially expensive for them to enter, and now proposes to eject them ignominiously when their studies are finished.

“These are misdirected reforms which will produce no benefit for the UK. It is pure sophistry to manipulate immigration figures by shooing to the door highly-trained international students with MBAs to make way for unskilled migrants from the EU.”

Key points from the Home Office’s plans:

• Only those graduating from a university, and having a job offer from a reputable employer accredited by the UK Border Agency at a salary of £20,000 or more, will be able to continue living and working in the UK in order to benefit the British economy.

• The Government proposes instead up to 1,000 places for students working on world-class innovative ideas who want to stay and develop them but do not meet the requirements of the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) route.

• Young entrepreneurs or small company directors will get the chance to stay on in the UK after their studies only if they have £50,000 to invest in their business.

• There will be an increase in the amount of money that students and working migrants, as well as their dependents, must prove they have to support themselves financially during their time in the UK.

• Work placements will be limited to one-third of the course for international students who are studying below degree level.