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Debt collectors, mortgage managers and HR officers can come and work in the UK on a skilled worker visa after changing immigration rules that have become recruited overseas for wide range of less skilled office jobs.
The new rules filed in Parliament on Tuesday set the principle limits work visas, which are set to be restricted to employment at the UK occupational level, to the salary thresholds in line with recent UK wage growth.
Interior Secretary Yvette Cooper said a “full reset” of the system “restores proper control and order,” and there is a fundamental shift in approaches that focus on “higher skills, numbers and tighter control.”
However, at least initially, the wording suggests is more liberal than it suggests, due to the role that is included in the “temporary shortage list” of occupations for non-graduates who are eligible for visas until the end of 2026.
Some of these roles, such as labs and engineering technicians, welding machines, and more, have been covered by Visa rules that have often been relaxed in the past due to chronic lack of skills.
Others have also been added as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Business and Trade say it is important to provide an industrial strategy focused on eight sectors that are considered important to drive growth over the next decade.
This list includes several roles that require specific technical skills, from clinical trial administrators to steel erection agents, industrial climbers and building engineers.
Creative industry employers identified as important in industrial strategies can hire non-UK writers, dancers, photographers, makeup artists, set designers and box office assistants.
This list also includes several broad categories of white-collar work, where the rationale for international adoption is not very clear.
The Home Office said 111 roles that previously qualify for a visa will no longer be eligible. The role of the temporary shortage list is not qualifying for a discount on salary or visa fees, and at the end of 2026 the list will be replaced following a review by the Government’s Immigration Advisory Committee (MAC).
From that day onwards, each sector will also need a plan to train UK workers to maintain access to visas, but the Minister has not yet decided how the system will work.
Mac Head Brian Bell said the minister wanted to quickly change pastors to avoid “closed sales,” where employers rush to hire them ahead of the new restrictions.
Hospitality employers who have frequently used the visa system to hire chefs are most affected by the new curb, he added.
The MAC looked at how important each occupation is to the sector chosen in the industrial strategy and whether it is practical for employers to hire in the UK, and said it will include roles in the new shortfall list only if a workforce plan is in place.
