UK’s tougher visa norms may hit Indian IT firms
Wednesday, 20/01/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: Using the example of Indian IT companies, an influential committee on Tuesday recommended new restrictions on transferring employees to Britain under the IntraCompany Transfer (ICT) route, including a skills levy of 1,000 pounds a year per transferee.
In a review of the work-related Tier 2 visa, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) of the home office also recommended raising the salary threshold for British employers hiring Indian and other non-EU (European Union) migrants on specialist jobs unavailable in the EU.
Indian companies such as Wipro, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services are likely to be affected by the recommendations. The review specifically mentioned the Indian IT sector to make the case for more visa curbs and the new levy to be used to develop skills in Britain. Indian professionals were given the largest number of visas under Tier 2 in the year ending September 2015, the MAC said. Indian IT workers also accounted for 90% of visas issued under the ICT route.
PM David Cameron commissioned the MAC review last year as part of plans to reduce net migration into Britain. The MAC report singled out India and the use of Indian IT workers in Britain for servicing “third-party” clients and projects. It recommended a new route for “third-party contracting” under the ICT regime, with a high salary threshold of 41,500 pounds. The review said: “Focusing specifically on the use of the route within the IT sector, we have not seen evidence that the third-party contracting use of the intracompany transfer route is contributing to the stock of IT skills within the resident UK workforce.”
