ICT restrictions relaxed

[TimberWolf]

As long as the individual earns more than £40,000 they can relocate to the UK for more than a year, using what is known as an "Intra-Company Transfer" or "ICT".

The salary threshold will be lowered to £20,000 a year if they plan to stay for less than 12 months.

High Earners Can Come To UK To Work And Will Not Be Counted In Immigration Quota | Politics | Sky News

[Originally it was £24K/year]

Rinse and repeat annually. The government appear to be cracking down on immigration except when it comes to Bob where it's being relaxed.

[lilelvis2000]

Considering the govt. is essentially in bed with the big consultancies which probably do about 90% of all the public sector IT work, do you find it surprising?

Recall the whole EDS tax-credits fiasco and how easily they got off as compared to when they buggered up SKY's systems.

[TimberWolf]

Considering the govt. is essentially in bed with the big consultancies which probably do about 90% of all the public sector IT work, do you find it surprising?

Recall the whole EDS tax-credits fiasco and how easily they got off as compared to when they buggered up SKY's systems.

Not really surprised, as Dave had told Europe and King Bob that we were going to take many more Bobs, and perhaps from Pakistan too. ICTers arn't included in the immigration target figures either so can be unlimited in numbers without affecting it, despite 1/3 of them gaining residency, even by official estimates. So it was already effectively an open door policy for IT (not even taking into account loopholes unlikely to be closed regarding including expenses in the salary), even before the minimum salary was reduced.

[TimberWolf]

Just noticed that:

Anyone who earns more than £150,000 a year can come to the UK to work and will be not be counted as part of the immigration quota, the Government has announced.

This is becoming a bit of a joke. To reach their target of 10s of thousands/year, they are just excluding everyone from the immigration figures!

[TykeMerc]

This is becoming a bit of a joke. To reach their target of 10s of thousands/year, they are just excluding everyone from the immigration figures!

To be fair that's nothing new when it comes to Government figures, if they look a bit squiffy then just tweak the parameters so they look better. Everything's accurate for a given level of accuracy.

[Alf W]

[AtW]

This is becoming a bit of a joke. To reach their target of 10s of thousands/year, they are just excluding everyone from the immigration figures!

£150k per year is pretty good salary - anybody who can credibly get paid that much whilst paying taxes should get visa stamped in airport or hand delivered by a high ranking civil servant.

Now they certainly should be included into immigration figures but counted separately - there will probably be a few thousand of them per year.

[Dearnla]

We'll only blame you for the last 13 years, then......

[TimberWolf]

£150k per year is pretty good salary - anybody who can credibly get paid that much whilst paying taxes should get visa stamped in airport or hand delivered by a high ranking civil servant.

Now they certainly should be included into immigration figures but counted separately - there will probably be a few thousand of them per year.

Yeah, there won't be many of 150k+ers, relatively speaking, and the more the merrier high earners we let in as far as I'm concerned, but it indicates what a joke government target figures are when so many immigrant classes are excluded from their figures. The number of Bobs alone will probably come close to exceeding the 10s of thousands/year target. Certainly the low 10s of thousands are long gone as a target, except with fudged figures. Why do you say high earners should be counted separately?

Meanwhile UK unemployment is booming...

[AtW]

it indicates what a joke government target figures are when so many immigrant classes are excluded from their figures.

Indeed - what's really wrong is to lower ICT minimum salary to £20k, now that's a joke - £40k minimum was okay I think, so long as it's through PAYE (so easily £45k+ cost to employer).