Companies bypassing immigration cap on skilled migrants

[DodgyAgent]

HMG dropped the ball on that one too. The 40K cap is only if the individual is staying for more than 6 months, it is only 22K (I think) for less than 6 months and can include expenses.

What is to stop them from being forced to pay some of their money back?

[Arturo Bassick]

I managed to talk to my local Tory MP about this. He said they were doing something about it, which they have in stipulating that these people be paid a minimum of I think £40 k per year. The Indians are not stupid and they can clearly work round this.
It is the most brazen abuse of the Visa system that is supported by the big corporates and I am pretty sure by now government departments.

HMG dropped the ball on that one too. The 40K cap is only if the individual is staying for more than 6 months, it is only 22K (I think) for less than 6 months and can include expenses.

[DodgyAgent]

Except we do the square root of zero on enforcement.

I managed to talk to my local Tory MP about this. He said they were doing something about it, which they have in stipulating that these people be paid a minimum of I think £40 k per year. The Indians are not stupid and they can clearly work round this.
It is the most brazen abuse of the Visa system that is supported by the big corporates and I am pretty sure by now government departments.

[Arturo Bassick]

Don't worry there are waves and waves of them ready to keep pouring in

WDAS.

Which makes it worse. ICT are supposed to be used where internal company procedures are required for a continuing job where the reality is that they are just cheap bums on seats who are directed what to do every day.

[Troll]

As a professional, external consultant, shouldn't you raise this as an issue to the client? (and to the government!)

Naw... let it crash and burn to teach the fookers - as long as I'm blameless and can keep on invoicing

I've actually been emailing Immigration minister Damian Green (who's local) about the abuse, trouble is Vince Cable appears to have more of a say

[DodgyAgent]

At least ICT time doesnt count towards ILR so the buggers can't stay!

Don't worry there are waves and waves of them ready to keep pouring in

[Peoplesoft bloke]

At least ICT time doesnt count towards ILR so the buggers can't stay!

Except we do the square root of zero on enforcement.

[stek]

At least ICT time doesnt count towards ILR so the buggers can't stay!

[ChimpMaster]

I've noticed that the global consultancy that I'm currently working for, has recently flown in an awful lot of relatively unskilled PMO type people for this Project
They have also flown in an awful lot of people with fancy titles such as "Senior Infrastructure Program Manager"

Without exception they are clueless (& I'm being kind in that description) and are now impacting the timelines with non delivery of their streams

I shouldn't complain as this will mean the Project will overrun and I keep invoicing for longer but gawd is it frustrating to work with such people without what I would describe as basic skills

Also the Consultancy faces financial penalty's if it fails to deliver on time.. so things should get interesting soon

As a professional, external consultant, shouldn't you raise this as an issue to the client? (and to the government!)

[Troll]

I've noticed that the global consultancy that I'm currently working for, has recently flown in an awful lot of relatively unskilled PMO type people for this Project
They have also flown in an awful lot of people with fancy titles such as "Senior Infrastructure Program Manager"

Without exception they are clueless (& I'm being kind in that description) and are now impacting the timelines with non delivery of their streams

I shouldn't complain as this will mean the Project will overrun and I keep invoicing for longer but gawd is it frustrating to work with such people without what I would describe as basic skills

Also the Consultancy faces financial penalty's if it fails to deliver on time.. so things should get interesting soon

[KaiserWilly]

Companies bypassing immigration cap on skilled migrants

Overseas staff coming to UK under 'intra-company transfer' scheme surged to 29,700 last year, Home Office figures show



Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 February 2012 10.35 GMT
Article history

Overseas staff transfers became exempt from the immigration cap after lobbying by the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the Indian government.

British companies are bypassing the government's cap on skilled migrants by bringing in staff from their plants and offices overseas, an official report has found.

Figures from the Home Office's migration advisory committee show that the numbers coming to Britain under the "intra-company transfer" scheme have surged in the past two years and now outnumber those coming into Britain on work visas by three to one. The rise has rendered the cap on skilled overseas migrants redundant, with fewer than half the work visas available under the annual limit being used.

The latest figures show that transfers of company staff, especially from IT firms in India, have risen from 22,000 in 2009 to 29,700 last year. David Cameron exempted these staff transfers from the immigration cap after strong lobbying by the business secretary, Vince Cable, and representations from the Indian government.

An official estimate shows that as few as 10,000 tier-2 work visas will be issued to skilled workers in the 12 months to April 2012. This is less than half the limit of 21,700 skilled work visas set by the home secretary, Theresa May, as part of the drive to reduce net annual migration from 250,000 to "tens of thousands" by the next election.

The committee said in a report published on Tuesday that in this situation it was not necessary to change the 21,700 limit on work visas that applies to skilled migrants from outside the European Economic Area for the next financial year.

The government's migration advisers say they do not think any changes should be made to curb intra-company transfers but the route should be kept under review, especially the use of company transfers that involve the use of third-party contractors.

The committee chair, Professor David Metcalf, said that although the limit was undersubscribed it should not be lowered because that would affect the perception that Britain was an attractive place to do business.

"The tier 2 limit system is set up to prevent the displacement of UK workers but intra-company transfers are not part of that limit and account for the lion's share of visas," he said.

The committee also recommends that some highly paid jobs and PhD-level jobs should be exempt from the resident market labour test that offers vacancies to British workers first.