As a bit of a background I wrote an email to Ben Gummer a bit before Christmas. Despite responding months ago, I’ve not put his answers up on the blog as intended. If you are concerned about immigration there are a number of interesting points about the coalition’s policies. Unless Ben’s been asked for his opinion the answers are based on the coalition’s policies.
It is very important to establish a thoughtful middle ground on immigration where the immigration policy is centered around the interests of British citizens, so allowing in job creators and highly skilled service providers (such as doctors and university tutors) and not to hurt the working class through bringing in immigrants who crowd out jobs, housing and services.
On this issue (there are plenty of other parts to this which will be coming on line) I must admit that I’ve changed my mind on the Entrepreneur’s visa although still worried that it will become a loophole. The slight tightening on the intra-company visas is welcome, but I can still see them being blatantly abused by large employers.
Now to Ben’s responses:
General questions on the visas
1. Do you still accept the need to reduce economic immigration into this country?
Yes. I think that this is very important. In Ipswich and elsewhere I, along with many other people, have become very disillusioned at the lack of control of our borders. I have long been concerned that this failure in confidence not only damages our communities but erodes traditional British tolerance for those seeking genuine asylum.
We need to be clear, however, that in terms of the European Economic Area, net immigration is more or less balanced. In 2009, the net inflow of European workers into the UK was just 12,000. When it is considered that overall immigration runs into the hundreds of thousands, this is a very small number. Overwhelmingly, migrant workers come to the UK from outside of Europe. This is an important point to bear in mind and I will return to it later on.
2. In the Conservative Manifesto and Programme for Government there was no mention of either the new entrepreneur visa route or the intra-company transfers. In both documents there were pledges “to introduce an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants” and “to introduce new measures to minimize abuse of the immigration system, for example via student routes.” Do you agree that the two new routes are both a potentially large loophole in any limit on economic migration and a potential new route to abuse of the immigration system?
I appreciate why people are concerned about this. I should say that although I do not agree with this view myself, I have raised the issue with the government and their response is as follows.
It is crucial to establish, first of all, that the intra-company transfers are not a new immigration route. They form part of the existing tier two (skilled worker) entry route. Furthermore, the government assures me that, far from creating a new route, they are in fact working hard to tighten up an existing one. The government intends to increase the minimum salary for someone entering the UK by an intra-company transfer from £24,000 to £40,000, ensuring that only senior managers and essential specialists are able use this immigration route.
The government is also responding to the needs of industry and to the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee and limiting the number of tier one visas (meant for the brightest and the best, but widely abused in the past) to 1,000 exceptionally talented scientists, sportsmen and artists.
The coalition believes that entrepreneur’s visas are essential to the growth of the UK economy and that those who enter the UK by this route are some of the most important wealth creators in our country. The government therefore thinks that it is right to encourage more of such individuals to come to the UK.
3. What will be the time limit for these visas?
The government’s proposal, as I understand it, is this. Entrepreneur’s visas will apply for two years. Towards the end of this period, immigrants must apply for permission to extend their stay. If this application is approved, highly skilled migrants are allowed to remain in the UK for a further three years, after which they may apply for permanent citizenship.
The government has confirmed that under the existing system of intra-company visas, a worker is allowed to stay in the country for up to three years, after which an extension of two years can be granted. An application can be made for permanent citizenship after five years.
4. Will applicants for these visas be denied the ability to apply for UK citizenship, state benefits, employment outside the firm or follow on visas?
The government’s policy here is as follows. As far as benefits are concerned, most people with limited leave to remain are subject to the condition that they have ‘no recourse to public funds’ during their stay in the UK. If such an individual breaches the conditions of the leave they become liable to be removed from the country and to have all further leave refused. They may also be prosecuted. These public funds include child benefit, council tax benefit, housing benefit, income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, pension credit, working tax credit and many others.
At present, workers on both of these visas will be able to apply for permanent citizenship after five years. They will all be entitled to apply for follow on visas upon the expiry of their original visa. However, the Home Secretary has stated her commitment to ending the link between temporary and permanent migration and will be bringing forward more details on this in due course.
Migrants on intra-company transfer visas are, like other tier two migrants, allowed to undertake ‘extra work’ in the same profession for up to twenty hours per week without having to inform the UK Border Agency. If they wish to do a ‘second job’, however (more than twenty hours per week or work in a different profession) they must obtain a separate Certificate of Sponsorship in order to do so.
Highly skilled workers on entrepreneur’s visas are able to come to the UK without a specific job offer and to determine their own employment arrangements.
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