RELO NEWS
As a follow-up to its plans to introduce a new points system last year, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) has proposed to ease the qualifications and criteria for hiring foreign nationals to provide more options for sponsors to recruit qualified white-collar foreign workers.
Employers would be able to utilize the proposed or existing application scheme when applying for a work permit, depending on the worker’s qualifications and technical skills.
A new two-year visit visa for Chinese nationals was launched on Monday 11th January.
The new visa will enable Chinese visitors to make multiple trips to the UK for a longer period, and will provide them with a better deal than the standard Schengen visitor visa, which is limited to 90 days maximum.
British visitors to China will benefit from the same visa arrangement, with the Chinese government reducing its two-year visitor visa fee to the equivalent of £85 and, for the first time, matching the UK’s offer of a 10-year visitor visa.
Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said: “The number of Chinese visitors to the UK is rising year on year and this visa will allow Chinese visitors to further take advantage of the opportunities the UK has to offer for both tourism and business purposes.”
The new visa will cost £85, the same as the existing six month visitor visa.
The number of applications under the Tier 1 Investor route has fallen dramatically since the government raised the minimum investment threshold from £1m to £2m last year.
Only 136 applications were made in the first nine months of 2015, compared to 780 over the same period the year before – a drop of 83%.
The number of applications made under Tier 1 Investor had previously increased every year from 2009, the first full year in which the scheme was in operation.
In the whole of 2014, a record 1,290 applications were made.
