UK GOVT ISSUES WHITE PAPER REGARDING NEW IMMIGRATION RULES POST BREXIT

The UK Government have today (19 Dec 2018) issued a new Whitepaper regarding changes to the UK immigration laws post-Brexit.

You can access the White Paper by following this link - it's 168 pages long!  I haven't read the whole paper yet, so will probably update this post if I have anything to add, but according to the BBC, new changes include:

BBC wrote:

Scrapping the current cap on the number of skilled workers such as doctors or engineers from the EU and elsewhere.

A consultation on a minimum salary requirement of £30,000 for skilled migrants seeking five-year visas

Low-skilled workers may be able to apply for short-term visas of up to a year

Visitors from the EU will not need visas

Plans to phase in the new system from 2021

My thoughts are:

Immigration cap - was always going to go; we had the ridiculous situation where the country needed a specific skill, but could not recruit because of an arbitrary regional cap on numbers and the politicians were, quite rightly, being blamed for it.

From the consultation, either expect the £30k rule to be changed, or a new and separate class of immigrant be created to cater for skilled workers (nurses etc) who do not earn anywhere near £30k.

Low-skilled workers are generally regarded as those who come to the UK to take up seasonal work.

Good news that EU citizens will not need any visa to visit the UK - I suspect that this will be for a maximum period of 90 days, although I've not seen the fine print yet.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team