Alexander Chreky came to London in 2021 to study international development and stayed to work as a commodity analyst in the City. With his career on track, he planned to settle and become a UK citizen, then take longer-term decisions about buying a flat with a partner.
Those plans are now up in the air after the government’s decision to increase the waiting time for indefinite leave to remain in Britain from five to 10 years.
With a globe-trotting white-collar job, masters degree and the security of US citizenship, he is less exposed to the vagaries of immigration policy than many others. “I may end up fine,” Chreky says.
But with the populist Reform UK party rising in the polls, waiting until after the next general election to win settlement rights is not appealing. He said he feels “I’ve been tricked”.
He is one of more than 1.5mn people who face anxious months of waiting for ministers to set out the details of new requirements for migrants.
Currently, most people who come to the UK on long-term work visas, family and refugee routes, or on visas for British nationals from Hong Kong, can apply for settled status after five years of continuous residence, opening up eligibility for benefits and a route to citizenship.
Under plans outlined in a white paper this month, the default period will double to 10 years, with a points-based system allowing people to qualify sooner based on their “contributions to the UK economy and society”.
The criteria appear to favour people with high earnings, or jobs in the NHS and other key areas, but the impact of the policy will depend on where the bar is set.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper wants the change to apply to migrants who are already in the UK, as well as new arrivals. Dependants of British citizens will still be able to settle after five years. But when asked to clarify who else might be affected, the Home Office said there would be a consultation later in the year.
“Settlement in the UK is a privilege, not a right,” the Home Office said.
Among those potentially affected are more than 1mn people who have come to the UK since 2021 on skilled worker visas, or as accompanying family members.
This figure includes more than 650,000 NHS and care workers and their families, including many low-paid care workers who incurred big debts to come to the UK and cannot easily return home.
Other skilled workers span a wide range of occupations, from chefs and butchers to highly paid programmers, bankers and consultants.
More than 163,000 British nationals from Hong Kong, who have moved to the UK since 2021 largely for political reasons, could also face a longer wait for settlement, with little option to return to the territory where they fear persecution. Refugees and people on some other work visas would also be included in the total.
Policy analysts say a 10-year wait will deepen migrants’ insecurity, leaving many reliant on employer sponsorship, and paying thousands of pounds a year in visa fees and NHS charges. Those with children may have to pay international fees to access UK universities.
Ministers have said that high-skilled, high-paid professionals are the kind of migrants that benefit the UK most — but these highly mobile people are now rapidly reconsidering their commitment to country.
“It feels like I’m starting from scratch again,” said one economist from India, whose skilled worker visa was sponsored by an environmental consultancy earlier this year.
Although he enjoys his job, he worries his employer may not be willing to sponsor his visa long term, and is considering moving to a larger company purely for security.
Seeing friends in the Netherlands with an easier path to citizenship, “I would be a lot more open to considering opportunities in the EU or elsewhere,” he said.
“Being kept in limbo for a decade is not nice, especially for people who have options,” said another economist who came from India to the UK to study in 2018 and switched to a skilled worker visa in 2021.
“You can’t really settle down, you have second thoughts about buying property, about your investments, about your pension contributions,” she said.
Along with this uncertainty come big professional downsides for people who came to the UK to advance their careers.
“This whole exercise would mean that you are forced to stay with one employer . . . If you hate your job, or you feel like you want to grow, you can’t do that in the UK,” the second economist said.
Because of this, many people now face deeply difficult trade-offs between their professional and personal lives.
“I’ve made some of my closest friends here, I’ve met my partner here,” said an Indian national who came to study in the UK in 2021, began work on a graduate visa at a sustainable finance policy company and switched to a skilled worker visa earlier this year.
Now, despite the wrench, she is considering looking for similar roles in the EU, in Singapore or Dubai, rather than being reliant on a visa sponsor for so long.
“I don’t want to be tied down to one company. I’m so early in my career, I’d like to explore more,” she said.
Dillon Naicker, a South African national working in global mobility for a big four accountancy firm, says many of the British companies he advises are now hiring people to work remotely from their home country, rather than incurring the costs of bringing them to the UK.
Having struggled himself to move job, after coming to the UK on an intra company transfer in 2020, he expects the new policy will make it harder for people like him to move forward, as employers will become more wary of sponsoring visas.
“I came because the UK needed my skillset,” he said. “All my social connections and groups are here. I’m in a relationship . . . I wanted this to be my permanent home.”
With 18 months to go before he had planned to apply for settled status, he feels the government is going back on its side of the bargain. “It feels almost like I’ve been used.”
www.ft.com
#highpaid #foreign #workers #reconsider #ties #rule #change
