HSMP (The Highly Skilled Migrant Programme), which is now called UK Tier 1 Programme, is specially crafted to allow highly skilled workers to come, live and work in the UK and look for various job opportunities. The applicants are required to prove their qualifications against some of the key facets like educational qualifications, financial earnings, experience in relevant jobs, proficiency in the English language and settlement funds.

To know more about the changes in the UK Immigration Policy watch this video of Mr. Ajay Sharma, the principal Immigration Consultant of Abhinav:

The blog elaborates on the changes that are implemented in the rules and regulations in the UK Tier 1 Programme after 1 October 2009:

• The most critical change in the UK Tier 1 Programme is that from now onwards, students would not be able to get any points for any of the income earned before they became students. They may get points on the basis of the income earned during the last 15 months, provided the income should be high enough to satisfy the criteria decided. Know more about the changes by consulting Mr. Ajay Sharma personally.
• According to the current laws, anyone who has studied in the UK has the freedom to apply under the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) category, provided he or she is decked with the required qualifications. Earlier the condition was that only the applicants who have studied in the UK as Tier 4 migrant, Student or family member had the freedom to apply for the same.
• Another amendment points out in the direction that an applicant holding a Professional Graduate Diploma in Education is likely to qualify under the same Programme as he or she may be given points under the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) Category.
• The applicant would be granted 10 points automatically for English language as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Migrant for extensions. Earlier, the applicant was allowed an entry as a Business Person, the category which has now been replaced by Tier 1 (Entrepreneur).
• Immigrants under the UK Tier 1 Programme would be given permission to work on the Foundation Programme/ at the position of a doctor in speciality training.
• An error in the drafting has been corrected. The current regulations state that those migrants who were already a part of the Tier 1 (General) before 31 March 2009 would be given the points keeping in the mind the regulations in place before the mentioned date.

The rules and regulations in the world of Immigration keep on changing. It is always better to hire the services of an Immigration expert and stay abreast with the current happenings.