According to news reports, the recent changes announced in UK Tier Visa would surely favor some genres of Indian professionals. One of the changes is the reintroduction of Bachelors degree as one of the vital aspects for scoring bonus points. Therefore, this amendment would benefit those who are decked with no formal academic qualification but can still apply, provided they have an annual income of more than £1,50,000.

According to Chris Dix, from UK Border Agency, India is a critical country for the UK Tier Category. Also, the changes have been implemented by targeting the best available skills without affecting the UK labor market in an unfavorable manner. Stats comment that Indians top the list when it comes to getting the largest work permits under Tier II, all over the world. Also, a hike of almost 3,000 issuance of Tier-I visa has been noticed as compared to the previous year.

The amendments would assist in enhancing the available skills pool under the Tier-I category. Under the Tier-II category, the Intra-Company Transfer or the ICT categories which cater to the differentiated points for sponsorship is getting positive responses from Indian organizations. Those companies which need to constantly send their employees to the UK as transfer staff have welcomed this the most.

Additionally, the Tier-II would be divided into three sub classes. These are:

• Permanent staff in an organization with a minimum of a year of work experience to respond to skill shortages in the company.
• Fresh graduates or graduate trainees with atleast three months of work experience with the concerned organization so as to be eligible to come to the UK where in they could be trained for as long as a year.
• Transfer of skills for all fresh employees who do not have any prior experience in the organization. They should be coming to the UK merely for the transfer of skills and are permitted to stay for a period of six months.

All in all, the impact of these changes is yet to be seen.