UK Tier 1 (General) Applications To Freeze from Today

It has been announced by the UK Border Agency that the UK government has now stopped accepting applications for the Tier 1 (General) applications from their overseas consulates. This would be put into effect from 23rd December 2010. This amend has come about to make sure that the government does not cross the limit that has been set for the duration between 19th July 2010 to April 2011.

As of now, this quota will not reopen again. However, the same would remain open in UK till 5th April 2011. Some transitional arrangements would be made for some applicants who are present in UK after 6th April 2011.Details for the same would be announced soon.

The government had brought about a limit till 5th April 2011 after a judgment was brought out by the court. This limit caters to the total number of sponsorship certificates to be made available for the licensed Tier 2 (General) sponsors. This limit has been set at 10,832 and would be put into immediately.

According to Damian Green, the UK Immigration Minister, it’s not a policy but instead the ruling is about the policy. The policy which caters to the limit has not been found to be illegal. The ruling made by the court is based on the technical aspects which has been looked into and set right to make sure that the interim limit is back into effect.

He also said that this judgment does not impact on the annual limit on immigration. At the same time, this interim limit is a measure which is temporary in nature and was brought about to cater to the constant rush of applications which had come about before the annual limit was to be introduced.

The outcome is that Tier 1 visa applications from overseas consulates would not be accepted anymore. This clearly projects that the government is resolute on this promise to reduce the current levels of immigration by tens of thousands of the current numbers. These amends in the immigration policy have been laid out in a new Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 698).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *