United Kingdom: country facilitates visa for bricklayers and plasterers – 07/18/2023 – Market

Visa rules to work in the UK are being eased for bricklayers, carpenters and individuals working in the fishing industry abroad, the British Home Office has confirmed.

Roof repairmen and plasterers were also added to the list of labor-shortage occupations.

As a result, areas where it is difficult to fill vacancies have visa restrictions temporarily reduced.

Thus, professionals working in these areas with a shortage of labor can apply for a skilled worker visa to work in the United Kingdom.

To apply for the visa, the professional needs to obtain a job offer from an employer in the United Kingdom before applying for the visa, in addition to meeting the English language requirements.

The professional interested in migrating has the benefit of paying lower visa fees. The category also follows more flexible rules regarding the amount of salary required to apply for the visa.

The list of occupations with a shortage of labor is reviewed every six months by the MAC (Migration Advisory Committee), a body that advises the British government on migration issues. A new review is expected to take place from September

The government has denied that the measure contradicts attempts to curb immigration.

The Conservative Party, winner of the 2019 general election, committed to reducing the number of immigrants, without setting a specific target. “We want to ensure that we have a specially trained domestic workforce,” the party added at the time.

MAC recommended five professions to be included in the list:

• bricklayers
• Roof repairers and tilers
• Carpenters and joiners
• Related professions in civil construction services
• plasterers

Conservative MP Marco Longhi described the government’s announcement as “crazy”, adding: “This country’s addiction to immigration as a solution to everything needs to stop.”

“We need to reform universities and train our own people through internships and other means and produce work-ready people,” he added.

The Ministry of the Interior has also added professions associated with the fish trade to the list, along with “elementary agricultural occupations”.

The government is easing restrictions on the fishing industry as part of wider reform of the sector — which includes a £100m UK Seafood Fund.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously complained that migration to the UK is “too high” after net migration (the difference between migrants entering and leaving) reached record levels for the year. past.

According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the British IBGE, the country gained more than 606,000 immigrants in 2022.

In a speech in May, Home Secretary Suella Braverman urged UK companies to train British nationals in labor-short areas in a bid to curb immigration.

The review conducted by MAC, published in March, found that vacancies increased sharply in the hotel and construction sectors, relative to pre-pandemic levels.

Migration body advisers did not recommend including any occupations from the hotel industry, although they said Brexit (the UK’s departure from the European Union) and the pandemic had “significant effects” on both sectors.

The number of vacancies rose 65% in the construction sector compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the MAC report. This compares to a 42% increase in the economy as a whole.

Adding construction workers to the shortage list would not make a big difference to overall migration numbers, the migration body added.

The committee said its review was based on criteria that assessed whether an occupation represented more than 0.5% of the workforce in a given sector and whether their wages fell below the general threshold required for migrants —under the general rule, it is required a salary of at least £26,200 (R$165,000) a year for work visas.

MAC said it had also considered the “strategic importance of construction to the UK economy” and how its workforce is likely to change over the next decade, with the forecast that “demand is likely to rise sharply”.

On 3 July, a group of Conservative MPs defended policies to drastically reduce migration, warning that failure to comply “risks eroding public confidence”.

They proposed granting visas only to skilled workers earning more than £38,000 a year.

Currently, in most cases, foreigners need to earn at least 26,200 pounds (R$ 165,000) to apply for a skilled worker visa. But that requirement can drop to £20,960 (R$132,000) in the case of jobs on the shortage list.

This text was originally published here.