UK Jobs for non-UK people
There are a number of ways that people who live outside the UK can get UK jobs.
We describe all of the legal ones here.
Working Holidaymaker Scheme
First of all there is the Working Holidaymaker scheme. If you are a citizen of a Commonwealth country you may be entitled to come and work in the UK. That’s for up to two years at a time.
You can work for more than one employer and you can work as a contractor as well.
EEA Association Agreement
The EEA Association Agreement exists so that people from Eastern Europe can come to the UK and set up a business without having much money.
The countries in the agreement are:-
Bulgaria
The Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Freelance programmers can be included in this scheme.
Work Permits
These entitle people to be able to work in the UK for up to 5 years in UK jobs. Although the visas are owned by the employee they are set up for just one employer. This doesn‘t stop a migrant worker going elsewhere. That’s becasue he or she can just apply for another one when he or she wants to move to another employer. These are easier to obtain that the initial ones.
There are two types here:-
Tier-1 permits
Previously people could come to the UK if they had a skill on the Skills Shortage list. Whilst this still applies to other professions, it doesn‘t currently apply to IT. That’s because all IT skills have been taken off of the Skills Shortage list.
This was a big success of Gurdial Rai of the Professional Contractors Group. This seems to have upset the Government as they have now appointed a representative of the Indian Business Group to sit on the IT Skills Panel as well ‘˜to represent UK employers‘.
Now, the only way for companies to be able to get people in through this route is if they have an offshore branch and someone there has company specific skills then they can bring them over.
Indian companies are setting up shell companies in the UK and bringing over workers from their ‘subsidiaries‘ in India with such company specific skills as Cobol, Java and C++.
In Ireland they suspended their equivalent scheme because companies were breaking the ‘spirit of the law‘ after they investigated and found a number of these shell companies and they also fined the companies involved.
In the UK the practice continues freely.
Tier-2 Work Permits
This is where an employer has advertised extensively in the UK and the EU but just cannot find anyone with the requisite skill. Despite the numbers of IT workers out of work there are thousands of these visas issued every year.
Employers must pay the market rate for the job.
Surprisingly, these are mostly given to Indians who tend to have ‘˜me-too‘ skills rather than Americans who are most likely to have new skills as most of the new technologies where there are likely to be a shortage, emanate from there.
This leads one to believe that employers are abusing the scheme to avail themselves of cheap labour rather than highly-skilled labour.
Highly Skilled Migrant Programme
This is the second year of the programme.
With the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme you can come to the UK to look for work, instead of having to get an employer to sponsor you – as long as you have the requisite number of points necessary.
Since October 31st 2003 a number of changes have been made to the HSMP programme.
O First of all you now have to pay £150.
O However, the Government has now dropped the standard to just 65 points from the previous 75 points making it open to far more people.
O If you are under 28 years of age you can simply get 5 points towards your total free.
O Married couples and those living together can now claim extra points based on their partners education and skills.
UK Jobs – Would You Qualify?
I managed to get 120 points in doing the test so it can‘t be that hard, although I was able to say that my work had been published both here and elsewhere so that helped, but those were only extra bonus points.
See whether you would be qualified to be part of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme that would get you a visa to work in the UK, by using this calculator:-
Highly Skilled Migrant
Programme calculator
Note that although those fields are there, you don‘t have to put in your Name, E-mail address or Phone Number in order to be able to calculate whether you would be entitled to get a visa to work in the UK under the highly Skilled Migrant Programme.
So, how did you do as regards UK jobs?
Would you be allowed to come here?
If you are, and you can‘t find work, that must p*ss you off a bit!
