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CaSE repeats call for Tier 2 visa cap to be abolished

24 Jan 2018

With overseas doctors being refused visas to work in the UK, CaSE has reiterated its stance that the Tier 2 cap on visas for skilled workers is counter-productive and damaging to UK interests.

Hospitals are reporting that doctors with job offers in the NHS have been refused a visa in the last two months, according to the Guardian newspaper. This is because the tier 2 cap has been exceeded and so the salary threshold for entry has been raised – above the level of a typical registrar. This is not the first time. In June 2015, CaSE found that 66 engineers with UK job offers were rejected because of the cap.

The Tier 2 visa is the route through which the UK attracts precisely those skilled workers we need to meet demand in the NHS, to design and build transport systems, housing and infrastructure, and teach science and maths to our young people in schools and universities to grow the UK’s science and engineering skills base.

Commenting, CaSE Executive Director Dr Sarah Main said:

“The Tier 2 cap is absurd. It causes the UK to reject the brightest and best the Government says it wants to attract. Skilled people who companies here have specifically recruited are turned down due to an arbitrary monthly limit. The rejections we’ve seen in the last two months waste companies’ time and leave business and service needs unmet, further damaging productivity. Such policies knock business confidence in the visa system and tarnish the UK’s reputation as a place for highly skilled individuals to work and contribute. The cap should be abolished.”

Note: You can also read CaSE’s response to the Home Affairs Select Committee report ‘Immigration policy: basis for building consensus’, published earlier this month. You can also read our summary of the committee’s report, which calls for an evidence-based immigration framework.