Science and Immigration

Royal Society - Tier 1 immigration and monitoring of scientists’ immigration issues

The government is implementing a range of reforms to the UK immigration system. A new Tier 1 route of entry has been created which makes provision for up to 1000 of those with exceptional talent or exceptional promise in the fields of science, humanities, engineering and the arts who wish to work in the UK to obtain visas.  

Applicants must obtain the endorsement of a body designated by the UK government as a “competent body ”capable of recognising exceptional talent and exceptional promise.  The Royal Society has agreed to become a competent body as part of the piloting of this scheme to assess applicants from within the Natural and Medical Sciences.

The route became operational on 9 August. Full details of the route, as well as the criteria for each of the designated competent bodies can be found on the UK Border Agency website. 

The Royal Society is also collecting evidence to form a picture of how this and broader immigration reforms are impacting on the science sector. Please visit their website and contribute any relevant immigration case studies from your organisation to this survey. Details are available at http://royalsociety.org/about-us/competent-body/

Immigration & the Resident Labour Market Test

As part of its advocacy work in the area of science and immigration, the Wellcome Trust has developed a short survey on organisations' experiences with the Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT).  Employers are usually required to complete a RLMT before sponsoring a non-EEA employee through Tier 2 of the points-based immigration system. The findings of the survey will be used to consider whether there are any alternatives to the current RLMT requirement to advertise for four weeks in the JobCentrePlus, which would be more suitable for organisations recruiting non-EEA researchers.

If you would like to be involved, contact Annie Colgan (a.colgan@wellcome.ac.uk). In most cases a Human Resources Manager will be the most appropriate person to complete the survey. The deadline for the survey is the 9^th September.