Slashdot Mirror
UK Tech Visas Quadruple After Applications Soar (telegraph.co.uk)
James Timcomb, writing for The Telegraph: Technology industry demands for special measures to let companies hire foreign workers after Brexit have been boosted by a surge in demand for technology visas. Tech City UK, the government organisation that processes applications for the dedicated "Tier 1 Exceptional Talent" visa, said successful applications had more than quadrupled in the last 12 months, with 260 endorsed in the last fiscal year. It follows fears in the British tech community that access to skilled computer coders would be hit by restrictions to freedom of movement when the UK leaves the EU. David Cameron introduced the tech visa scheme in 2014 in a bid to make London the technology capital of Europe and rival Silicon Valley as a destination for start-ups, and amid fears of a shortage of skilled coders in the UK. The "Tech Nation" visa scheme allows Tech City UK to endorse applications from non-EU workers, and lets successful applicants stay in the country for five years, after which they can apply to settle. Just a handful of visas were granted in its first few months, due to what were seen as onerous requirements, and the rules were relaxed in 2015. Applications have soared since then, and rose again after the Brexit vote.
I read the article but it didn't say if it would bind a worker to a specific employer, which is just indentured servitude. If the workers are free to switch jobs and free to collective bargain then I would generally agree with it. As long as it did not become the sort of dysfunctional H1B indentured servitude we have in the US.
Does anyone have more details or pointer to more details?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Preferably everyone would refuse to train their replacements.
How To Go To Heaven
According to the holy Word of God in the King James Bible!
It is very simple to be saved and takes only a minute to explain. Please let me show you how to get to Heaven from the Bible, God's Word...
Man is a Sinner in the Eyes of a Holy God.
Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Romans 3:10, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.”
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
There is a Price For Our SinBurning in Hell Forever.
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
2nd Thessalonians 1:8, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 20:15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Jesus paid that price by dying on the cross and shedding His blood; Christ was buried and bodily rose again the third day!
Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1st Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
1st Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation
Why would anyone bother moving to a country where the majority (a slim one though it may be) is clearly hostile to immigrants. As an immigrant consider having your kids grow up in that society where they are always considered something less than a "real Briton". I lived there for seven years and it's one of the least immigrant friendly western nations once you scratch beneath the surface.
Canada and even the USA (Trump notwithstanding) are far more welcoming to foreigners.
Yet Slashdot didn't feature one story about Dr. Who. So much for news for nerds.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/doctor-who-just-pulled-off-a-barnstorming-cliffhanger-1795631931
Their idea of becoming a "technology hub" is similarly sound and impressive.
I used to work now i claim benefits. I don't want to pay £9000 a year university fees only to see my job given away to cheap foreigners. This is why people vote UKIP and BNP.
pennies on the dollar
recruiting in the desginated shitting street
American companies can write off data breaches as an expense when filing taxes. If Congress pass a law to forbid that practice and stick the bill to shareholders, CEOs would make InfoSec a priority in a heartbeat. After all, their compensation would be on the line.
when you go isolationist you hinder great minds from coming to your country and you fail to help protect the environment and invest in renewables and you eventually become irrelevant. but hey, TRUMP#1!
https://www.gov.uk/tier-1-exce...
The foreign national is the sole applicant and the holder of the visa, its not restricted to a single employer and the employer has no say in the application.
I read the article but it didn't say if it would bind a worker to a specific employer, which is just indentured servitude. If the workers are free to switch jobs and free to collective bargain then I would generally agree with it. As long as it did not become the sort of dysfunctional H1B indentured servitude we have in the US.
Does anyone have more details or pointer to more details?
This visa is only meant for founders and key employees of start up businesses.
Can they write off your food budget as an expense? I heard at the last company you worked for, you chewed the arm off a coworker for reaching towards the salt.
It doesn't fix the problem with a company wants to employ a PhD level engineer from Oxbridge that is not from an EU member. Whereas anyone within the EU can move to the UK despite having no skills, education or money. The former is told to leave, the latter can turn up and jump ahead of the locals and get free housing, benefits, medical and schooling.
These are two nations happily committing economic and cultural suicide. They are at the ends of their respective journeys and other countries will become the defacto world leaders such as China and Germany.
Moving to the US or the UK, is equivalent to starting a new career at Sears.
...the is just a shortage of people willing to work for rubbish salaries, with rubbish conditions. This is partly what drove us out of the EU. It is rather worrying that this message still isn't getting through to the coporate crony ministers.
When I interview, the good candidates want good salaries. Companies, including my own, are using cheap foreign labour to depress salaries to the point it just discourages indigenous talent from even bothering to train for these positions. The problem is that a lot of foreign developers apply, and are usually utterly inept, yet they will probably still get work permits/jobs somewhere in the UK. The market for talent responds to the pay rates. We have to decide if we want to be a low wage/low skill importer of low grade labour, or to foster indigenous talent by paying competitive wages. CEOs are constantly banging on about the need to pay executives huge amounts to retain talent - why don't they extend that to the areas of business where the people both actually have talent, and need it to do their jobs.
All you have to do is head for platform 3 1/4.
It's just as believable, yet far less ridiculous.
Good. Refuse, get replaced anyway, lose the severance package. You will regret it in a week or less as bills start to pile up and money runs out.
This visa is only meant for founders and key employees of start up businesses.
What it is meant for . . . and what it is actually used for . . . may turn out to be two entirely different animals.
But Brexit fears give anything remotely related to Brexit additional leverage:
"My company needs to hire these cheap foreign IT replacements . . . otherwise, my company will not survive Brexit, and you will lose the election next year over the economic fallout!"
"Plus . . . the UK workers that we let go will be free to pursue jobs that require even higher skill levels! This will make the UK and even more high-techie place!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
What, as a EU-citizen? I thought they reserved the best benefits and free housing for "refugees" from the south. As they do in this here and other EU-run countries. -- local born-and-bred citizen speaking, with somehow less rights than obvious fortune seekers from safe countries claiming asylum who as we see time and again, won't take "no" for an answer.
I had noticed a flood of 'talent' recently in London recently. Much of it from India, much of it very mediocre to say the least.
I'd say that this has become the asian visa scam du jour: crack down on one category, they'll try coming in under another. Crack down on that, then all of a sudden, you've got a million "students" going to "universities" headquartered above fried chicken shops. Crack down on that, then you end up with thousands of fake marriages. Now they've cracked down on that, we have squillions of "highly exceptional talent" kindly doing the needful (badly), destroying productivity through their ineptitude, and generally being a nuisance.
This visa is only meant for founders and key employees of start up businesses.
This just isn't true.
They're seeking almost all high-tech style engineering, engineering management & product management skills. Do you have good cloud experience? Good sysadmin experience? Good product management experience? Written some device drivers? Written serious fuckin' code? Done random marketing fluff? .. along with many other skills .. ie, have you worked in a high tech environment of late? If so, then you probably tick a lot of the boxes.
Source: I have one of these visas.
--Q
Transform Britain into the next Silicon Valley, by hiring all the foreign engineering talent that used to end up in the United States, on H-1B visas?
This is not actually true. EU citizens can be asked to leave if they don't get a job within a few months. They also can't claim benefits until they have been working for a while.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I read the article but it didn't say if it would bind a worker to a specific employer, which is just indentured servitude. If the workers are free to switch jobs and free to collective bargain then I would generally agree with it.
Please excuse me, i am a Greek of bad English, but reading you post i translate it to "[...] worker(s) [... is/are ...] indentured servitude [... if not ...] free to switch jobs and free to collective bargain [...]", so: by "worker(s)" do you mean the IMMIGRANT(S) that CHOOSE this... "indentured servitude" !? And by "free to switch jobs and free to collective bargain" do you mean that the British worker(s) should take it in the ass from the... "indentured servitude" (!), or this would be too much to handle?
Excuse my language Sir, but, to answer the question on the title of you post: NO, this is NOT "free movement" - it is just a fucking visa.
unlike in the USA, companies can't withhold severence (redundancy) packages in the UK. Something I'm sure will change once EU regs no longer apply
Free UK already draining Europe's brain trust. Please continue whining about "BRExit" and sucking each other dicks. Meanwhile we'll take the money and leave you behind, eurofag leftards!
Clearly happening just because all the offshoring companies who's staff all have degrees from Indian "universities" that are clearly no more than certificate printing shops can't get US H1Bs anymore, so now the poor old UK is next in line to suffer a giant plague of cheap, inherently buggy and totally unsupportable code.
People in tech are paid relatively well. If you can't survive at least 6 months without a job, then you're a fucking failure. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses and start saving money, the freedom is worth it.
Sorry guys, looks like you just adopted US style work visas. In a few years tops you'll be forced out of your jobs...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Idiotic uneducated posters ranting and blaming the other, fuck you all!
I finally found a smart person here. This is one of the only thoughtful posts I've read here in weeks.
Ssshhh... don't let facts get in the way of a good ole fashioned, pro-brexit, xenophobic chav argument!
Ageed, engineers in London make the most anywhere in the world... if you're good.
I have all of those. But would I be able to afford to rent or buy my own modern apartment with 15 minutes commute, and still remain a programmer?
considering only 260 were issued last year this is hardly a common visa or one many people are likely to ever be concerned about.
you do realise even as a Tax Write off it STILL costs them and the shareholders a shit load of money. A Tax write off means you made a loss and the part written off amounts to only the tax you would have paid (i.e. less than half the amount).
There is a reason that level of visa has the word "exceptional" in its title, though. You don't get one of those if you worked at Google for a couple of years. You get one of those if you're Sergey Brin or Larry Page.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
We don't have any skills shortage. All this is about is hiring cheap labour and sweating them for hours.
The UK IT industry is so mediocre that yes, 2 years at Google would in fact be enough.
Thank you this was the information I was looking for.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
by free movement I meant free movement between employers. Perhaps I should have clarified it. And yes, I want to know if this will preserve the rights of the imported workers to choose the jobs they want at the wages they want. And yes I mean that if this is just another way to import cheap labor stripped of their rights to destroy indigenous workers wages and rights I am against it.
Indentured servitude is a crime. Workers should NEVER be in this position. If a worker is is a contract they should at least be able to by their way out. In the US, they do not have that option.
Yes, I think British workers would "take it in the ass" if this is some sort of H1B hell.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Anybody from the EU never bothered applying for any visa, because it wasn't needed. I'm not even sure if you could get any visa. But everyone who won't have permanent residence in 2019 and for some reason wants to help keep this shit heap of a country afloat (and we all know the Brits can't do it, they rather claim benefits than work), will have to apply for some kind of visa.
Emphasis on the word "can". In practice, they are not.
The local homeless charity has had to recruit 3 Romanian interpreters because 60-70% of their clients are now Romanian migrants.
It's the same with food banks, and tax credits for low end jobs (especially big issue sellers). All predominantly new accession EU migrants.
EU health tourism is also rampant. For example some MS drugs are not available on government health systems in all EU countries, but are in the UK. A friend is a neurologist and his MS clinic is full of people from Romania, Latvia and Lithuania who are working as domestic cleaners or baristas, but by sheer coincidence have an MRI showing they need one of these drugs a few weeks before making a snap decision to move to the UK. Of course, because these people are eligible to NHS treatment, they are not classed as health tourists, so there are no statistics for this and also as UK residents they are not covered by the reciprocal agreements between countries.
I can wiggle my ears, does that count as exceptional? Maybe these are now being treated like participation trophies.
Just another day in Paradise
Well, at 260 per year this clearly isn't the way the thousands of Indian contractors are getting into the country.
I supported Brexit and immigration was a factor in that. Nonetheless I'm very comfortable with this visa letting in so small a number of genuinely skilled people, even though they're actually competing with me for jobs.
Only if you work outside the centre of London. May be dodgy anywhere in the South East or the M4 corridor, but pretty trivial in the Midlands or Up North.
If you're willing to go up to half an hour commute anywhere outside the City is probably manageable, or anywhere outside the South East if you want your apartment somewhere nice to live.
If you're willing to commute for 60-90 minutes each way you can get very rich very fast by working in the City. You wont need a big apartment though, you'll only be in it to sleep.
This is not actually true. EU citizens can be asked to leave if they don't get a job within a few months.
Really? They have to be able to support themselves, I've never seen it stated anywhere that they have to get a job.
Which legislation states that?
Well, there's always interpretation in these things, but this is a Tier 1 visa, essentially the top level. To put this story in perspective, it made the news because they issued more than their normal quota of 200 of these for applicants from across the entire world within an entire year.
There are some slightly vague criteria for tech visas, including some adjustments depending on things like whether someone is planning to bring key tech skills to the main northern cities. However, for comparison, this is probably the kind of visa you get if you're a post-doctoral researcher, internationally acclaimed architect, performer who plays sell-out gigs in major venues, serial entrepreneur with successful IPOs behind you, and so on.
In short, exceptional means you have to be good enough at something that it's worth letting you off the normal Tier 2 visa rules about requiring a job with an approved sponsor before coming to work here long term and bringing dependents.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
"Freedom of movement" is actually the freedom of movement of four things: capital, goods, services and labour. Note that it doesn't say "people". Thus, you can only use your freedom of movement rights for moving your labour around.
In practice EU courts have ruled that a person is allowed to go and look for work, but only for a limited time.
There is something of an exception to this rule, which is family. In order for freedom of movement to be meaningful, people must be able to bring their families with them. Otherwise the burden would be too great. So if one person moves their labour, they can bring their family with them and their family doesn't have to work.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I wonder if this enthusiastic visa scheme has anything to do with why I'd get paid half as a programmer in London that I do in NYC, at the same cost of living. This is for intra-corporate transfer, so it's not about my negotiating ability; it's well-controlled.
Sure, but therein lies the whole problem with the Brexit argument - it's based on blaming the EU for things that our government are at fault over, and given that leaving the EU doesn't mean leaving our government, why would anyone think leaving the EU would fix anything like this?
Case in point, government has been saying it wants migration down, but it's consistently been at the 300k+ mark for years, yet over half of those people come from outside the EU. As such, any government could at any point have more than halved migration to the UK by banning non-EU workers, but no government chose to even though it meant embarrassing themselves by breaking promises in their manifestos.
You see, the problem isn't the EU, the problem isn't that we can't tackle migration, the problem is that migrants make a useful scapegoat, yet aren't really the problem as migrants overall are net contributors to the UK. Thus, successive governments have bluffed to the people about how migrants are the cause of our problems, whilst refusing to reduce migration because the reality is they're a net benefit.
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but if you want things done about this sort of shit then look to the Conservatives and Labour for refusing to tackle it whatever line they've peddled you. Also approach it without an open mind and consider that there's a reason they haven't tackled it - you might be right about health tourism but consider how many Brits retire to France and Spain - how much do you think healthcare for our old retirees that emigrate is costing them? It doesn't come for free.
The only people that can be blamed for the UK's problems are successive UK governments, and the people that elect them repeatedly whilst failing to hold them to account. Yet here we are, seeing a return to two party politics this election over the two very parties that haven't ever listened to the people.
You are absolutely correct. I didn't blame the EU in my post above,because as you state these are all UK issues.
It is the UK government that fails to remove migrants who cannot support themselves, and the UK government that determines eligibility to NHS treatment (rules significantly different from other EU member states) which leads to the anomaly above.
It has been UK politicians who have blamed Brussels for their own failings, and misled the population into the unknown that is Brexit.
I should just make one correction. UK retirees to the EU (Spain, etc.) are able to take their NHS eligibility with them as this is part if retirement benefits. They can claim treatment in Spain (or wherever) and have it billed to the NHS. The converse applies (as it also applies to short term visitors) but the UK government is almost totally incapable of sending out the bills. At the same time, the UK gives full NHS eligibility to anyone with a UK address or job, whereas most other EU member states will require long term migrants to have medical insurance or sufficient tax contributions.