Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government will be introducing an Immigration Bill to the House of Commons later today, the government has announced. This bill, however, is not expected to be different from the one introduced by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid in 2018.
In addition to Paving the way for new point-based immigration system, there will also be some light rebranding of some existing categories, for example, existing Tier 2 (General) visa category will now be called General work visa (Tier 2), while Tier 4 (General) is now the General student visa (Tier 4).
What do we understand from the bill
Even though governments rhetoric throughout was to introduce an Australian point-based system but now that we have more details of the so-called new point-based system, it is anything but an Australian/ Canadian style PBS system.
The Australian or Canadian version of a points-based system allows economic migrants to settle in those countries permanently without employer sponsorship if they have various blends of abilities and qualifications. However, this new PBS system only provides limited discounts to the minimum salary needed for a sponsored work visa, available to people working in shortage jobs or with PhDs. Sponsored workers would still need a job offer, English language skills and to be working at a certain skill level. That skill level would be reduced from level 6 (degree) to level 3 (A-level).
The table below shows how this will work. We will, of course, update you once we have more details. So watch out for our next post on this topic.
| Characteristics | Tradeable | Points |
| Offer of job by approved sponsor | No | 20 |
| Job at appropriate skill level | No | 20 |
| Speaks English at required level | No | 10 |
| Salary of £20,480 (minimum) – £23,039 | Yes | 0 |
| Salary of £23,039 – £25,599 | Yes | 10 |
| Salary of £25,600 or above | Yes | 20 |
| Job in shortage occupation (as designated by the MAC) | Yes | 20 |
| Education qualification: PhD in subject relevant to the job | Yes | 10 |
| Education qualification: PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job | Yes | 20 |
A total of 70 points is required to be eligible to apply; some characterises are trade able.
