According to the UK government, the new immigration cap that comes into effect in 2011 will not affect the number of Indian IT workers entering the nation. The officials said that IT workers from offshore countries, including India will not face any problem in entering the UK. Reportedly, the UK government is looking forward to eliminate Intra Company Transfers with the implementation of the immigration cap.
The UK coalition government is going to hurt the IT profession of the United Kingdom by eliminating Intra Company Transfers from the immigration cap that is going to be in place in 2011 replacing the interim cap which is currently in place. The British Prime Minister was once caught saying that ICTs should not be contained in the permanent immigration cap.
The Intra Company Transfer scheme is designed to facilitate IT suppliers that have their operation in the United Kingdom to hire staff to the UK. Initially, the ICTs scheme was implemented in order to facilitate highly skilled professionals with the knowledge that are usually not found elsewhere. But, the scheme was often criticized for one reason that it is being abused by IT suppliers, especially from India. These suppliers used the system to hire low cost workers as replacements of UK workers.
Indian IT workers constitute a large portion of the total 80 percent of UK’s immigrant workers who are in Intra Company Transfers. Hope the new UK immigration cap does not hamper the inflow of offshore IT professionals to the United Kingdom. As for the exclusion of ITCs from the cap, the country is probably doing the needful!
