Government Response To Intra Company Transfer Petition

The following details the groups ICT Petition and the Governments official response.

ICT Petition

We petition the Prime Minister to abolish the \’Intra Company Transfer\’ work permits scheme immediately

This scheme allows companies to bypass UK immigration rules and import non-EU workers into the UK, displacing UK/EU staff. This scheme bypasses other schemes such as the skilled migrants points system, which work fairly based on national need and individual migrants skills. This is allowing the displacement of tens of thousands of workers, particularly in IT. It is unfair on UK (and EU) workers as these shipped in workers enjoy tax (and often accommodation) benefits not available to workers living in the UK due to the local cost of living and tax regime. This is raising UK unemployment by the tens of thousands and undermining the UKs future competitiveness in Information Technology as skills are built up here and then return abroad. This scheme is fundamentally unfair. No one can object to the work being out-sourced to be carried about abroad, but this mass importing of non-EU labour to have the work done here, is unfair.

Government Response to ICT Petition

Thank you for your e petition about the Intra Company Transfer scheme and non-EEA workers in the IT industry.

In November 2008, the work permit arrangements were replaced by Tier 2 of the Points-Based System. Tier 2 ensures that those who benefit most directly from migration, such as employers, play their part in ensuring the system is not abused. To employ an overseas worker an employer must be licensed by the UK Border Agency to act as a sponsor. Tier 2, like the work permit arrangements it replaces, is demand-led and not based on numerical targets or quotas. Overseas workers are granted permission to fill a specific skilled vacancy for a specific period of time.

Unless certain exemptions apply, employers must advertise their vacancies to UK workers, and demonstrate that they cannot fill the post with a suitably qualified or skilled settled worker, before they can sponsor a migrant under Tier 2. One exception is if the job is a recognised shortage occupation. The independent Migration Advisory Committee recently recommended that certain posts within visual effects and 2D/3D computer animation for film, television or video games should be added to the shortage occupation list. There are no other IT occupations on the list. Another exception is the intra-company transfer (ICT) route, which is designed to enable employees of multinational companies to transfer to skilled posts in this country and to enhance the UK’s competitiveness in attracting inward investment by overseas companies.

Currently, an ICT post requires that the migrant has had a minimum of six months previous experience working for the sponsor and will fill a genuine vacancy in the UK for an established employee that cannot be filled with a suitably qualified or skilled settled worker.

However, on 7 September 2009, following advice from the Migration Advisory Committee, the Home Secretary announced a number of changes to the ICT rules in Tier 2 of the Points Based System. From the spring of 2010 companies will only be able to transfer staff through the ICT route where they employed the individual for at least 12 months, doubling the existing 6 month threshold and the route will no longer lead to permanent residence in the UK. An additional route will be created to allow graduates on global graduate programmes to transfer to the UK for a period of no more than 12 months where they have three months experience of working for the company.

The off-shoring of IT work is not an immigration issue. The immigration arrangements do not prevent employers from outsourcing work to another company or bringing migrant workers into the UK for either short or lengthy periods of time, provided the relevant criteria are met. These are business decisions for employers to determine. Fair access to migrant labour can help to encourage large multinational firms to invest in the UK. In such cases, access to migrant labour encourages growth in the industry to accommodate both UK and migrant workers. UK workers also benefit from working with the most highly skilled workers from around the world and sharing expertise.

We do not allow migrant workers to be used as a source of cheap labour and undercut UK workers. Employers must pay salaries at that are least equal to those paid to resident workers with similar skills, as specified in the UK Border Agency’s guidance for sponsors. Sponsors must confirm the salaries and allowances of all migrants that they sponsor. This is checked when the migrant makes a Tier 2 application and verified through later compliance checks. If the company does not pay the stated salary, they risk losing their sponsor licence.

Migrant workers benefit from international tax agreements in the same way that UK workers benefit when employed overseas. Further information is available on the Directgov website.

We support employers who ensure their workers are accommodated whilst in the UK, but we have set an upper limit of 30 per cent of the gross salary package for this type of allowance. This limits the amount of tax relief they are entitled to, as well as ensuring that the workers are paid an appropriate rate for the skilled job they are employed to do in the UK.\”

Commonwealth Contractors

Commonwealth Contractors is a collection of highly skilled professionals from the Commonwealth and beyond. We partner with OISC Registered Immigration Partners capable of professionally representing a Tier 1 Visa Application / Extension and Tier 2 Licensed Consultancy & Associated Trust Partners who may be prepared, where required, to sponsor a doctor on a Tier 2 Visa (formerly UK Work Permit).

To find out more call Commonwealth Contractors now on 0330 390 9021 or Submit your details now and we will get right back to you.. Please be prepared to send a copy of a recent CV so that we can pass to interested partners.