UK relaxes immigration for five occupations to get work visa: Here are the details

LONDON - In a major amendment, the government of the United Kingdom has made it easier for construction workers to get work visas of the country.

The development comes as government updated its shortage occupation list and made it more relaxed for overseas bricklayers and carpenters to relocate to the kingdom.

The list also includes roofers and plasterers, and highlights the occupations in which employers are facing challenges to find workers especially in the backdrop of recovery after the Covid-19.

According to the details, Government advisors in the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) looked at 26 occupations in construction and hospitality, but only five were recommended for inclusion on the shortage occupations list.

Surprisingly, the hospitality sector was not able to make it to the list despite the fact that the sector is also facing shortage of employees. 

The five occupations approved by the committee are Bricklayers and masons, Roofers, roof tilers and slaters, Carpenters and joiners, Construction and building trades n.e.c, Plasterers.

The list has been revised as vacancies have risen strongly in construction sector as compared to pre-pandemic levels. As far as the figures are concerned, from November 2022 to January 2023, compared with the period before the pandemic from January to March 2020, vacancies are 72% higher in hospitality and 65% higher in construction, BBC News reported.

The committee which recommended the revision of list stated that its review focused on whether an occupation made up over 0.5% of the sector workforce and earned below the current general threshold for migrants which stands at £26,200.

The committee members also considered the "strategic importance of construction for the UK economy" and how its workforce was likely to change in the next decade, with "demand likely to increase markedly".

What surprises immigration experts at the moment is the fact that hospitality sector was not able to make it to the list but the committee said overall employment in hospitality had recovered since a large fall during the pandemic and "now comfortably" surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Any of the hospitality occupations including chefs, restaurant or bar managers were not shortlisted primarily because the committee thought that "the government was clear that such a recommendation should be exceptional and based on particularly strong evidence".

The issue of immigration has been at the forefront of policymakers both in the US as well as in the UK.  In the year ending June 2022, just under 1.1m people came to the UK and an estimated 560,000 left the country.