LawFuel – <a href= The Legal Jobs & Newswire – As lawyers increasingly travel to the UK for work, it has become apparent that th visa system for entry and work in the United Kingdom has become overcomplicated, confusing and inefficient.
As a result, the British Home Office is now in the process of replacing the old system with a more straightforward system based on a system of allocated points.
The new visas are categorised into tiers numbering 1 to 5.
• Tier 1: Highly skilled individuals to contribute to growth and productivity; (implemented 29 February 2008)
• Tier 2: Skilled workers with a job offer to fill gaps in United Kingdom labour force (being introduced in Autumn of 2008);
• Tier 3: Limited numbers of low skilled workers needed to fill temporary labour shortages (currently suspended);
• Tier 4: Students (introduced spring of 2009);
• Tier 5: Youth mobility and temporary workers: people allowed to work in the United Kingdom for a limited period of time to satisfy primarily non-economic objectives.
Tiers 3 and 4 are for students and low skilled workers neither of which are applicable to legal specialists. The three visas of most relevance to lawyers are Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 5.
See: LawFuel.co.nz for full details on the revamped UK visa system.
LawFuel is the New Zealand legal jobs and news board.
