Alexander Chreky came to London in 2021 to study international development and stayed to work as an analyst of raw materials in the city. With his career on the right track, he planned to settle down and become a British citizen, then to make longer -term decisions concerning the purchase of an apartment with a partner.
These plans are now in the air after the government's decision to increase the waiting time for indefinite leave to remain in Great Britain from five to 10 years.
With a work in global white collar, mastery and security of American citizenship, it is less exposed to the whims of immigration policy than many others. “I can finish well,” says Chreky.
But with the populist United Kingdom reform The part increasing in the ballot boxes, wait after the next general elections to gain settlement rights are not attractive. He said he felt “I was wrong”.
It is one of the more than 1.5 million people who face anxious months while waiting for ministers to define the details of the new requirements for migrants.
Currently, most people who come to the United Kingdom on long-term work visas, family and refugee roads, or on visas for British nationals from Hong Kong, can request established status after five years of continuous residence, opening the eligibility for services and a way to citizenship.
Under the plans described in a white paper This month, the default period will double at 10 years, with a system based on points allowing people to qualify earlier according to their “contributions to the British economy and society”.
The criteria seem to promote people with high income or jobs in the NHS and other key areas, but the impact of policy will depend on where the bar is defined.
Interior secretary, Yvette Cooper, hopes that the change applies to migrants who are already in the United Kingdom, as well as new arrivals. People with British citizens will still be able to settle after five years. But when asked to clarify who else could be affected, the Interior Ministry said that there would be a consultation later in the year.
“Regulation in the United Kingdom is a privilege, not a right,” said the Ministry of the Interior.
Among the potentially affected people, there have been more than 1 million people who have come to the United Kingdom since 2021 on qualified workers visas or as supporting family members.
This figure includes more than 650,000 NHS workers and care and their families, including many unpaid care workers who have contracted large debts to come to the United Kingdom and cannot easily return home.
Other qualified workers cover a wide range of occupations, chefs and butchers to very paid programmers, bankers and consultants.
More than 163,000 British nationals from Hong Kong, who have moved to the United Kingdom since 2021, largely for political reasons, could also face a longer expectation for the settlement, with little option to return to the territory where they fear persecution. Refugees and people on certain other work visas would also be included in the total.
Political analysts claim that a 10 -year expectation will deepen the insecurity of migrants, leaving many people dependent on the employer's sponsorship and paid thousands of pounds per year in visa costs and at the NHS costs. Those who have children may have to pay international costs to access British universities.
The ministers said that highly qualified and well -remunerated professionals are the type of migrants who benefit the most in the United Kingdom – but these highly mobile people quickly reconcile their commitment to the country.
“I have the impression of starting from scratch,” said an India economist, whose qualified worker's visa was sponsored by an environmental consulting firm earlier this year.
Although he appreciates his work, he worries that his employer is not willing to sponsor his long -term visa and plans to move to a larger company only for security.
Seeing friends in the Netherlands with an easier path to citizenship, “I would be much more open to consider opportunities in the EU or elsewhere,” he said.
“Being kept in limbo for a decade is not nice, especially for people who have options,” said another economist who came from India to the United Kingdom to study in 2018 and went to a qualified worker visa in 2021.
“You can't really settle down, you have a second reflection on the purchase of goods, on your investments, on your retirement contributions,” she said.
In addition to this uncertainty, great professional drawbacks for people who came to the United Kingdom to advance their career.
“This whole exercise would mean that you are forced to stay with a single employer … if you hate your work, or if you feel like you want to grow, you cannot do this in the United Kingdom,” said the second economist.
For this reason, many people are now faced with deeply difficult compromises between their professional and personal life.
“I did some of my closest friends here, I met my partner here,” said an Indian national who came to study in the United Kingdom in 2021, began working on a graduate visa in a sustainable financial policy and going to a visa of qualified worker earlier this year.
Now, despite the key, she plans to seek similar roles in the EU, Singapore or Dubai, rather than depending on a visa sponsor for so long.
“I don't want to be linked to a single business. I am so early in my career, I would like to explore more, ”she said.
Dillon Naicker, a South African National working in global mobility for a four-old accounting firm, said many British companies that he advises now hire people to work from their country of origin, rather than undergoing the costs of bringing them to the United Kingdom.
Having fought to move a job, after coming to the United Kingdom during an intra-business transfer in 2020, he expects the new policy will make people more difficult for him to go ahead, because employers will become more suspicious of sponsor the visas.
“I came because the United Kingdom needed my skills,” he said. “All my social connections and my groups are there. I am in a relationship … I wanted it to be my permanent house. ”
With 18 months before he planned to request an established status, he believes that the government returns on his side of the good deal. “I almost feel like I was used.”
