Nabilah Safira
TechInAfrica – The changes the UK made to its visa policy will make settling careers in the country a more convenient and prospective path for South African professionals.
“The government is modernizing the immigration system to help the UK attract and retain the most highly-skilled, globally mobile talent – particularly in academia, science, research, and technology – from around the world,” Chancellor Rishi Sunak spoke in the UK’s 2021 Budget Speech.
“This will drive innovation, and support UK jobs and growth.”
The high-skilled talents from South Africans can pave their career with the elite-points based visa which is aimed at fintech talents, Global Talent visa, and the Global Business Mobility visa, which is ideal for South African companies looking to establish their UK branches and move their staffs there.
The difference between a Global Talent visa to a standard and skilled work visas is that it doesn’t require a job offer from the sponsoring UK companies.
Below are some of the changes from the Budget:
- Introduce, by March 2022, an elite points-based visa. Within this visa there will be a ’scaleup’ stream, enabling those with a job offer from a recognized UK scale-up to qualify for a fast-track visa.
- Reform the Global Talent visa, including allowing holders of international prizes and winners of scholarships and programs for early promise to automatically qualify.
- Review the Innovator visa to make it easier for those with the skills and experience to found an innovative business to obtain a visa.
- Launch the new Global Business Mobility visa by spring 2022 for overseas businesses to establish a presence or transfer staff to the UK.
- Establish a global outreach strategy by expanding the Global Entrepreneur Programme, marketing the UK’s visa offering, and explore building an overseas talent network
Source: Mybroadband.co.za
