Britain today announced new immigration rules for skilled and highly skilled migrants, including those from India, under which the criteria of earnings has been increased.
Under the new rules, which will be applicable from April 6, the minimum previous earnings for those applying under Tier 1 has been increased from the current 20,000 pounds to 25,000 pounds.
For Tier-II, the minimum prospective earnings has been increased from 17,000 pounds to 20,000 pounds, while the highest earnings threshold has been set at 32,000 pounds, increased from 24,000 pounds, a release from the British High Commission said.
India continues to be an important source country of highly skilled and skilled migrants and Indian migrants continue to do well under Tier 1 and 2 of the points based system, with New Delhi accounting for the highest number of Tier 2 applications worldwide.
Tier 2 (ICT) will no longer lead to settlement in the UK, to reflect the intrinsically temporary nature of ICT roles, the release said.
The UK government also accepted changes to Tier 1 recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and has set out further details of how it will implement changes the MAC recommended to Tier 2.
It also reintroduced points for Bachelor Degrees for those with high previous earnings (of at least 35,000 pounds).