UK Skilled Immigration

The United Kingdom made good on its promise to hand out ID mandatory biometric ID cards to foreign nationals. The change comes as part of the Government's efforts to show Britons that they are "tough" on immigration. From the horse's mouth:

The UK Border Agency will begin accepting applications for Tier 2 for skilled workers and Tier 5 for temporary workers on 27 November 2008.

If you are in an immigration category (such as the Work Permit scheme) that will be replaced by Tier 2 or Tier 5 and you want to extend your stay in the UK on or after 27 November 2008, you will need to take a look at transitional arrangements for your immigration category.

See here for more details.

Phil Woolas, the UK's new immigration minister, said the Government's policy needs to provide confidence to the native population that migration is "under control" by placing an upper limit on migration.

"On a common sense level there has to be a limit to the population," Woolas said. "You have to have a policy that thinks about the population implication as well as the immigration implication."