Now it has been confirmed. After years of negotiations, second-guessing and internal crises, not only is Brexit official but the government has also established some rules that will regulate the entry flow to the UK. For the next few months there will be few changes, but from 2021, at the end of the transition period, working in Great Britain will become more complicated for those coming from the rest of the world, whether from the European Union or another continent. In short, the plan developed by United Kingdom aims to limit as much as possible entry to migrants that are less qualified, those, for example, that arrive in London – even from rich countries, perhaps just looking for some work experience and not necessity – and find jobs as kitchen porters, waiters or cleaners.
So how do you move to the United Kingdom to work now?
What Boris Johnson’s government has devised is a points based system: to gain a residence permit for employment reasons you will need at least 70 points in an established scale of criteria. To earn points there are nine items, each of which can provide up to 20 points.
To move to the United Kingdom you’ll need 70 points, 50 of which will come from three obligatory prerequisites
Three of these items, however, are obligatory : 50 points (10+20+20) without which it will be impossible to continue. These pre-requisites are 1) having a job offer in hand; 2) speaking a good level of English; 3) possessing specific skills for a job.
You can also earn points based on the salary you earn in the job you already have (as established by the pre-requisites). If you have a job that pays between 20.480 to 23.039 pounds yearly, you don’t add any points to the previous ones; if you have a yearly salary up to 25.599 you earn 10 points; and if your salary is over 25.600 pounds, you earn 20 extra points So people in the higher salary bracket for their current job will earn the 70 points necessary to gain entry to the United Kingdom. For all the rest, you’ll need to earn some extra points.
Also in this perspective highly qualified people are advantaged: those with a PhD in an area related to the job they are about to start earn 10 points; those about to start a job that is experiencing a shortage – the government publishes a list online, for example nursing and engineering – earn 20 points, and those dealing with the so-called Stem subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) can earn 20 more.
These items are obviously often consequential to each other, in the sense that those who have a PhD in an area of engineering will easily find a well payed job, while those in the lower bracket of income will find it harder to earn points based on sought after jobs (usually the reason why salaries are high).
It must be noted that the people already living in the United Kingdom will not need to comply with this ranking: the government has set up plans for these people to automatically achieve residence. It is estimated that there are about 700 thousand Italians in the United Kingdom, 240 thousand of them in London alone. Many of whom, who arrived without speaking English and without knowing what job they might find, will be denied entry according to post-Brexit criteria.