Global Immigration News
July 2010
United Kingdom
Changes to maintenance funds assessment
The High Court ruled in July that going forward there will now be a change to the maintenance funds assessment. Previously, the UK Border Agency (“UKBA”) required an applicant to have the necessary funds in his or her bank account for a continuous period of 3 months prior to the filing of a visa application as proof of maintenance funding.
The High Court ruling of July now means that the maintenance funding requirement will be met as long as the applicant has sufficient funds held in the relevant account for any one day in the one month period preceding the filing of a visa application.
This new immigration policy covers the following circumstances:
- Any applicant or any dependents of the main applicant who applied for Tier 1, 2, 4, or 5 visas from within the UK on or before 22 July 2010 and were refused solely due to a failure to meet the maintenance requirements.
- Any applicant or any dependents of the main application who applied for Tier 1, 2, 4, or 5 visas from outside the UK between 23 June and 22 July 2010, and were refused solely due to a failure to meet the maintenance funds requirements.
Tier 1 visa interim limit
The Home Office have now introduced an interim limit for Tier 1 Visa applications effective from 19 July 2010. If you are currently making or intend to make an application for a Tier 1 visa, please note the following two main changes to the application process:
- There will be an interim limit imposed on Tier 1 (General) visa applications from 19 July 2010 to 31 March 2011 (After 31 March 2011, the Home Office intend to officially introduce a permanent cap on the number of Tier 1 (General) visa issuances. The figure for the cap has not yet been decided).
- Each Tier 1 (General) visa applicant will now need to gain 100 points to be eligible to apply for a Tier 1 (General) visa instead of the previous point’s requirement of 95 points.
Under the current interim limit, the Home Office have now confirmed that if your application is received after the limit for the month has been reached, then your visa application will be considered in the visa allocation for the following month. A visa application can still be submitted even if the visa limit has been reached however, the visa will not be issued until visas actually become available.
The new immigration interim limit for Tier 1 visa applications could mean that processing times have been increased. In light of this, please consider applying sooner rather than later to avoid possible visa processing delays.
The Tier 1 interim visa limit will not apply under the following circumstances:
- If you are already in the UK under a category that will allow you to switch to the Tier 1 visa (please note that you will still require 100 points to be eligible).
- If you are a dependent of a Tier 1 Visa applicant.
- If you wish to apply under the post-study worker, entrepreneur or investor categories of Tier 1.
Other changes to the Tier 1 visa category are as follows:
- If you can show previous earnings of £150,000 or more your points score will increase from 75 to 80 points.
- If you have an MBA that meets the requirements, your points score will increase from 75 to 80 points.
For further information or if you have any questions in relation to the above, please contact one of our consultants at contact@bonheuroutsourcing.com