More than half of all applicants for 'Tier 2' UK visa or traditionally known as work-permit have been rejected in recent months, including 2300 applications from doctors and nearly 2000 IT professionals were rejected, according to official figures.
The figures, obtained by the law firm Eversheds Sutherland through a freedom of information (FOI) request, come after the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said he was “taking a fresh look” at the cap on skilled migrants.
The figures further revealed in total out of 18,517 applicantions, 10,187 were rejected over the last five months. Under current rules a maximum of 20,700 certificate of sponsorship are issued under the Tier 2 visa.
With Brexit nearing, a decline in EU workers in UK has triggered this requirement, but Theresa May promises to still cut down immigration by hundreds and thousands.
A British Medical Association spokesman told The Guardian: “These figures demonstrate that the tier 2 visa cap is resulting in thousands of highly trained, experienced doctors being blocked from taking up empty posts in the health service that the NHS is unable to fill.
“This is a situation that we cannot afford at a time when the NHS is under unsustainable pressure from rising demand, stagnating budgets and widespread staff shortages.”
