IT experts to receive top immigration status

Overseas IT workers are likely to among those given the highest status in the Home Office’s plans for a points-based immigration system.

Immigrants wishing to live or work in the UK will be categorised according to their skills and abilities, under the proposed scheme. The ‘tier one’ category is aimed at the ‘highest skilled’ immigrants with degrees or PhDs in shortage areas, without the need for a sponsoring employer and permit applicants to bring their families.

Tier two is aimed at skilled workers in shortage areas and will apply to those of GNVQ level three and above who will have to have job offers from sponsoring employers.

Which group an applicant belongs to will depend on how many points he or she scores, but suitably-qualified IT experts are likely to be awarded tier one status.

But Tory Immigration spokesman Damian Green warns that the new system could be threatened by problems linking three existing Home Office computer systems.

Green backed the proposal for a five-tier system but says the need to merge the systems ‘will send a chill down the spine of anyone who's seen the Home Office run big complex computer systems’.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke denies alterations to systems would delay his five-year strategy.

‘I am very confident that this can be introduced successfully. It needs to be properly prepared and the transitions need to be properly managed,’ he said.