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cbabe

(5,610 posts)
Mon Sep 22, 2025, 11:43 AM 22 hrs ago

US brain drain: UK explores abolishing some visa fees to attract global talent amid Trump's H-1B move: Report

https://www.businesstoday.in/world/story/uk-explores-abolishing-some-visa-fees-to-attract-global-talent-amid-trumps-h-1b-move-report-495063-2025-09-22

UK explores abolishing some visa fees to attract global talent amid Trump’s H-1B move: Report

Business Today Desk
Updated Sep 22, 2025 11:40 AM IST

Amid US’ decision to hike up H-1B visa fees to $100,000 per petition, making it effectively unaffordable for most applicants, the UK is seeing it as an opportunity to gather top global talents for itself. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reportedly exploring proposals to abolish some visa fees for top global talent.

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US brain drain: UK explores abolishing some visa fees to attract global talent amid Trump's H-1B move: Report (Original Post) cbabe 22 hrs ago OP
In related news, Farage's Reform proposes scrapping "indefinite leave to remain", even for those who already have it muriel_volestrangler 21 hrs ago #1

muriel_volestrangler

(104,767 posts)
1. In related news, Farage's Reform proposes scrapping "indefinite leave to remain", even for those who already have it
Mon Sep 22, 2025, 12:38 PM
21 hrs ago

They can't take power until 2029, but Reform lead the polls at the moment, and it needs a sizeable swing to stop either a Reform majority in the Commons in 2029, or a Reform-Conservative coalition.

Under the plans, migrants would need to reapply for new visas with tougher rules, and Reform would abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), which gives people rights and access to benefits.

Reform has also said it plans to bar anyone other than British citizens from accessing welfare. The party claims their plans would save £234bn over several decades.
...
Under the current system, migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years, giving the right to live, study and work in the UK permanently.

It is a key route to gaining British citizenship and allows people to claim benefits.

Reform said it would replace ILR with visas that force migrants to reapply every five years. That includes hundreds of thousands of migrants currently in the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c930xypxpqpo

Instead of granting them ILR, Reform would make non-UK citizens continue to apply for visas with new high salary thresholds, though the party has not specified what those thresholds would be.

The Times reported they would be set at about £60,000, which would be a considerable increase on the current skilled worker visa, which requires people to earn £41,700 a year.

Those visas would not allow the people who have them to access NHS services or benefits and would require advanced English, with strict new limits on whether spouses or family members could join.

The changes would also mean that those applying for citizenship must wait at least seven years and prove a fluent level of English, as well as giving up citizenship of any other country.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/22/farage-vows-to-scrap-settled-status-placing-thousands-at-risk-of-deportation

Roughly, £41,700 a year puts you in the top third of earners; £60k in the top fifth. Farage's use of the "save £234 billion" statistic has already been pointed out as wrong by the thinktank that originally produced it, saying it's inaccurate and they will recalculate it. Farage is also leaning heavily on a claim that over half the people allowed in using the visas, either the people themselves or dependents, "will never work" in the UK, so he calls them out as a burden to be removed. Where this claim came from, I can't tell. It sounds dubious to me; once they're allowed to work, most people do.

The retrospective nature of Reform's ideas has many already questioning if it would be legal; Reform replied "parliament is sovereign, so whatever it decides is legal". So they could make it legal, but it would still be morally awful to start deporting people who have done everything legally and been given indefinite leave to reamin.
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