Britain has tightened immigration rules from January 2010 for Indian information technology (IT) professionals seeking to move to the UK under inter-company transfers, reports PTI.

From next year, workers in this category will need to have one year’s experience with their employer instead of six months at present, before they can be transferred to the UK, official sources said.

The immigration category will be closed as a route to permanent settlement in the UK. This means that IT professionals who come to the UK under inter-company transfer will not be allowed to settle here permanently even after the mandatory stay of five years.

Immigration officials also denied reports that the Tier 2 (intra-company transfer) category of the points-based system was providing a loophole for Indian IT companies to bring foreign workers into the UK.

Under an intra-company transfer, an employer can fill vacancies in its UK operations by bringing across some of its existing staff based at overseas locations.

It has been claimed that this enables jobs in IT and other sectors to be taken by migrants who are paid less than resident workers.

The British Home Office, however, said that this was not true. "Workers coming to the UK in the Tier 2 (intra-company transfer) category must be paid the going rate,” it said.
— Yogesh Sapkale