mumbai the united kingdom uk recently tightened its immigration regulations for skilled migrants even applications for entry into the uk of skilled workers being deputed by indian companies to their ukbased subsidiary will come in for scrutiny by uks home office applications of all tier2 skilled workers migrants will be scrutinized to ascertain that job descriptions and salary thresholds have not been exaggerated to meet immigration requirements and that local resident workers in the uk have been offered a fair opportunity to apply for these advertised jobs earlier uk had made job advertisements mandatory if a ukbased company wanted to recruit a skilled migrant worker it was also necessary to prove that there is no suitable uk resident worker available for the job now the process of scrutiny has been introduced according to grant thorntonciis tracker there are over 700 indianowned businesses in the uk employing more than a lakh people see table of top 5 companies however a breakup of those who are migrants from india and those who are resident employees uk citizens isnt available the top 41 indianowned companies generate around 19 billion pounds rs 184 lakh crore in turnover the sectors represented are wide ranging and include pharmaceuticals chemical technology telecom automotive and manufacturing a genuine vacancy assessment has now been introduced these changes in the immigration rules empower uks entry clearance officer eco to refuse applications for entry into the uk if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the job described by the sponsor company in its offer advertisements is exaggerated to meet the tier2 skills requirements or is inappropriate for the job on offer the eco will also examine whether the job description has been tailored to exclude uk resident local workers from being recruited explains sarosh zaiwalla senior partner zaiwalla co a ukbased solicitors firm in order to qualify for tier 2 the job the applicant is applying for either has to be to a phd level for example biological scientists and biochemists or an nqf level 6 for example chief executives and senior officials states zaiwalla co in order to be eligible for a tier2 general visa the applicant has to have an annual income of at least 20500 pounds roughly rs 20 lakh a year applicants who are being sponsored by their employer company and are working on a thirdparty site will also be assessed closely to ensure that the employee is only conducting projectbased services as part of the client contract it is likely that the uk authorities will seek to review client contracts either at the time that the employees uk immigration application is made or during a uk immigration audit at a client site the companies affected such as consultancy and it firms in india should take note of these measures and the additional delays the checks may cause says margaret burton partner ey uk an immigration expert attached to a software company in india says smaller sized companies which carried on a