UK Finance Sector Calls For Special Work Visa Waiver For Foreign Staff After Brexit

Global banks in the United Kingdom are bidding for a special work visa waiver after Brexit so that London’s position as a top international financial hub is not dented, Reuters reported.

In a draft report by TheCityUK, which promotes the country’s financial services sector, the industry is demanding a new system under which international staff posted to the United Kingdom for less than six months will be able to come and go freely without having to apply for a work visa before they travel, the news agency reported, cited sources.

This proposal is the core demand of the draft report, which tells the government that the finance sector must continue to attract top global talent because is it the biggest source of corporate tax revenue, accounting for 14 per cent of all tax revenue raised in the country.

The report, which is the most detailed one compiled yet by Britain’s finance sector about its vision for immigration policy, has been shared with the Home Office and Treasury, according to the news  agency.

Executives in the City of London, home to global foreign exchange, bonds and fund management operations, and more banks than any other financial center, believe that a crackdown on immigration post Brexit will hamper their ability to find staff with the right skills, it added.

The document is due to be formally unveiled at an event later this month where Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes is set to give a keynote speech, the report said.

As per the current policies, UK companies can bring in employees from other European Union countries without the bureaucratic red tape that’s in place for a worker they hire from outside the bloc. The report is calling for an  “enhanced” immigration system to treat European and non-European staff in the same way after the Brexit transition deal ends in 2020. It expresses concern that post Brexit, European Union nationals who want to work in the country will face the same inflexible “caps” or numerical curbs that non-EU nationals already face, which would only serve to worsen existing skill shortages.

The report recommends that the United Kingdom should introduce a “flexible short-term immigration category” for employees of international banks, insurers, asset managers and related professions such as lawyers and accountants.

As Britain is expected to outline its immigration rules later this year, the report urges the government to set out a broad, post-transition immigration policy by early 2019 so that companies have enough time to adjust.