On 16 March, the UK government announced changes to immigration rules, implementing the final phase of changes previously recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee in March 2016. The majority of these changes will take effect on 6 April.

'Difficult time' for global companies operating in the UK

Tracy Evlogidis, Immigration Partner at global law firm Morgan Lewis, who has been appointed, among six other lawyers, to the Law Society's Brexit Migration Strategic Reference Group, made the following comments.“These additional raft of changes will be extremely costly to employers. The changes were proposed before the EU referendum and are arguably implementing an outdated strategy.“They will come as a further blow to employers who are already dealing with a loss of talent from the EU and who are focused on allocating resources to dealing with employee related issues stemming from Brexit.“It is a truly difficult time to be a global company operating in the UK without a sophisticated HR team to deal with this. Immigration is fast becoming a luxury for high valued employees.” A synopsis of the changes, which involve an Immigration Skills Charge and changes to Tier 2 applications, among others, can be found at Morgan LewisFor related news and features, visit our Immigration section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory.  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit