Change to visa concessions may have scuppered new year hiring - Kim Vowden quoted in Personnel Today

Kim Vowden, Senior Associate in our Immigration team, was quoted in Personnel Today, on 7 January 2021. Kim was commenting on the restriction of the concession allowing people to start work while their Skilled Worker application is pending.

We were hoping this was a sign that the Home Office was about to restart its priority service, which has been suspended for months, but this hasn’t happened,” he said.

If the priority service is restarted and the waiting time for biometric appointments is reduced to five working days (it’s currently around three or four weeks) then it’s fair enough to require applicants to wait for the application to be approved. But until those things happen it makes no sense to restrict the concession to applicants with a CoS assigned before 1 January.

The full article from Personnel Today can be read here

Further information

Should you have an queries regarding the issues raised in this blog please contact Kim or any member of  our immigration team.

About the author

Kim covers all areas of business immigration. He has extensive experience of advising companies in the finance, media and technology sectors.  He has a particular interest in European free movement law and in the implications of Brexit for EU citizens living in the UK, and for their employers.