UK makes it harder for job seekers to enter

LONDON – It’s been a dream for many nursing graduates in the Philippines to work in the United Kingdom.

Records show the Brits live much longer now, and the number of elderly is steadily increasing.

This prompted the British government to initiate internal training for their own nurses and caregivers, a move that will surely cut down the demand in the UK medical field.

“It’s still an opportunity. It’s not as easy as it was. The requirements are harder but the opportunities are still there, and people are still coming,” said immigration law practitioner Steve Symonds.

Symonds warns syndicates engaged in the issuance of questionable student visas as a preliminary step by any applicant to eventually work in the UK.

He explains the requirements are now much stricter in obtaining a student visa, and those who get it are only allowed 10 hours of work in a week instead of the usual 20 hours before.

Such requirement would be the submission of a certificate of sponsorship emanating from a licensed UK college or university.

Failure to do so would mean the school would be answerable to the Home Office, especially when the recipient ends up working and not studying as prescribed in his application.

“It’s not a good idea to use the route to being a student as a way of becoming a worker. If you want to become a worker, you need to apply as a worker. If you don’t meet the requirement as a worker, then I’m afraid you may not be able to come,” he said.

Symonds says automatic deportation and being blacklisted in the UK will be enforced immediately once fake documents and perjury are committed by the applicant. –Danny Buenafe, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, Chief