UK’s Scale-Up Visa to attract the ‘best and brightest minds’ worldwide

What’s the latest in UK immigration news? Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced yesterday that the government plans to attract international talent through the Scale-Up Visa to make it quicker and easier for fast-growing businesses to bring in highly skilled individuals.

The new Scale-Up Visa will be launching in spring 2022 to help businesses access talent worldwide. In speaking about the initiative, Sunak said: “A third of our science Nobel Laureates have been immigrants. Half of our fastest growing companies have a foreign-born founder. So, an economy built on innovation must be open and attractive to the best and brightest minds.”

He added, “And the Trade Secretary’s new Global Talent Network, launching initially in the Bay Area, Boston and Bangalore will identify, attract and relocate the best global talent in key science and tech sectors. All part of our plan to make our visa system for international talent the most competitive in the world.”

The Scale-Up Visa is welcome UK immigration news as it makes it easier for international talent to enter the UK. Source: Adrian Dennis/AFP

UK immigration news: Welcome news for international talent

The new Scale-Up Visa could be exciting UK immigration news for international graduates. The visa will be open to applicants who pass the language proficiency requirement and have a high-skilled job offer from an eligible business with a salary of at least £33,000. It aims to “modernise” immigration, the policy hopes to attract talent in academia, science, research and technology worldwide.

The UK wants to become a global hub for talent. The UK Innovation Strategy sets out the government’s vision to make the UK a global hub for innovation by 2035. To achieve this, the UK is opening its borders to top talent to make it easier for them to enter.

“We know that exceptional people and teams are key to vibrant innovation ecosystems. The location of new high-tech industries around the world is in part a function of where the early scientific and entrepreneurial leadership happened to be located,” it said. To lead the industries of the future, it needs to “make the UK the best place in the world to work in R&D.”

“But we currently are losing the global competition to top talent. More inventors leave the UK each year than arrive here,” it said.