Chennai: As the US poses restrictions on tech talent mobility, the UK is exploring proposals to abolish some visa fees for global talent and lure them to the country.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s “global talent task force” is working on ideas to lure to the UK the world’s best scientists, academics and digital experts, as it seeks to stimulate economic growth, as per a report by Financial Times. This comes at a time when the US is making mobility of global talent difficult by increasing the fee for H-1B visa to $100,000.
One option being considered is abolishing visa charges for top-level professionals – people who have attended the world’s top five universities or have won prestigious prizes. The idea is to cut costs to zero.
The discussions are being driven by the global talent task force, chaired by Varun Chandra, Starmer’s business adviser, and Lord Patrick Vallance, science minister.
The UK is also looking at helping people navigate the visa process to get the brightest and best people into Britain without diluting determination to bring down net migration. Britain’s global talent visa, introduced in 2020, costs £766 to apply for, with partners and children paying the same fee. An annual health surcharge fee of £1,035 is usually applied to each person applying.
The visa is aimed at eminent people in science, engineering, humanities, medicine, digital technology or arts and culture. In the year ending June 2023, there was a 76 per cent rise in the number of global talent visas granted, taking the total to 3,901.
