Starting from early 2008 the changes will be fully rolled out by early 2009. The 80 existing ways for economic migrants to enter the UK will be consolidated into five tiers, all of which will be points based. 

The change will affect some 350,000 – 400,000 individuals, who come to work, train or study in the UK every year from the USA, Australia, Canada, India, China, Nigeria, South Africa and other countries outside Europe's internal market, known as the European Economic Area (EEA).  Their employers (and educational institutions) in the UK will also be affected.

The points based system will not necessarily slow down the surge in net immigration to the UK, much of which in recent years has come from Eastern Europeans exercising their newly acquired free movement rights.  Commonwealth nationals with close UK ancestry and migrants coming to the UK through marriage and other family routes will also be outside the points based system.

A combination of new rules and procedures, however, the devolving of decision making from the UK to British missions abroad and the abolition of any formal right of appeal, mean that non-EEA nationals are likely to face an increased level of rejections in future unless applications are prepared very thoroughly. By 2008 the Government will also overhaul the rules for visitors coming to the UK for less than six months and, by 2011, introduce biometric visas for all non-EEA nationals.

Some details of the new points based system are still being worked out but it will have five tiers for different types of migrant:

• Tier 1: Highest skilled workers
• Tier 2: Skilled workers with a job offer
• Tier 3: Low skilled workers to fill temporary gaps in the UK labour force
• Tier 4: Students
• Tier 5:Youth mobility and temporary workers, e.g. those on "gap years" or professional sportspeople coming to compete at a sporting event.

Tiers 1 and 2 are broadly equivalent to the current Highly Skilled Migrant Programme and various Work Permit schemes, which will be abolished. Only those qualifying under tiers 1 or 2 will have a route to settlement in the UK after a qualifying period normally of five years. Family members will be able to join. Tiers 3 – 5 are temporary categories where people will have to return home at the end of their stay in the UK.

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