It's become significantly more difficult, and expensive, to move the UK as a non-EEA migrant during the decade I've been here.
The visa I held for a long time and under which I qualified for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) - Tier 1 - I would no longer be able to obtain, because despite the PhD and years of employment, my salary would be deemed insufficient by quite a lot. You must make £150k/annum now. Originally the salary requirement was on a sliding scale depending on employment experience, depended on your geographic location (so more required from richer countries) and was much more in line with what an academic might make, as opposed to a banker.
Visas based on marriage or civil partnership used to be easier to obtain, and it took less time to get ILR on them. People used to ask me why the bloke and I didn't just get married because it would only take three years for me to qualify for ILR. Now it's five years, just as with employment-based visas, and there are also savings and salary requirements on both partners which are quite restrictive.
I don't know the specifics of visa schemes in other European countries for non-EEA migrants but given that the overall European attitude toward migration seems to be unfavourable, I can't imagine that they're less restrictive. :/
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-04-18 10:17 am (UTC)The visa I held for a long time and under which I qualified for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) - Tier 1 - I would no longer be able to obtain, because despite the PhD and years of employment, my salary would be deemed insufficient by quite a lot. You must make £150k/annum now. Originally the salary requirement was on a sliding scale depending on employment experience, depended on your geographic location (so more required from richer countries) and was much more in line with what an academic might make, as opposed to a banker.
Visas based on marriage or civil partnership used to be easier to obtain, and it took less time to get ILR on them. People used to ask me why the bloke and I didn't just get married because it would only take three years for me to qualify for ILR. Now it's five years, just as with employment-based visas, and there are also savings and salary requirements on both partners which are quite restrictive.
I don't know the specifics of visa schemes in other European countries for non-EEA migrants but given that the overall European attitude toward migration seems to be unfavourable, I can't imagine that they're less restrictive. :/