A clear, if bizarre, demonstration of how changes to Britain’s immigration rules are affecting doing business there is the Confederation of Indian Industry’s struggle over the past few months to have a full-time head of operations based in the UK.

At the industry body’s annual conference in London, CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee told BusinessLine that the organisation has been struggling for the past 8-10 months to get a visa for a bureau head for the UK.

Instead, the current head, Shuchita Sonalika, has been travelling to the UK on a business visa, which, while not hindering CII’s work, was making it “difficult” to do business in the UK.

“The UK is a very important office for us… it is our oldest office… but because of changes to the Tier 1 visas, and we being registered under the Societies [Registration] Act in India, we have not been able to get advice on a full solution,” said Banerjee.

CII has joined other industry bodies in Britain and India in expressing concern over the direction of the UK immigration policy.

Last month, the Conservative government, freed from the constraints of operating a coalition, announced plans to further cut the migration of highly skilled workers from outside the EU and is considering measures including introducing a time limit on the period for which a sector can claim to have a skills shortage, and a levy on skilled visas. It also plans to raise the minimum salary threshold for a highly skilled migrant visa.

On Friday, a CII delegation is to meet the Migration Advisory Committee. The delegation will highlight the contribution by Indian companies to the UK (Indian companies employ around 110,000 people) as well as the burdens imposed on them by the immigration system.

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