Foreign IT workers find immigration cap loophole

The government's planned cap on immigration is unlikely to affect the numbers of IT workers from outside the European Union taking up positions in the UK, according to industry groups.

Theresa May has announced a cap on migration from outside the EU from April. Photo credit: Home Office

The cap, announced by announced by Home Secretary Theresa May on Tuesday, will limit the number of non-EU staff who can come to the UK to work.

The proposed cap will not apply to skilled non-EU workers who enter the UK through intra-company transfers (ICTs) as long as they earn more than £40,000 a year if planning to stay more than 12 months. ICTs are the route most non-EU IT staff use to join the UK workforce — close to 10,000 such workers entered the country last year in that way.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Immigration cap won't hit foreign IT worker numbers on silicon.com