| The Highly Skilled Migrant
Programme (HSMP) allows individuals with exceptional skills to seek
leave to enter/remain in the UK without having a prior offer of
employment. If you are already in the UK under HSMP and if your
current ‘Leave To Remain’ in the UK expires before you
reach the 5 years stay as required for Permanent Resident status
i.e. before you can apply for ‘Indefinite Leave To Remain’
you will have to apply for extension of HSMP visa i.e. you will
have to apply for Further Leave to Remain (FLR) under HSMP.
Once in the UK, individuals are permitted to take up employment
or to engage in self-employment or business here and earlier it
was enough to establish that you are economically active and you
have not sought any support from UK Public Funds. However, under
the new scheme which has come into effect from 7 November 2006,
HSMP extension is almost similar to getting initial HSMP approval.
Under the new HSMP Scheme you will have to:
- Score 75 Points to qualify based on your Age, Education and
Earnings
- You will be able to score 5 Bonus Points if you are claiming
any points for your Earnings in the UK under HSMP
- If you got approval for initial HSMP under MBA Provision, at
the time of extension application you will be able to score only
35 points for your education and you will have to score total
75 points to qualify which means you will have to score remaining
points under Age, Earnings and Experience section.
- Under certain circumstances you may be able to switch your
stay to Work Permit if you cannot score 75 points required for
HSMP extension or may be able to get extension under transition
arrangements made for HSMP extension
- You have to demonstrate English Language Proficiency through
IELTS score of 6 Bands or establish that your education for Bachelor’s
Degree was through English as Medium of Instruction
These changes will affect all those who are currently under Highly
Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) of the UK and who will have to
apply for HSMP extension to qualify for 5 years stay under HSMP.
Those who will be affected most are:
- Persons who have got initial approval i.e. Leave to Remain
or Entry Clearance for 1 year or 12 months and need to apply for
extension for 4 years more
- Persons who have got initial approval i.e. Leave to Remain
or Entry Clearance for 2 years or 24 months and need to apply
for extension of 3 years more
- Persons who have got initial approval i.e. Leave to Remain
or Entry Clearance for 1 year and who successfully got the HSMP
extension i.e. Further Leave to Remain for only 3 years making
total stay under HSMP to 4 years and who need to apply for further
extension of 1 year
Under new HSMP Scheme, to qualify for a grant of further leave
to remain under HSMP, in addition to meeting the other immigration
requirements for a grant of leave in this category, existing participants
must establish that they qualify for the award of a minimum of 75
points or qualify under transitional arrangements.
We have therefore designed first ever online HSMP Extension Pointe
Calculator which you can use for self-assessment of your eligibility
under HSMP. Please use our HSMP
Extension Points Calculator to find out whether you will qualify
under New HSMP Scheme or not and start taking appropriate steps
to make sure that you qualify for extension.
It is very likely that you may have now bought a property in the
UK or made long-term arrangements and you may have struggled initially
to settle in the UK after arrival under HSMP and this new HSMP scheme
can create a lot of stress to you and your family members if you
do not plan for HSMP Extension properly.
Please contact us if you have any doubts about HSMP extension requirements
as we may be able to guide you and help you.
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