npanglia wrote:With new rules in place, share your opinion if no. of applicants for Tier 1 will increase or decrease?
I believe it will increase temporarily for first few months, but overall will decrease over a period of time.
Depends on the country I think and the multipliers applied to that country. For example, in New Zealand, the multiplier is very generous. Eventually when multipliers are updated, NZ will surely decrease. So therefore it may increase and then decrease as you stated, as the multiplier is updated.
Australia on the other hand, has a multiplier of 1. So the overall volume of applications should (in theory) decrease, due the higher earnings requirement. Same deal goes with UK (extension applications, and Tier 1 PSW to General applications would decrease due to the higher earnings requirement).
I suspect the intention of the changes are to decrease the number of applicants. Given the low popularity of the UK government with the public right now, if the intention were to increase immigration, then there would be public outcry. The public would definitely not vote the current government in again, in which case.
Still, I'm all in favour of the changes. Partly because based on the new rules, I appear to be eligible, and that makes me happy since I'm applying the moment I can. Also, partly because I genuinely believe that previous earnings is a better indicator of higher skill, over merely having just come out of University with a Masters or PhD. This is more in line with the spirit of the Tier 1 General visa. I know many people that have gained masters or higher, but in terms of common sense, street smarts and experience, they pale in comparison to someone who has worked longer in the workforce. Naturally, working longer equates to higher pay. I'm glad that MAC and the London business district agrees
.
Of course, using the same argument as above, someone without a bachelor's degree , but more years work experience should be eligible too (and the new changes do reflect that with the 150k+ earnings bracket). I would agree completely, because I've used all of maybe 5% of the stuff I learned from my Bachelors in the real world. But that isn't my call
.