UK visa system ‘letting down executive talent’ By Jonathan Moules, Enterprise Correspondent The pioneering British fast-track visa system for business founders is being undermined by the lack of an equivalent system for foreign-born executive talent, several successful UK-based entrepreneurs have claimed. Nick Halstead, the Reading-based founder of Datashift, credited with creating the ‘retweet’ button for Twitter, said he almost lost a Japanese-born developer who was crucial for his company’s expansion into Asia, after a mix-up over the his existing work permit at King’s College. Mr Halstead had to secure an emergency hearing for the developer’s visa application in Liverpool, one of only seven UK Border Agency offices that deals with on-the-spot applications. The developer was almost barred from the hearing because he did not have his passport, which the Home Office had held on to after the original application was refused. Mr Halstead only managed to resolve the matter because, by chance, the deputy director of the Home Office happened to be in Liverpool that day and was able to overrule the local stewards barring the developer from entry. Even then, Mr Halstead had to increase his new developer’s salary to above €70,000, as offering anything below this amount would have meant he would have had to advertise the position for 12 weeks to satisfy UK immigration law. “It started getting quite farcical,” Mr Halstead said. “Basically they broke their own rules to allow it to happen.” Such frustrations are in contrast to the praise many overseas founders and their backers lavish on the UK’s tier 1 entrepreneur visa system, which allows individuals with more than £50,000 to invest to come to Britain and start a business. Michael Fertik, founder of New York-based Reputation, recently bought UK-based start-up Reputation 24/7 to expand his operations into Europe. He claims that the UK currently has the world’s most entrepreneur-friendly regulatory environment and is benefiting from a shortage of H-1B visas in the US that is preventing American start-ups from hiring qualified foreign staff. It is the shortcomings of the US visa system that is driving companies like Google, which recently announced plans to build a new UK headquarters close to the redeveloped King’s Cross Station complex, to set up teams of developers outside the US, according to Mr Fertik. “This is a huge boom for the London technology scene,” he said. “It is just a nonsense to put engineers anywhere apart from your home office. If you are doing that it is because immigration [law] is getting in your way.” However, many entrepreneurs believe the US will resolve its problems soon, possibly through the immigration reform legislation currently passing through Congress. “When the US does the right thing by itself I think this will be a bad thing for London,” Mr Fertik said. A Home Office spokesman said the UK offered an “excellent visa service”, having introduced online applications and booking systems to make the process simpler, quicker, clearer and easier to access. “There was a 5 per cent increase in visas issued for skilled individuals under Tier 2 in the year to March 2013 showing we are attracting the brightest and best to the UK and supporting the growth agenda,” he added. Still, some start-up founders say they remain frustrated with the current system. Alex Cheatle’s London-based lifestyle management business Ten Group employs 350 people in six countries. He claims that the UK’s tier 2 visa application process has become markedly more difficult in the past 18 months and it has made him seriously consider moving more of his operations overseas. “If you cannot recruit managers for a team here you have to shift the entire department offshore,” he said. A recent senior appointment at Ten almost fell through because the lawyer the company had hired to complete the process entered a wrong code number on the tier 2 visa application form. “That was someone who was supposed to be an expert in this field who gave me the wrong information,” Mr Cheatle said, adding that he now has senior executives double check every application. The irony is that the UK has made it far easier than other places to create a company, according to Mr Cheatle, who notes it is now easier to obtain work visas for senior hires in all the countries Ten operates in outside the UK, including China, Japan and Mexico. “I am very passionate about being a British-based business, but it becomes much more difficult to sustain that when you have got a global company,” he said.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 07:03:27 +0000
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