The UK plans to attract FinTech specialists

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that the UK government was introducing a new Tech Visa to attract talented FinTech specialists from abroad.

This new visa will be most likely sponsored by Tech Nation that promotes technological development in the UK. Currently, this company supports the Global Talent visa.

An applicant for a new Tech Visa must meet at least one of the below requirements:

• Be a high-tech expert; take part in the development, deployment and operation of innovative solutions and development of technical infrastructure.
• Be in possession of shares in large companies that specialise in digital products.
• Have a talent in the sphere of digital technologies development to fall into the so-called “exceptional talent” subcategory.
• Have enough potential to become a leading digital specialist to fall into the so-called “promising talent” subcategory.

At first glance, Tech visa may seem to partially duplicate Global Talent visa. But the requirements are expected to be less strict, so it will be available to more specialists.

Tech visa will help the UK to strengthen its positions on the FinTech market through attracting not only global talent, but also qualified specialists that the country currently lacks. The British government hopes that a new visa will help to solve this problem.

The USA seem to have lagged behind in the global competition of attracting foreign specialists since 2020 when Donald Trump stopped issuing the H1-B visas. China can catch up by recovering its economy after the pandemic and thanks to the R visa that was introduced in 2018. At the same time, the visa requirements in China are not uniform and differ depending on the region.

Under these circumstances, the UK with its active Global Talent visa and new Tech visa schemes has all the chances to become a leader in attracting high-tech specialists.

This is not the first time that the high-tech sector comes under the spotlight of people responsible for the UK immigration policies. It is expected that further information about the new visa will be provided by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 when he presents his budget plan.