UK politics and immigration

Even though the economy is supposedly picking up, immigration remains a hot topic as the UK continues to try and lock down the borders and implement hurdles for those of us entering legally. I've been achieving my old pc data as it is ready for retirement at 8 years old. Here was a photo from before, with yours truly in the foreground:
Local elections are upcoming on May 5, 2011. My corner of Essex is a hotly contested battleground as the numbers in the last election were very close. As well, we're a densely populated region of many flats, so one assumes a transient population. Therefore the parties are out in full force, to try and lock down a win. Every week, I get papers under the door, telling me who I should vote for, and why the other party has failed me. These folks are out prior to 9 AM on Sundays, during the week and at all other hours. Unfortunately, as a non-UK citizen, their papers are mainly a waste as I have no vote here.

Back from Germany

Posting has been a little lax recently, sorry about that. I had a last minute trip to Germany for work last week. I must admit, the weather could not have been more glorious--decadently spring-like in the Koeln/D'dorf region.

Coming into DE, I can choose between low budget flights to Cologne via German Wings or D'dorf via Air Berlin under benevolent company J's travel policy. I loathe Wings to the very core of my being; I put them into the same category as Ryan Air, mainly because of the lingering memories of when they did not assign seats and I had no desire to join the scrum that involves unassigned plane seating and Germans...as well their 'Happy Snack' concept and charging for luggage just irritates me...so Air Berlin with their assigned seating and one free bag is my choice.

Coming into passport control at D'dorf, I still travel under my DE permanent residency permit. Two years back, I tried to get them to stamp me in, but they refused. Apparently, according to the passport guy, they are not allowed to stamp me as long as the permit is in effect. It is the rules! Ja, ok. So every time since I've just shown the residency page and I've been in 12-15 times and no one blinked twice.

This time, I was in the foreigner queue with a real stickler. I counted 30 EU'ites passing in the EU queue while I was #3 in the Auslander queue. The passport guy was questioning the American in position #1 about what he was doing on this trip to Germany and where he was travelling to onward, and why was he not stamped out of Germany on his last visit (he left from Germany to Belgium by car), and on and on...

The main queue finally ran out of EU people so that guy took person #2, and I got the stickler. I hand him the passport and he scans it and then looks at his screen. I imagine my German travel history now looks questionable at best:
-2003-2009 - a variety of trips in and out, with Germany obviously as a base
-2009 - permanent residency, and then a lot of time out of Germany, once I moved to the UK.

I see him scan and then squint at the screen.
He looks through the passport, page by page, passing all of the expired DE permits and the current UK one.
He looks up at me, and I give him an appropriate German scowl.
He looks once again at the screen.
Apparently he decides that I'm not an easy enough target as he hands back my passport through the slot with a 'Danke schoen'.

At the end of the year I need to renew my passport early in order to be able to get my new UK work permit sticker in Feb 2012 as my pass expires in early 2014 and the new sticker needs the passport to be valid for six months beyond the next permit expiration. So the work permit will go to Feb 2014, therefore the passport needs to be valid until Aug 2014, else they will limit the work permit and charge exorbitant fees to extend it again. My cheapest option is to renew my passport early and not be limited by the UK then.

As a result, as of Nov of this year, I will lose my free access into Germany, until I can claim UK citizenship in Feb 2014, right after getting permanent residency here (assuming that all laws remain as they all now.)

How much do I dread that gap year of 2013 and travelling to DE??

187 weeks

That is the amount of time until I can apply for permanent residency in the UK. Immediately after I can start the process of applying for citizenship and then a UK passport so I no longer have to stand in the mega long customs line when flying into the UK--as long as the government does not change the current rules. That would be in 3 years, 7 months, and 3 days, but who is counting?

Sunday morning at Heathrow, returning from the US:
amount of time my UK travel partner spent in the queue: 0 minutes. They had a few booths open and no UK or EU people coming through.

amount of time Heather spent in the queue: 52 minutes. They had 9 booths open for hundreds of people, many of whom had exotic passports and were subject to many minutes of questioning and having to retrive paperwork from backpacks and who were sometimes sent to the 'visitor holding pen' a little fenced in area with seats to await further immigration questioning.

My irritation is that with my work permit I usually get questioned for less than a minute. I've started to come to the desk saying 'same job, same address, left on x date from the UK' in order to save them the effort.

On that point, 1 year, 7 months, 3 days or 83 weeks until my current work permit needs to go in for renewal. The current coalition government is already seeking to change the rules to limit non-EU migration into the UK, so if you're thinking of applying for a UK work permit, time to get cracking. Migration limits are expected to by introduced from April 2011. As is currently stands, migration limits are only expected to impact new applications, meaning that currently approved migrants are excluded. They are, however, increasing the points required for renewal it appears. Fortunately I'm still in the game.

If you're bored, the consultation paperwork is here.

UK shortage list updates

I always keep an eye on what is happening on the UK immigration scene, in particular in case they introduce any new requirements which may impact my later applications for extensions.

All things being held equal...assuming you have desire and drive to go and live in another country, there are certainly a lot of opportunities in the UK for 'other' job holders, not just computer geeks (like so often come to the US). For example, on the list are 'exotic' professions such as professional ballerinas and orchestra musicians, but many 'normal' jobs such as nurses, social workers, paediatric dentistry consultants and pipe welders.

These tier 2 permits are skilled worker permits, so a company does have to jump through the hoops of applying for it on your behalf, as well as paying for it, but apparently the UK is lacking in these professions so that the need is justified.

The whole reason I found my way over there, the committee for these released a short update that teachers in special schools and skilled meat boners and trimmers should be added to the list.

So apparently the opening of the EU didn't fill the need for meat workers as predicted. More interesting--meat cutters are on shortage occupations lists elsewhere as well:
Canada - http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2006/Profile.aspx?val=9&val1=9462

Not yet skilled in the trade? Go to Denmark and learn the skill.