UK law move kicks out Kiwis

Ilse Wolfe's career in London was thwarted by a law change. Photo / Janna Dixon

It's never been tougher for New Zealanders wanting to work in the UK and it won't get any easier under proposed changes to the country's visa programme.

Those allowed in as highly skilled migrants have previously been able to settle in the UK but under new proposals the British Government is set to cap their stay at five years.

Other avenues open to jetsetting Kiwis have closed since the Conservative Coalition Government was elected.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully raised concerns with UK ministers last month over the new changes and Prime Minister John Key also lobbied his British counterpart David Cameron.

Expat group Kea New Zealand says that if the changes occur, options for New Zealanders into the UK will be restricted to a two-year work scheme for young Kiwis, an ancestry visa for those with a grandparent born there or a much lower chance of getting in as a highly skilled worker with a five-year cap

UK Border Agency Asia-Pacific regional director James Sharp denied it was a case of the UK saying, "Give us your best working years, then go home."

There had been consultation and the UK still had a need for highly skilled migrants.

"But this should only be where it is in the interests of the UK to do so and should be limited to the brightest and best migrants," he said.

Kiwi expat Melanie Feisst described the proposals as "the biggest sentiment shift in immigration rules from the UK towards the Commonwealth in at least a decade".

She said there would be serious ramifications for Kiwi companies looking to expand in the UK.

"They are incredibly short-sighted and will not only damage the rights of immigrants to a settled life but also damage the UK's business reputation."

The view was backed by the UK's Migration Advisory Committee, which last year found that every highly skilled migrant entering the country had created one job for a British national.

SKILLED SENT PACKING

Ilse Wolfe had landed her dream job in London and was enjoying the travel and frenetic pace of life.

As a marketing manager for a global software company, the 27-year-old was making career strides that weren't possible in New Zealand.

She travelled to the UK with her partner Adam Nooyen, 29, on a working holiday with a Youth Mobility visa in 2009 and planned to switch over to a highly skilled visa after two years.

But that option was closed when a new Conservative Government came to power and changed the rules.

"I had an amazing 18 months. I had been promoted from one role to another," she said.

"It was just devastating," she said. "My career was really taking off and I had an excellent network within the organisation globally."

Wolfe, who has a Masters in Strategic Management with first-class honours from the University of Waikato, could have entered the UK on a highly skilled migrant visa but her partner was not eligible.

She explored every way to stay but her employer was reluctant to sponsor her with so much uncertainty around visa rules. "I was rummaging around trying to find a legal loophole that we could possibly use.

"It just felt like every step in the process seemed to be a road block."

Wolfe, from New Plymouth, returned home three weeks ago after travelling and is job-hunting in Auckland.

Her partner has returned to work in the family business in Hamilton.

She said it had taken six to nine months to settle in London and now she had to go through the same thing again.

But moving home has also had positives, and Wolfe said she was "looking forward to finding that perfect role that will progress from where I left off in London".

"There is so much to love about New Zealand. It's just readjusting to the pace of life."