UK seeks talent from abroad: 'Zero fee for specialised profiles'

Reduce the tax for qualified foreign workers and facilitate their entry into the fields of science, engineering and medicine.

This is the path mapped out by Keir Starmer's UK government to 'attract the best minds' from around the world and thus stimulate UK economic growth.

An opposite decision to that of the United States. On Friday 19 September, in fact, President Donald Trump introduced a $100,000 tax on H-1B visas, those for skilled workers arriving from a foreign country. For Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, it was a message to companies - especially in the tech industry, which relies on Chinese or Indian employees - to hire US citizens in senior positions.

At that moment, in the British Treasury offices, where there was already talk of strategies to import academics and scientists, came the decision to accelerate. The aim, an official told the Financial Times, is to 'kick-start the idea of reducing costs to zero. We are talking about people who have attended the top five universities in the world or won prestigious prizes'.

Starmer created a task force for 'global talent'. It is headed by his advisor Varun Chandra and Science Minister Patrick Vallance. At the moment, the visa costs at least £700 per application, to which must be added the health supplement per year. The introduction came five years ago, in February 2020, and in the first three years, as reported by the British government, 12,243 visas were granted.