on Changing immigration rules with ARB and Home office that may affect all you thinking of going to UK for training.
Architects are the latest group to feel the national crackdown on economic migrants, a BD investigation reveals
By Ellen Bennett
Britain is closing the door on foreign architects with a double whammy of regulation making it harder than ever for them to work in the UK.
New rules from the Home Office and Arb have already seen one architect deported and many other well-qualified architects refused the right to work here using the title.
Overseas architects who train and qualify in this country must now leave for two years before working as a UK architect after the Home Office closed a loophole in its immigration system.
The move, uncovered by BD this week, jeopardises the viability of companies taking on overseas students at all. The Home Office has stopped students from outside the EU on training and work experience visas taking up jobs on qualification.
Separately, Arb has increased registration fees for foreign architects by 80% and toughened up the test for registration.
Architect David Chipperfield, who employs only 11 Brits in a workforce of 50, condemned the crackdown. He said: “The most interesting architecture today comes from Japan, Switzerland and Spain and we are trying to benefit from those places that are producing good architects.
“Anything that makes the employment of foreign architects harder is a disadvantage. It is important we have a multinational workforce.”
The change in Home Office policy has been highlighted by the case of Changsu Ryu, a Korean architect who had been studying in Britain and working for RHWL for three-and-a-half years, but who was forced to leave at Christmas after gaining his part III.
Lawyer Toby Fournier, a partner with leading immigration firm Paul Simon Solicitors, fought for RHWL to keep Ryu in the country. He told BD: “This is going to affect all [overseas architectural students] as they will not be able to continue working for their employer. They could have knowledge that could be important for their practice, but that practice will not be able to keep them on.
“UK employers are now less likely to invest in people that come here to get a degree in architecture for the simple reason that they are not going to be able to benefit from that person at the end of the training visa.
“If you take that on logically, you have to ask why architecture students would come and study in the UK. This is a negative development for everyone concerned.”
Geoff Mann, principal director of RHWL, was furious that Ryu was not allowed to continue working for his firm. He said: “It's quite ridiculous. The man has learnt his trade in the UK, he is very clever and was a great asset to me and my team, and I lost him because of red tape.
“Something has got to be done. There has got to be some process whereby people who have genuinely worked hard and contributed to the British economy are not kicked out.”
While the official Home Office line has always been that students on training visas had to return to their countries of origin, the government took a laissez-faire attitude until the end of last year. It allowed practices that could prove they had a good case to keep their overseas workers.
But this policy has been abandoned and those on training visas looking to stay in the country are issued with a point-blank refusal. His firm has written to the Home Office seeking clarification of the policy, but has not yet received a reply.
BD opinion: Why we need foreigners
The authorities are wrong to toughen their stance against non-European Union architects working in Britain.
This country has a long and distinguished history of welcoming architects from all over the world to train and practice here. Twentieth century emigres range from Berthold Lubetkin (Russia) to Jan Kaplicky (Czechoslovakia) and Zaha Hadid (Iraq). Under the new rules they would have to fight the system to work here, and that is ridiculous. Right now, Britain needs all the talented architects it can get. Our architecture schools have a great record of internationalism, but under the new Home Office rules, practices that take these bright sparks on will be forced to send them home once qualified.
Qualified architects from the US, South Africa and Asia have already given up on working in the UK because of Arb's heavy new stance. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. Not only are we denied the talents of some of the world's most promising architects building in our towns and cities, but we are damaging the value of architecture as an export from these shores.
Architecture is an international game, and our practices need multi-national staff. When boom markets are in Asia and the Middle East, UK practices should be free to train and hire architects with local languages and knowledge. These clampdowns inhibit that and threaten London's status as an international architectural hub. From junior technicians to leading designers, British architecture thrives on international mobility of labour. The new measures we expose today are an unwarranted attack on that.
1 Comment
This has been a nice coordinated attack by the brits. I arrived here late last year to discover that the fees for sitting the part iii registration exam had risen to more than 5 times what they were. Most part II people on work visas i've spoken to no longer even contemplate sitting the exam.
I'm told that anybody coming into the country with a qualification from another country (even from Commonwealth Institue accredited school) now have to sit an expensive and time-consuming equiilency exam just to be acknowledged as ready to sit the part III.
Even local architects are astounded at the ARB's price hikes. For most part II's it is probably around the equivalent of a months pay just to sit the test, and with the ARB's new stance they have a much lower chance of passing.
Betweent he government, the ARB and Prince Charles...I think i might go work in Papua New Guinea. AT least the weather will be better...
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