As of April 11 of this year, if a foreigner wants a Skilled Worker visa to work in the UK they must earn a minimum of £38,700 (about $48k USD), up from the prior minimum of £26,200, unless the work falls under a small category of jobs on the shortage occupation list like health and care workers, graphic designers (take that, Canva), and veterinarians. But not accountants.
For accountants under some categories — Chartered and certified accountants Accountant (qualified), Auditor (qualified), Chartered accountant, Company accountant, Cost accountant (qualified), Financial controller (qualified accountant), and Management accountant (qualified) — the standard going rate is now £46,800 ($58k) or £24.00 ($30) per hour. Here’s a good read from a UK immigration lawyer on all the specifics.
After net migration to the UK hit a record 745,000 in 2022, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his displeasure and a desire to get those numbers down.
But that’s another issue. For people under 26, the minimum they must earn to qualify for a visa is £30,960 ($38k-ish). Apparently this was too much for KPMG so they’ve yanked job offers from some foreign grads who were expecting to start their careers at the House of Klynveld.
Reports FT:
KPMG has revoked job offers to some foreign graduates in the UK after the government tightened visa rules for overseas workers in an effort to cut record immigration.
The Big Four firm, one of the UK’s biggest graduate employers, told affected incoming staff this week that their offers had been rescinded, pinning the move on the government’s decision to raise the minimum salary required to sponsor a skilled worker visa in the UK, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.
KPMG said the changes to eligibility criteria had “unfortunately impacted some of our graduate programmes that were previously eligible for sponsorship under the skilled worker visa category”, according to the documents. The firm declined to comment on how many offers had been revoked.
FT said the average graduate makes between £25,000 and £35,000 at Big 4 firms in the UK.
KPMG has stopped hiring overseas graduates who need skilled worker visas outside of London as a result of the changes to the eligibility rules, said FT. Except for junior actuaries, they’re still in.
#kpmgproud
What utter nonsense this article is, basically the new law would have required KPMG to hire foreign graduates at better rates than they pay UK grads, would that be fair? In point of fact KPMG does not hire qualified accountants as Grads they do their training with KPMG and become qualified, so I am not sure why these figures are presented for comparison.