UK Highly Skilled Migrants Programe

The UK Highly Skilled Migrant Program is designed to allow highly skilled people to migrate to the United Kingdom to look for work or self-employment opportunities. It is different from the work permit arrangements because you do not need a specific job offer in the UK to apply. It is also different from business routes such as the Innovators scheme because you do not need a detailed business plan; you do not need to create jobs; and you do not need to invest in the UK.

Application :

You should apply to the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme Team at Work Permits (UK) (WPUK) in Sheffield. You can apply from abroad and in most cases; you can also apply from inside the UK if you are here with Home Office permission.

Individuals already in the UK may apply to switch into HSMP without leaving the UK provided they have leave as a:

• Work permit holder; or
• Student who has successfully obtained a degree level qualification on a recognised degree course at either a UK publicly funded further or higher education institution or a bona fide UK private education institution which maintains satisfactory records of enrolment and attendance; or
• Postgraduate doctor or a postgraduate dentist or trainee general practitioner; or
• Working holidaymaker; or
• Science and Engineering Graduates Scheme participant; or
• Innovator; or
• Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme participant.

Your leave to remain application will not be successful if you are in the United Kingdom as a visitor, on temporary admission, or without permission.

Qualifications :

HSMP is a points-based immigration scheme. Points are scored in four main areas:

• Qualifications
• Past Earnings
• Age Assessment
• UK Experience

You will also be required to supply specified required evidence to meet the mandatory English Language requirement

There are also separate arrangements for those who are applying through the MBA Provision.

You need to score 75 points or more and meet the English language requirement in order to qualify as a highly skilled migrant.

Leave to Stay :

At first, you are given permission to stay in the UK for up to 24 months to seek work or self-employment opportunities.

After 24 months, you can apply to stay for longer and may be granted up to a further three years' leave, but you must meet the criteria set down for an extension of leave.

Staying Permanently :

If you live in UK continuously for five years with Home Office permission, you can make an application for Indefinite leave to remain.

For more information please visit :
www.workingintheuk.gov.uk

Topic of the Week - Leveraged Buy Outs

A leveraged buyout (or LBO, or highly-leveraged transaction (HLT), or "bootstrap" transaction) occurs when a financial sponsor gains control of a majority of a target company's equity through the use of borrowed money or debt.

A leveraged buyout is a strategy involving the acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (bonds or loans) to meet the cost of acquisition. Often, the assets of the company being acquired are used as collateral for the loans, in addition to the assets of the acquiring company. The purpose of leveraged buyouts is to allow companies to make large acquisitions without having to commit a lot of capital. In a LBO, there is usually a ratio of 70% debt to 30% equity, although debt can reach as high as 90% to 95% of the target company's total capitalization. The equity component of the purchase price is typically provided by a pool of private equity capital.

Typically, the loan capital is borrowed through a combination of prepayable bank facilities and/or public or privately placed bonds, which may be classified as high-yield debt, also called junk bonds. Often, the debt will appear on the acquired company's balance sheet and the acquired company's free cash flow will be used to repay the debt.

Topic of the Week - Interest Rate Swap

An agreement between two parties (known as counter parties) where one stream of future interest payments is exchanged for another based on a specified principal amount. Interest rate swaps often exchange a fixed payment for a floating payment that is linked to an interest rate (most often the LIBOR). A company will typically use interest rate swaps to limit, or manage, its exposure to fluctuations in interest rates, or to obtain a marginally lower interest rate than it would have been able to get without the swap.

Interest rate swaps are simply the exchange of one set of cash flows (based on interest rate specifications) for another. Because they trade OTC, they are really just contracts set up between two or more parties, and thus can be customized in any number of ways.

Generally speaking, swaps are sought by firms that desire a type of interest rate structure that another firm can provide less expensively. For example, let's say Finance Jobs Company (FJC) is seeking to loan funds at a fixed interest rate, but MBA Bloggers Inc. (MBI) has access to marginally cheaper fixed-rate funds. MBA Bloggers can issue debt to investors at its low fixed rate and then trade the fixed-rate cash flow obligations to FJ for floating-rate obligations issued by MBI. Even though MBI may have a higher floating rate than FJC, by swapping the interest structures they are best able to obtain inexpensively, the combined costs are decreased - a benefit that can be shared by both parties.

Topic of the Week - Flat Tax

A flat tax (short for flat rate tax) taxes all household income, and possibly corporate profits as well, at the same marginal rate. A flat tax usually refers to the taxation of incomes but can be applied to consumption.

Flat taxes are uncommon in advanced economies, whose nationwide taxes typically include a graduated tax on household incomes and corporate profits, such that the marginal tax rate rises as the income or profit of the taxed entity rises. Flat taxes, implemented as well as proposed, usually exempt from taxation household income below a statutorily determined level that is a function of the type and size of the household. As a result, such a flat marginal rate is consistent with a progressive average tax rate. Otherwise, all income or consumption is taxed at the same marginal rate.

The flat tax has been adopted in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Georgia, Romania, Macedonia, and the Czech Republic (only for companies).[1] Proponents believe the simplicity and efficiency of the flat tax is a key reason behind Eastern Europe's dramatic growth. Others believe it is more readily explained by a low starting base and large inward investment. Other countries employing flat taxes include Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Somalia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uruguay, Guyana, The Bahamas and Tonga.