Independent migration to the UK moves a step closer

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New Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that one of his priorities will be to introduce a scheme for independent migration to the UK ('Green Cards'). Although no more detail has been announced, this is expected to resemble the Australian 'points based' migration scheme. A further announcement is expected to be included in the Queen's Speech.

Update - the expected announcement did not occur in the Queen's speech, but passing reference to a green card style scheme was made by the Chancellor (minister of finance) Gordon Brown in an article in the Wall Street Journal. The Green Card scheme is expected to go ahead, but its details are still unresolved and will be subject to a lot of consultation and many reviews. We anticipate that the scheme will be rolled out in 2003/2004.