UK fixes troubled visa scheme after tech companies faced with hiring roadblock
It has announced changes to the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent visa, including a "team application" that will allow firms to hire up to five people outside the EU at once.
The changes will be critical for the likes of Google, which ran out of visas recently.
Google UK faces hiring roadblock after Home Office runs out of visas
Google UK is struggling to bring in the overseas talent it needs because the government has ran out of visas, Techworld understands.
Google wants to hire non-EU nationals across its London offices on the Tier 2 visa but a Google employee that wishes to remain anonymous said Google is being forced to turn away potential candidates because the Home Office reached its visa quota for the first time ever.
The Tier 2 visa is for skilled foreign employees outside the EU and it is used by companies like Google to attract people from the likes of Silicon Valley and Bangalore.
There are 20,700 Tier 2 visas available each year to employers who want to recruit skillers workers outside the EU.
The Home Office confirmed to the BBC that the monthly allocation of "Tier 2" visas has been filled for June. There were 1,650 allocations for June, but the Home Office refused to reveal how many applications it received.
The talent shortage in the UK and Europe forces many companies to look globally for the best people to join their workforce.
Doctors, nurses, teachers are also locked out of the country, as are accountants, solicitors and management consultants.
See: Visa scheme struggles to attract overseas tech specialists to UK.
Google said it had nothing to share.
Update by Margi Murphy. Original Google story written by Sam Shead.