Work permit changes will ease shortages in several industries including IT and meat sectors
The Employment Permits (Amendment) Regulations 2015 commenced on 1 September 2015. The Regulations bring about a number of changes as follows:
Changes to Highly Skilled Occupations List and Ineligible List
The Regulations have removed some occupations from the list of ineligible jobs and has added others to the highly-skilled occupations list, which is used to assess eligibility for work permits.
The Regulations expanded the list of occupations eligible for highly-skilled occupations list to include telecommunications engineers, IT engineers, chiropractors, mobility instructors for the visually impaired. A limited number of General Employment Permits in respect of meat boners are being made available to eligible applicants to work in the meat sector. This is to meet demand for skilled boners in that industry.
The number of occupations that are no longer eligible to apply for work permits has been amended to include betting shop managers, graphic design managers, library managers, plant hire managers, production managers, and property, housing and estate managers and dispensing opticians.
New prescribed forms
The Regulations have introduced new standard employment permit application forms for employment permit applications (initial and renewal); dismissal by reason of redundancy; change of name and decisions for review. As and from the 1 September 2015, the Department of Jobs Enterprise & Innovation (DJEI) will not accept previous versions of these forms. The new prescribed forms are available on the DJEI website. Note. there are no changes to the Trusted Partner Registration Forms and Trusted Partner Employment Permit application forms.
Other changes effective from 1 September
Employers will now have three months after the date of the employment permit application filing to submit the P30 Tax Form to the Irish Revenue Department. Previously, the submission period was only two months.
An applicant’s passport is now required to only have a minimum of three months validity rather than the long-standing twelve month requirement. This change is for renewal processes only. Applicants will still be required to have at least twelve months validity on their passports for initial employment permit applications.
Applications for permits from the hospitality sector must, in most circumstances, be accompanied by a letter confirming that the chef will not be working in a fast food outlet and that the cuisine originates in a non-EEA country. The Regulations provide greater clarity regarding when this statement must be provided, i.e. that it is only required for the following employment permits - Critical Skills Employment Permits, General Employment Permits, Sport and Cultural Employment Permits and Intra-Company Transfer Employment Permits.
Occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and dieticians will now be required to register with CORU, the health regulator, prior to the applying for an employment permit.
Read more at: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/si/349/made/en/pdf
Monday, 28 September 2015