Bulgarian and Romanian Workers, Application of Chen in self-sufficiency cases, Highly skilled migrant programme, Migration advisory committee
ACCESSION AND AFTER
The Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/3317) came into force on 1 January 2007, and with them the populations of Bulgaria and Romania acquired free movement rights and effective exemption from immigration control. Important derogations from Art 39 of the EC Treaty imposed, for the accession period, a condition of worker authorisation on non‑exempt Bulgarian and Romanian nationals intending to enter the UK labour force. So we arrive at the uncomfortable distinction between A8 nationals admitted in 2004 and A2 nationals. The Home Secretary’s statement on 24 October 2006 cited emerging pressures on housing, education, English language training and the labour market itself as justification for these transitional arrangements and promised annual review.
In practice, they work as follows:
Employment
The authorisation process defaults to the work permit arrangements, so employers must still apply for work permit permission to employ Bulgarian or Romanian nationals under one of the standard schemes. Instead of immigration permission, the worker then
