British PM Rishi Sunak announces 3000 work visas for young Indian professionals

Hours after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit, his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak announced that his country is offering visas to young Indian professionals to work in his country. “Today, the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme was confirmed, offering 3,000 places to 18-30-year-old degree-educated Indian nationals to come to the UK to live and work for up to two years,” UK PM’s office tweeted. The scheme, however, will be reciprocal.

Sunak’s office said India is the first visa-national country to benefit from such a scheme, highlighting the strength of the UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership agreed upon last year.

“I am pleased that even more of India’s brightest young people will now have



the opportunity to experience all that life in the UK has to offer – and vice-versa - making our economies and societies richer,” the UK PM said.

The British government’s statement’s statement also pointed out that the UK has more links with India than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region. “Nearly a quarter of all international students in the UK are from India, and Indian investment into the UK supports 95,000 jobs across the UK,” it said.

It added that the UK is currently negotiating a trade deal with India – if agreed, it will be the first deal of its kind India has made with a European country. The statement noted that the trade deal would build on the UK-India trading relationship, which is already worth £24 billion.