J Dunlop & Co tries to help the UK economy, and its clients, by engaging with the Migration Advisory Committee (to which the government often turn when considering changes), as well as directly with the Home Office and ministers.  Although our own preference is for a relatively ‘open door’ system, as public opinion is not with us on that front, our submissions mainly focus on making the system work better, minimising distortions, and, if possible, undoing the ‘unintended consequences’ that often arise in complex systems when a change in one area, made with an objective in mind, interacts with a rule in another area, in a way that does not help the original objective.

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Our submissions, have been cited on several occasions by the Migration Advisory Committee in their reports.  The submissions, reports and citations are provided below:
 

While there are cases where policies have been changed in the ways we have suggested, or not changed in ways we have argued against, it is entirely possible that this would have happened anyway, even if we had written nothing.  We are not paid lobbyists: if, rather than having a specific immigration case about which you need advice/representation, you would like to change UK immigration policy, please feel free to contact the MAC, or the Immigration Minister, directly.   Of course, during a consultation, for which a client is paying an hourly fee, we are always happy to discuss policy, but please consider such time to be purely an investment in an intellectual exercise: you should not expect any policy change to follow as a result.

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We welcome 2021's changes to the Skilled Worker visa (previously Tier 2), which include the removal of 'cooling off' periods for Tier 2 Intra Company Transfer visa holders, and removing the time limit on extending Skilled Worker visas, so that those that do not qualify for settlement (for example due to spending more than 180 days a year out of the UK) can remain working here.