Bulgarian and Romanian Accession Statistics
On 1 January 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union. The Government announced on 24 October 2006 that nationals of Bulgaria and Romania would be afforded gradual access to the United Kingdom’s labour market. There would continue to be access for skilled workers who met the skills requirements of the United Kingdom’s work permit arrangements and the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. Access for lower skilled workers, however, would be quota limited and restricted to those accessing existing schemes (the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme and the Sectors Based Scheme) for the agricultural and food processing sectors. At the same time these low-skilled schemes would move to being restricted to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals only.
The Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006 give effect to this policy. These Regulations make Bulgarian and Romanian nationals taking employment in the United Kingdom after 31 December 2006 subject to a requirement to hold a work authorisation document. This requirement will be met if the individual holds:
i) an accession worker card;
ii) a valid work card issued in accordance with the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme; or
iii) a passport endorsed before 1 January 2007 where the individual had leave to enter or leave to remain for the purpose of employment, for example, a work permit holder.
The UK Border Agency (part of the Home Office) compile National quarterly statistics on applications for Accession Worker Cards which are published as the Bulgarian and Romanian Accession Statistics, and these are available on the UK Border Agency website by selecting the link entitled Bulgarian and Romanian Accession Statistics (on the right hand side of the screen).
This page last updated: 10-03-2009