Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is pushing through a change to the visa system that will allow the Government to claim that there are nearly 20,000 fewer immigrants in the UK.
In a move that risks being described as an attempt to massage immigration statistics, Home Office officials are considering plans to shorten visas by as little as one day to avoid having to describe them as migrants.
Currently, foreign workers brought to Britain by companies to plug skills gaps on short-term visas lasting 12 months count towards the annual net immigration total.
The Home Office will now reduce the maximum stay for Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) short-term visas to under 12 months – meaning they will no longer count towards the annual net migration total, according to The Financial Times.
It comes as the Government continues to face pressure over David Cameron and Mrs May’s pledge to reduce net migration to the “tens of thousands” by 2015.