Calls have been made to relax immigration rules for skilled staff coming to work in Scotland following recruitment problems at a Moray opticians.
The Elgin Specsavers firm has been struggling to recruit staff from the local area and needs to adhere to strict rules in the current immigration legislation.
They are limited on the number of foreign optometrists they can employ while the staff are in training.
Campaigners want eye specialist occupations to be added to the government’s priority list of jobs, which are not covered by tier two visa restrictions.
The case has now been brought up at Westminster by Moray MP Douglas Ross who questioned the immigration minister.
He said: “This local business has already taken two optometrists through this process, who both now live and work in Elgin, and another two are completing their pre-registration training with more students from abroad due to join the programme soon.
“However, they have voiced concern that the limit on the cap on tier two certificates has been reached in the last three months and optometry is not listed as a priority profession which would have automatically enabled more capacity.”
Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes explained a labour market review was currently being carried out to review the rules.
She added: “Any profession on the shortage occupation list automatically gets priority. The shortage occupation list is determined by the independent migration advisory committee. They have not yet included opticians on the list.”
