UK grants Oscar winners fast-track immigration route

London - Reform intended to attract best and brightest talents from around the world.

Winners of major prizes for film, theatre, science and technology -- including Oscars - can now apply to live and work in Britain in a simpler process, the UK government said Wednesday.

Those eligible include winners of the Turing Prize for computing, various Academy Awards, Bafta awards for best actor or actress, Brit awards for music and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The scheme, as Britain shakes up its immigration system post-Brexit, is a "streamlined route to work and live in the UK" for the "world's most talented", the government said.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the reform was intended to attract "the best and brightest" from around the world.

The move is an update to the rules for the existing "global talent" visa, aimed at leaders and potential leaders in academia or research, arts and culture and digital technology.

The new measure allows those with exceptionally high attainment in their field to come to Britain without a job offer.

They will also not need to get their application endorsed by a UK organisation in their field but instead simply fill in a single visa application.

Before Britain's departure from the European Union took full effect on January 1 this year, anyone with a EU passport could study, live and work in Britain and vice-versa.