The Sunday Times reports that the Truss government intends to follow through on Truss’s pledge during the leadership race to raise the cap on seasonal agricultural workers. “Reform” of the visa system is also planned to “attract the best talent from across the world”. So far, so 2002. Adjustments to...
Page contentsWhat is a creative worker visa and why is this route useful?Key informationConsider alternatives firstEarly considerations – border concession and switching in-countryWho can be a sponsor?What is the Certificate of Sponsorship requirement?What is the Resident Labour Market Test for Creative Workers?What is the difference between single, multiple and consecutive...
Are you applying to stay in the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey? This is one of the final questions asked at the submission stage for all UK residence visa applications. Immigration professionals will invariably select “no” and progress with submission. But for those independently making an application to enter...
The Scale-up visa is a new immigration route for workers from abroad that opened on 22 August 2022. The Home Office bills this as a visa route for high-growth businesses to attract top talent to the UK. Supposedly, the route offers sponsors the flexibility that fast-growing organisations need, and that...
The High Potential Individual visa is a new offering from the Home Office aimed at individuals who have graduated from a top global university. There is considerable international competition to attract these sorts of individuals, who ministers like to call the “brightest and best”. A visa aimed at them can...
What’s better than a plan for immigration? A new plan for immigration. July saw the publication of the Government’s New Plan for Immigration: Legal Migration and Border Control policy paper. Not much of the content can really be described as new. Unlike last March’s asylum-focused New Plan for Immigration however, this...
Sponsoring a foreign worker isn’t cheap. Application fees and visa taxes typically run to thousands of pounds. Since the UK left the European Union, the costs of sponsorship have also applied to employers who want to hire EU workers under the Points Based Immigration System. Some of the fees are...
The Home Office has finally published details of the requirements for sponsors in the UK Expansion Worker visa category. Part of the Global Business Mobility family, it replaces the Sole Representative visa — but how effectively does it fill this niche in the UK immigration system? “Evolving in tandem with...
The UK government has published changes to the Immigration Rules introducing the Global Business Mobility visa. They come into force on 11 April 2022 and provide new solutions for overseas firms transferring staff to the UK. Announcing the route last year, the Home Office admitted that “immigration routes that may...
Before 1 January 2021, British and EU citizens did not require a visa to travel across the Channel on a business trip. This is largely still the case post-Brexit, so we’ve been left with the appearance that nothing has really changed from a legal perspective. But with the end of...
No set of amendments to the Immigration Rules is complete without tweaks and additions to the ever-expanding Points Based Immigration System, and statement of changes HC 1118 is no exception. In addition to the changes already outlined by CJ, there are a number of important changes to existing routes, as...
There is a UK visa for overseas domestic workers, first introduced in 2002. Although the Immigration Rules do not define “domestic workers”, the route is typically used by nannies, cleaners, chauffeurs, cooks, personal carers and protection staff. The domestic worker route has undergone a number of changes over the years,...
The Investor visa route has been closed to all new applicants with “immediate effect”, the Home Office announced this afternoon, citing “security concerns” and “wider corruption”. This follows multiple media reports yesterday that closure was imminent, although an announcement had not been expected until next week. A statement of changes...
From today, in positive news for the UK’s beleaguered social care sector, frontline care workers are on the Shortage Occupation List, making them eligible to apply for a Skilled Worker permit. This is a welcome eligibility expansion (previously limited to care roles with senior or managerial elements) but there are...
The Graduate immigration route is for international students who have completed a degree or other higher educational qualification in the UK. It allows people who previously had a Student visa to: work in the UK after their degree/qualification is completed in a job at any skill level or salary, for...
Social care workers can get Skilled Worker visas from 15 February 2022. The change was first announced on Christmas Eve and has now been confirmed in a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 1019), published yesterday. Employers (but not private households) will be able to sponsor care assistants,...
The Home Office has published new guidance for Afghan citizens who are already in the UK on study and work routes. The document outlines concessions to the Immigration Rules for Afghans who entered the UK before 1 September 2021 or applied for a visa by that date and arrive later,...
Employers who want to avoid the possibility of a fine for hiring an unauthorised migrant are well advised to carry out right to work checks. Such checks are not mandatory, but where companies do carry them out, the Home Office advises that “all potential employees, including British citizens” be checked...
If you have a drive to help people around the world and to learn and build your career with a truly international firm, then Fragomen is the perfect place. At Fragomen we’re more than just an immigration law firm or consultancy. Working at Fragomen means doing difficult but worthwhile and meaningful work...
Reading work visa sponsor guidance can be frustrating at the best of times, but particularly aggravating is paragraph S3.9: You must normally stop sponsoring the worker and inform us via your SMS account if the start date is delayed by more than 28 days after whichever is the latest of: the...
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) is to inspect the relationship between the immigration system and the higher education sector. The call for evidence, which is open until 15 November 2021, confirms that the ICIBI will adopt a “broad perspective”, assessing the extent to which the Home...
The latest statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 803) allows pork butchers to come into the UK as Seasonal Workers for up to six months. It came into force at 4pm on 1 November 2021. The government announced last month that 800 temporary visas would be made available...
The Intra-company Transfer (ICT) route has seemed increasingly redundant since the launch of the Points Based Immigration System last year. The Skilled Worker route became simpler and easier to use, while the abolition of the resident labour market test removed ICT’s unique selling point. With the number of ICT applications...
Yesterday brought about a new immigration route for international sportspeople aged 16 or over wishing to enter the UK. It is intended to create a simplified visa arrangement for elite and internationally established sportspeople and sports coaches. Does it achieve this? Yes, insofar as we no longer need to consult...
The Home Office has published a short statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. It is to implement the emergency temporary visa schemes for HGV drivers and poultry workers and therefore comes into force at 4pm today. Employers in those sectors will be able to request workers from four named...
British businesses have long relied on workers from the European Union to come in for short or medium-term projects. Before Brexit, this was frictionless from an immigration perspective. People arrived, people worked, people left and businesses were happy. EU free movement ended (for the UK) on 31 December 2020, but...
The number of new visas is starting to make heads spin. The government’s announcement of a route for HGV drivers and poultry workers comes hot on the heels of a new employment route for Graduates which opened in July. Next year will see at least two more new visas launched,...
The government has announced that HGV drivers and poultry workers will be eligible for temporary visas from next month. The policy represents a shift from the firm line against “low-skilled” immigration post-Brexit. Here is what we know about it so far — including some direct responses from the Home Office....
Scattered throughout the latest statement of changes like needles in a 186-page haystack are three COVID-19 concessions that previously only appeared in Home Office guidance. They will now form part of the Immigration Rules. In immigration law, a concession is a policy operated by the Home Office that is more...
The government has released details of its sponsorship “roadmap” for employers recruiting skilled workers from abroad. This follows on from the publication of its New Plan for Immigration back in March 2021. The new roadmap sets out the Home Office’s proposals for long-overdue “radical changes” to the sponsorship system, which...
Jobs that British employers struggle to recruit for are on the Shortage Occupation List. With separate entries for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, it seeks to be responsive to the needs of industry across the devolved nations. The Migration Advisory Committee advises the UK government on which roles should...
On 20 July 2021, Free Movement published an article about the UK’s new Displaced Talent Mobility Programme, which concluded that it constituted “a new complementary pathway” for refugees to reach the country and “a positive step that will hopefully encourage other countries to do the same”. The purpose of this...
Since the announcement of the new High Potential Individual route as part of the UK Innovation Strategy, there’s been considerable buzz about what it will mean for graduates around the world seeking to move to the UK. Until the new route is mapped out in a statement of changes to...
It’s been a very long time since most UK live music and theatre “sponsors” have had to issue paperwork for overseas artists to come into the UK. For most, it’s been 16 months and counting. Since then, we’ve had Brexit, dragging EU acts into the same category as US, Australian,...
“High potential individuals” will in future be able to come to the UK to work without a job offer, the government has announced. The move, building on previous promises to provide an unsponsored work route under the Points Based Immigration System for business visas, comes as part of the UK...
I am announcing that those displaced by conflict and violence will now also be able to benefit from access to our global points-based immigration system. To enable skilled displaced people who have had to flee their homes to come to the UK safely and legally through established routes. We will...
International students are worth billions to the UK economy in higher education fees and indirect expenditure, benefitting local communities financially as well as enriching them in non-economic terms. Being able to attract overseas students is crucial to the economic viability of many education providers, but only those with a sponsor...
All being well, the government’s advice to work from home should be lifted from 21 June. With offices filling up, and city streets bustling, normal working life is already starting to resume. But remote working patterns are clearly popular with workers and employers, and are likely to be around for...
