Firms looking to bring foreign workers into the UK have been scratching around for information given that the government’s guidance for the Global Business Mobility visa was only published on the same day as the visa itself was launched. Immigration solicitor Vanessa Ganguin examines the newly published information.
On the actual morning of 11 April, when the Global Business Mobility visa overhauled many immigration routes for businesses moving staff to the UK, the Home Office finally published detailed guidance for employers – most importantly details on eligibility and how sponsorship would work for employees using these routes.
Even for a Home Office under the cosh with headline-grabbing delays, this was about as last minute as you can get with such flagship changes for work immigration routes.
Trailing the new Global Business Mobility visa last year, the Home Office announced reforms to reflect the global nature of modern business, insisting: “Immigration routes that may once have worked for business, no longer do; they have not evolved in tandem with businesses”.
The Global Business Mobility visa revamp was set to address business mobility difficulties, including setting up a subsidiary in the UK.
The Home Office promised the new visa route would “enable an overseas business to temporarily send an employee to the UK for a specific corporate purpose that could not be done by a resident worker.”
So now we’ve had a chance to read the new immigration rules, how much will the Global Business Mobility visa facilitate staff moving with the ease that modern trade necessitates, and how much is a rebranding exercise?
Global Business Mobility visas are a mix of new and improved old routes (such as Intra-Company Transfers and Representative of an Overseas Business) to help firms in the UK as well as abroad transfer certain categories of staff to the UK to work.
How much will the Global Business Mobility visa facilitate staff moving with the ease that modern trade necessitates, and how much is a rebranding exercise?
The Home Office has published five new categories of work visa under the Global Business Mobility umbrella:
- Senior or specialist worker to meet specific business needs (this replaces Intra-Company Transfers)
- Graduate trainee as part of a training programme (this replaces the Intra-Company Graduate Trainee visa)
- Secondment worker to UK firms in high value contracts or investments (brand new)
- Service supplier to the UK in line with UK trade agreements (replaces the service supplier part of the T5 International Agreement immigration route)
- UK expansion worker to establish a UK presence (replaces and expands the route for a Representative of an Overseas Business)
The first three categories are for employers with a UK presence, the last three work for employers with no UK presence. Secondments are a route for both.
What do employers need to know about the Global Business Mobility routes?
Senior or Specialist Workers visa This category directly replaces the Intra-Company Transfer route, with the minimum salary rising by £900 to £42,400.
Senior or Specialist Workers granted permission under the new rules will not be able to work in lower-skilled “creative” roles previously allowed or to carry out supplementary work, except under transitional arrangements (if they were granted permission under the old rules and have held continuous permission since then).
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Though Senior or Specialist Worker is not considered a Temporary Worker category, there is no ability to apply for indefinite leave to remain. Although this was recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee, such changes have not been included in the Immigration Rules, so as in the Intra-Company Transfer route, Senior or Specialist Worker routes do not have a route to settlement.
Graduate Trainee visa This route directly replaces the Intra-Company Graduate Trainee route and raises the minimum salary requirement – in this case by £100 to £23,100. While previously there was a limit of 20 graduate trainees per year, there is no limit any more.
Service Supplier visa This route replaces the T5 International Agreement routes for overseas service suppliers and self-employed independent professionals. Applicants must be working for an overseas service supplier providing services to the sponsor in the UK, and the service must be under a contract registered with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and covered by one of the UK’s international trade agreements.
There is no minimum salary beyond national minimum wage but a minimum skill level applies. This can be met in different ways, depending on applicants’ role and sector. Visas only last up to six or 12 months, depending on the international agreement under which the service is provided.
Secondment Worker visa This new visa will for the first time enable secondments in “high value” import and export deals to oversee substantial investment and actually work. Previously secondments would find hands-on experience difficult as they had to use a visitor visa. This meant a maximum of six months only. It only covered employees of clients of UK export companies, not import related secondments.
“High value” has now been defined as an investment or contract worth at least £10m per year and at least £50m overall.
As with Service Suppliers, the contract needs to be registered by the sponsor with the Home Office before workers can be sponsored. This route allows visas for up to 12 months at a time and up to two years in total.
UK Expansion Worker visa Perhaps the most interesting development under the Global Business Mobility changes is the UK Expansion Worker route. This replaces the Representative of an Overseas Business route (which remains open only for those who already have this status). However, unlike its predecessor, the UK Expansion Worker visa is not a route to settlement as it can only be granted for one year at a time and up to two years in total. Applicants can then switch into another immigration route (such as Skilled Worker).
The new route requires sponsorship with the same minimum salary and skill levels as the Senior or Specialist Workers route.
Prospective sponsors will not yet be trading in the UK, but must have established a “footprint” by registering the UK branch or subsidiary or by purchasing or leasing premises. Organisations must also prove they have been trading for at least three years overseas (one year in the case of Japanese companies relying on the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) and provide evidence relating to their planned expansion in the UK, including business plans/marketing and capability to fund the expansion. They will be expected to establish a trading presence within two years.
The good news is sponsors will be able to bring up to five people to the UK at any one time (although they may be limited to one person initially, depending on where the authorising officer for the licence is based).
Sponsors will not be able to certify financial maintenance for UK Expansion Workers, so they will need to satisfy the financial requirements using their own funds.
How will sponsorship work with Global Business Mobility visas?
This week’s guidance confirmed that the UK employer that receives the workers will be the sponsor licence holder. Visa applicants will need to show a receiving business and a sending business with a business relationship between them.
For example an overseas parent company could be sending staff to a UK subsidiary; or an overseas service supplier may have a contract with a UK client; or an overseas company could be sending staff on secondment to a UK supplier of goods or setting up a UK branch pre-trading (as in the above examples.)
Sponsors will not be able to certify financial maintenance for UK Expansion Workers, so they will need to satisfy the financial requirements using their own funds.
The new guidance on transitional arrangements for existing sponsored categories does confirm that the Senior or Specialist Worker category will be a Worker category, while all the others will be Temporary Worker categories. This means that the cost of a sponsor licence under Senior or Specialist Worker licence will be worked out similarly to Intra-Company Transfers with the amount depending on whether the organisation is a large sponsor or a small/charitable sponsor. The Certificate of Sponsorship should be similar to that for Skilled Workers.
The routes classed as Temporary Workers will have the same licence fee as a small sponsor, regardless of size, and the Certificate of Sponsorship fee will be the lower fee charged for other Temporary Worker categories, like Creative, Charity or Religious Workers.
Employers relying on existing routes now replaced by Global Business Mobility
UKVI has published guidance on transitional arrangements for existing sponsored categories which are subsumed into the Global Business Mobility category.
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Existing ICT sponsors (or those who successfully applied before 11 April) will automatically receive a Senior or Specialist Worker licence and may receive a Graduate Trainee licence if they have used that part of the ICT licence previously. Those who have an International Agreement licence and have sponsored service suppliers since 11 April 2018 will receive a Service Supplier licence but also retain their International Agreement licence for non-service suppliers. Sponsors can apply to add further categories to an existing licence.
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