sponsorship

UK Expansion Worker – a inadequate replacement for the sole representative route?

28th April 2022 By Rachael Ockenden

The rules relating to business immigration changed once again in April 2022. In another alleged bid to simplify the immigration rules, the Home Office has introduced the Global Mobility visa which encompasses five categories, two of which replace existing routes. The feeling amongst many immigration practitioners is that this is simply yet another rebranding exercise which does not quite hit the mark.

One of the categories being replaced is the sole representative of an overseas business category.

Whilst the sole representative category may have been underused, it did facilitate UK expansion for overseas companies with no presence in the UK. The sole representative category was an unsponsored route and was relatively attractive in that it allowed dependent family members to join the main applicant and could lead to indefinite leave to remain in the UK (ILR) after five years.

The sole representative category has now been replaced by the UK Expansion Worker route. This is, quite inexplicably, a sponsored route. This means that the overseas business will need a ‘footprint’ in the UK in order to apply for a sponsor licence to bring an expansion worker to the UK. Applying at the right time, when a company has a footprint but no a trading presence, will be crucial.

An overseas business should be granted a provisional licence if there is no one in the UK able to run the licence, which presumably will quite often be the case where there is only a footprint. The proposed migrant themselves will then be responsible for maintaining the licence and assigning themself a Certificate of Sponsorship to support their visa application. Once the UK Expansion Worker is in the UK, they will need to request the licence to be upgraded from the provisional status. Following the success of this request, the overseas business will then be able to send a maximum of up to four further expansion workers to the UK.

Under the previous category, an overseas business was only ever permitted to have one sole representative in the UK. The Home Office therefore sees the increased number of permitted workers to be more generous. However, in practice, it is quite likely that the request to upgrade a licence will be subject to lengthy waiting times which may not support the business’ needs or the projections of a business plan.

There are stricter requirements in relation to the overseas business trading history and the proposed UK expansion, which must include establishing a UK trading presence within two years. If a trading presence is not established within two years, the business’ licence can be revoked. How the Home Office plans to keep track of a business’ progress is yet to be seen.

A significant disadvantage of the new route is that it is no longer a route to ILR. A UK Expansion Worker will only be granted immigration permission for a maximum of two years. If the business has established a trading presence, and applies for and is granted a Skilled Worker licence, the UK Expansion Worker could switch into this category if they met the relevant requirements. The Skilled Worker category is a five year route to ILR, though an individual switching could not rely on the time already spent in the UK under the UK Expansion Worker route.

It remains to be seen how attractive or effective the UK Expansion Worker route is for overseas businesses seeking to establish a branch in the UK.

The new International Sportsperson visa

22nd October 2021 By Imogen Simpson

As of 11 October 2021, the Home Office have introduced a new visa route for professional sportspeople and coaches entitled the International Sportsperson visa. This will be replacing the previous Tier 2 Sportsperson and Tier 5 Sporting and Creative Worker categories for sportspeople, and combining them into one category to make applications more straightforward.

The key requirements an individual will need to meet to obtain a visa under this category are as follows:

they must be 16 years of age or older;
they must have an endorsement from their Governing Body confirming that they are internationally established at the highest level and will make a significant contribution to the development of their sport at the highest level in the UK (the list of approved sporting bodies can be found under Appendix Sports Governing Bodies: Immigration Rules Appendix Sports Governing Bodies – Immigration Rules – Guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk));
they must have been assigned a valid Certificate of Sponsorship by their sponsor;
they must satisfy the financial requirement; and
they must meet the English language requirement if applying for a period of leave that is longer than 12 months.

This will be a route to settlement, and dependants will be able to apply under this visa category in line with the main applicant.

This visa allows the visa-holder to undertake work for their national team, should their national team be in the UK for a competition, as well as provide expert guest commentary for sporting events.

The introduction of this singular visa route for professional sportspeople and coaches is a welcome simplification of the application process and guidance for those in the sporting profession. Furthermore, it will allow for Creative Workers to fall under its own distinct route, in recognition of how different the two sectors are.

For more information on the requirements for this visa category please see the Home Office’s guidance: Immigration Rules Appendix International Sportsperson – Immigration Rules – Guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you require immigration advice in relation to the above, we can help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

Ambitious roadmap to streamlined sponsorship

2nd September 2021 By Rachael Ockenden

The Home Office has recently set out a roadmap for a sponsorship system that will enable employers to have an overseas worker ready to start work in the UK faster than in any other G20 country. The Home Office is looking to streamline the process for companies and universities becoming sponsors, and for workers and students to obtain immigration permission for the UK.

Substantial changes had already been made to the Skilled Worker category in response to Brexit, which significantly reduced the length of the process to recruit a worker from overseas eg by removing the resident labour market test.

The Home Office is now planning a series of changes to further overhaul the sponsorship system.

The next set of changes include:

a review of the documentation required for a sponsor licence application (with the intent of making it easier for a company to register as a sponsor);
the establishment of a service that supports small and micro businesses (the Home Office currently provides individual support to sponsors, but at a fee of £25,000 per year);
a review of the fees the sponsorship system entails (the Home Office has acknowledged the current fees disproportionately affect smaller sponsors);
the introduction of an enhanced Skilled Worker eligibility checking tool; and
piloting a new salary check feature with HMRC to check employees are being paid the amount a sponsor has confirmed.

The Home Office’s digitalisation plans (Digitalisation of the Immigration System (gryklaw.com)) will also serve the sponsorship system, allowing for automated checks and more knowledge sharing between the Home Office and HMRC. This automatic data sharing will in turn be used to further monitor compliance among sponsors.

One of the most welcome changes will be the updating of the Sponsor Management System, which has not changed since it’s introduction in 2008, though we will have to wait until the end of 2022 at the earliest for this.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@gryklaw.com or on 020 7401 6887 if you need any advice on the above.

The end of the resident labour market test

1st April 2021 By Rachael Ockenden

The launch of the Skilled Worker category on 1 December 2020 heralded a new age for sponsors with the removal of the resident labour market test (RLMT), the time consuming and administratively burdensome advertising requirement of the Tier 2 (General) immigration route. The RLMT arguably did nothing to protect resident workers and was often merely a box-ticking exercise for sponsors.

However, the guidance accompanying the new rules appeared to retain the RLMT requirement leading to months of confusion amongst practitioners and sponsors alike. The guidance stated that the same documents sponsors were required to keep on a sponsored migrant’s file when an RLMT had been completed were still required for sponsorship cases post 1 December 2020.

The guidance was finally amended this month to clarify that there were different recordkeeping requirements for cases where an RLMT was a requirement and for those where it was not. The guidance also gives examples of the permissible circumstances in which no advertising at all would be carried out including where a worker:

was identified through a university milk round;
was already legally working for the sponsor on another immigration route and the sponsor established they were suitable for the role through their previous performance; and
made a speculative application and the sponsor was satisfied they had the necessary skills and experience to do the job.

An explanation and, where practicable, evidence must be provided to support these recruitment practices.

Whilst the clarification provided by the guidance is welcome and reassuring, the guidance still appears to mandate how a sponsor should advertise. RLMT-like documentation is still required to be kept on file and it would arguably be easier for a sponsor to rely upon one of the alternative circumstances rather than advertising for the role. It remains to be seen how the Compliance Officers at the Home Office will assess these cases.

If you require immigration advice in relation to the issues above, we can help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.