We had posted information about the new global mobility routes in our earlier series. Here we aim to briefly explain these explicitly.
The Global Business Mobility visas have been introduced by the UK government in an attempt to simplify current work visa and business visa routes and bring them together under one umbrella. The new visa routes offer several options that, subject to meeting the relevant eligibility criteria, an overseas based employee can use to transfer their employment to the UK on either a short-term or longer-term basis.
We had outlined the available routes for transferring employees to the UK as follows :
- Senior or Specialist Worker visa (Global Business Mobility)
- Service Supplier visa (Global Business Mobility)
- UK Expansion Worker visa (Global Business Mobility)
- Secondment Worker visa (Global Business Mobility)
Secondment Worker visa (Global Business Mobility)
Seconded or secondment workers are catered for under the Global Business Mobility visa route. The Global Business Mobility visa focuses on seconded workers who are seconded or assigned to the UK branch of an international company for the purpose of valuable contracts.
To be eligible for a secondment worker visa, your overseas employer will need to have a qualifying contract with a UK organisation for a minimum of £50 million. The UK organisation will then act as the sponsor for your visa.
This means that the seconded worker category is no substitute for permitted business activities under the business visitor visa.
Senior or Specialist Worker visa (Global Business Mobility)
The category ‘senior or specialist workers’ in the Global Business Mobility visa replaces the old intra company transfer visa but there is a distinct advantage with the new visa.
If a worker transferred their employment to the UK under an intra company transfer visa, they could not apply for indefinite leave to remain. Time spent in the UK whilst on the intra company transfer visa does not count towards meeting the residence requirement for an indefinite leave to remain application.
The settlement opportunities with the senior or specialist worker route may make it more attractive to applicants who don’t want to uproot their families and return to their home country after a transfer of employment to the UK. Unlike the intra company transfer an in applicant can eventually settle in the UK once their meet criteria laid down for this purpose.
However, the senior or specialist worker route will still be restricted by its minimum salary threshold and skills level requirement. These will remain considerably higher than the minimum salary threshold and skill criteria for a skilled worker visa applicant.
UK Expansion Worker Visa (Global Business Mobility)
The UK Global Business Mobility – UK Expansion Worker Visa is for senior managers and specialist employees who wish to be assigned to the UK temporarily to undertake work related to the expansion of an overseas business in the UK. Sponsors may send a maximum of 5 workers at a time.
The UK Expansion Worker route can only be used when the UK business has not yet started trading.
Service Supplier visa (Global Business Mobility)
The service supplier category has replaced the previous international agreement visa that is a specialist temporary work visa. In order to qualify for a UK Global Business Mobility – Service Supplier Visa, you will need to satisfy UK Visas and Immigration that you meet certain criteria under the immigration rules.
Graduate Trainee visa (Global Business Mobility)
The Graduate Trainee Visa (Global Business Mobility) has replaced the Intra-company Graduate Trainee visa.
Under the old intra company transfer visa, a graduate could transfer their employment to work in the UK whilst on a structured graduate training programme. The new route offers the same opportunity, but graduates will need to have been employed by the international company for at least three months before they can be transferred to the UK.
They will also need to meet a minimum salary threshold of £23,100 per year.
*For more information about any of the above routes, please contact our specialist * immigration team on 0203 761 3993 or complete our online contact form.
