Entry to the UK for Skilled Workers

Employers need a licence

For employers in the UK wishing to secure global talent it is essential to obtain a sponsor licence. In essence, this licence is permission from the UK Home Office for the employer to sponsor skilled migrants to come to the UK to work for them. To obtain a sponsor licence, employers are required to complete an application and provide supporting documents to the Home Office. The supporting documents are generally quite quick and relatively easy for established UK companies to gather as they are fairly standard corporate documents. For new companies or those entering the UK market for the first time, these requirements will pose more difficulties. Having a sponsor licence should be considered as an investment in preparing for a global workforce.

Sponsoring skilled migrants

Once an employer has a sponsor licence they can then sponsor the visas of skilled migrants. Employers have two options for this: Skilled Worker Visas or Intra-Company Transfer (“ICT”) Visas.

Since Brexit the rules for Skilled Worker visas have been relaxed and some restrictions, such as a limit on the number of visas available, have been relaxed in an attempt to make up for the lack of flexible foreign labour with specialist skills. Skilled Worker visas are now available for a wider range of jobs after the education requirement was reduced from degree level to A level. There is no longer a strict requirement for employers to advertise the job in the UK before sponsoring a migrant.

Now that the rules for Skilled Worker visas have changed, ICT visas are seeing a decline in popularity. ICT visas were traditionally more popular as they were quick to obtain and had no advertising requirement. Since the two schemes are the same in terms of processing time and fees, Skilled Worker visas often now have the edge as they allow the migrant to apply for settlement after five continuous years of residence. Currently, the only real advantage of the ICT visa is where a job applicant has poor or no English language skills as, unlike Skilled Worker visas, there is no English language requirement.

Not having a licence can cost

Acquiring a sponsor licence and maintaining it can be expensive and time consuming. In addition, a single three-year work visa application for a migrant costs around £5,000 in fees and can take two to three months to be processed by the Home Office. However, not having a licence before seeking global talent can cause employers to miss out as few people will wait a few months for a licence to be put in place. For some employers, the fees are simply too expensive, pushing them to look for local talent. Employers that can afford the fees have the luxury of continuing to recruit and train UK talent while having the option to look further afield when needed.

Don’t get complacent

Obtaining a sponsor licence and successfully sponsoring a skilled migrant is not the end of an employer’s obligations. The sponsor licence requires ongoing regulatory compliance - trigger events will demand action by the sponsor and there are also record retention and reporting requirements. In a way, the Home Office has shifted a substantial portion of their enforcement and monitoring responsibilities onto employers in return for allowing them to bring in international talent. Cooperation with the Home Office is a must for employers that wish to continue sponsoring migrant workers.