Business & Commercial (Work Permits)

UK Immigration offers employers who have an established business presence in the UK numerous work permit schemes to employ overseas nationals on work permits arrangements for their organisation.

The introduction of work permit into UK law have been mainly introduced to fill in job vacancies in the UK job labour market with overseas nationals as a result of shortage of skills, qualification and experience from the resident work force to do a particular job.

There are 2 main work permit categories that employers can seek to employ an overseas national requiring employment immigration status, it is important to know which work permit category an application should be made.

Tier 1

Tier 1 work permits are for those employers who need to fill in a vacancy which the UK recognises that there is an acute shortage of skills within professions that are considered on the current shortage, list click here 'Shortage of Occupation List.’

Tier 2

Tier 2 work permits are for employers who need to fill in a vacancy, however need to also advertise the job to UK/EU resident work force before recruiting an overseas national.

Skills

Not all jobs qualify under the work permit scheme, however jobs requiring a senior role and some level of skills and experience or jobs in the niche labour market such as overseas chefs, that requires additional skills and difficult to find from the UK/EEA resident work force can be considered under the work permit scheme.

To be eligible under the work permit scheme employees must demonstrate that they have relevant qualifications of NVQ level 3 & above, or skills from relevant work experience in full time employment.

Nationals who do not need work permit

Nationals & EEA nationals of the following countries: -

• Austria, Belgium, Cyprus Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland
• Person given Permanent Residence or Indefinite Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom

Spouse or partners of the following: -

• Work Permit holder, Business Person, Sole Representative Investors, Students, Commonwealth citizens with ancestry visas 

Nationals of new accession member need to apply under Workers Registration Scheme after they have commenced employment as follows: -

• Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia 

National from countries who are eligible to establish a business in the UK under European Community Association Agreement countries:

Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. The usual investment requirements are changed for these candidates’ categories.

Dependants of work permit holders

A spouse of work permit holder is also eligible to take employment whilst they are in the UK.

Children of the work permit holders can also take up schooling during the period of stay with their parent.

Work permit holders and his dependants are not allowed to rely on public funds like social security benefits during the stay in this category and work permit holder would have to show evidence that he is able to adequately provide maintenance for the spouse and dependants before entry clearances can be granted on application.

Additional Information

Work permit holders and their dependants will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK once the work permit holder successfully completes a period of 5 years in employment in the UK.

Works permit extensions

Should a work permit be granted for a period less than 5 years or the employee does not wish to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom at the end of a 5 years period then an employer who wishes to continue the employee’s employment must apply for an extension of the work permit before the employee’s work permit visa comes to an end.

Employers

Note for employers who illegally employ a person who is a visa national without been approved a work permit to do so, Section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 requires the employer to satisfy that employees are not in breach of the Immigration Rules, the penalty for an employer who employs someone who is not permitted to work in the United Kingdom is a fine of £5000 for each employee.