More information on working in the UK

It is the responsibility of an employer to ensure that the people they employ have the right to work in the UK and if the employee is not a UK or EEA national, then they must have specific permission to work.

Permission for working in the UK is achieved through a number of methods:

• Tier 1 permit for highly skilled individuals
• Tier 2 employer sponsored Certificate of Sponsorship
• Tier 5 Certificate of Sponsorship (for working holidaymakers or youth mobility scheme participants)
• As a dependant of an EEA nation or a work permit holder in the UK
• A variety of other visas that give the right to work

In most cases permission to work is now assessed on a Points Based System which places greater emphasis on the responsibility of employers in selecting non-resident or non-EEA nationals they wish to employ to work in the UK.

Of the 5 PBS tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2 are most relevant to UK employers:

Tier 1 permits give permission for individuals to work in the UK and is for highly skilled migrants.

Tier 2 is designed to let UK employers recruit or transfer people from outside the UK to work here if certain conditions can be met. Under the Tier 2 system employers are responsible for ensuring that a successful candidate is qualified to fill the position being offered and that the job itself meets the necessary criteria.

The employer applies for registration as a Tier 2 sponsor and is granted a licence to access the UK Border Agency (UKBA) Sponsor Management System (SMS). This licence would be granted for four years.

Thereafter, when the employer wishes to employ an overseas non-EEA national, they, or their representatives such as JKA, will submit an online application to the UKBA for a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS).

If the new employee is overseas, they would then apply for Entry Clearance from their country of residence. A new employee already in the UK with a status that allows switching or extending, would apply to the UKBA in the UK to have a new Biometric Residence Document.

The types of Tier 2 CoS that licensed employers can issue include:

Tier 2 (General) Restricted - this route is for skilled workers who are not already in the UK in a category that allows switching. It is intended to limit the number of new Tier 2 (General) migrant workers entering the UK.

Tier 2 (General) Unrestricted - this route is for people already in the UK with a visa that allows switching to a Tier 2 (General) visa. Employers are able to apply for an allocation of unrestricted Certificates of Sponsorship and can use these to extend the Tier 2 visa for an existing employee.

Tier 2 Intra company transfer - this route is for multi-national organisations who need to transfer existing employees to the UK. From 6th April 2011 there are four subcategories within Tier 2 (ICT) for skilled sponsored workers.
These are:

• Long term staff transfers - this is for posts where the employee is being transferred to the UK for up to 5 years and where the UK salary will be a minimum of £40,000. The person must have worked for the company overseas for at least 12 months.
• Short term staff transfers - this is for posts where the employee is being transferred to the UK for a maximum period of 12 months. The person must have worked for the company overseas for at least 12 months.
• Skills transfer - this is for employees to come to the UK for training or pass on skills to the UK team. However there is no minimum period that the employee has had to have worked for the company overseas before they can be transferred with this visa.
• Graduate trainee - for recent graduates of multi-national companies who are being transferred to the UK organisation as part of a structured graduate training programme.