www.mpani.org
Cleaver Fulton Rankin
Immigration Update
NATHAN CAMPBELL, ASSOCIATE, BUSINESS IMMIGRATION LAW TEAM, CLEAVER FULTON RANKIN, SOLICITORS. Since the Brexit referendum, the number of EU workers coming to Northern Ireland has fallen adding pressures to an already tight labour market. A number of roles in the construction, quarrying and mineral sectors are on the shortage occupation list, as the Migration Advisory Committee has confirmed that there is a lack of relevant available workers in the resident labour market. Prior to Brexit, EU nationals could live and work in the United Kingdom without obtaining any visa. Now that the transition period has ended, in most cases EU nationals seeking to enter the UK labour market are now in the same position as non EU nationals, and so will need to obtain a visa. The main types of work visas including some new categories have been summarised below.
Scale-Up Visa
This is a brand new route which went live on 22 August 2022. Applicants on this route must have a job offer from an authorised UK scale up company. To register for this route a company will need to demonstrate that they have an annualised growth of at least 20% for the previous 3-year period in terms of turnover or staffing. Companies will also need to have had a minimum of 10 employees at the start of this 3-year period.
Skilled Worker Visa
This is essentially the same as the Tier 2 (General) Visa and is available for roles that meet certain skill (typically at least RQF Level 3) and salary (typically at least £25,600 per annum) requirements. It is a prerequisite that employers register with the Home Office for a sponsor licence and these visas are expensive. There have been a number of developments which make the Skilled Worker Visa easier to obtain than the Tier 2 (General) Visa was. These include the removal of the resident labour market test, suspension of the monthly visa cap and the lowering of skill and salary requirements. Therefore, we have found that organisations that were already used to sponsoring migrants have found some of the changes post Brexit to be helpful, and these have provided useful opportunities to recruit skilled workers. However, for organisations that were used to relying on the ready availability of EU migrants, the additional costs and requirements of this visa may be a shock to the system.
82
Nathan Campbell.
Global Business Mobility Visa
The Intra Company Transfer and Sole Representative of an Overseas Business routes, have been amalgamated into a new Global Business Mobility category and these changes came into effect on 11 April 2022. However, despite speculation that this route would now lead to settlement, that is not the case. Therefore, this visa is only likely to be of use in certain niche circumstances such as where there is an overseas linked entity that wants to send members of staff to the NI entity for a short term secondment, and wants to avoid the English language requirements associated with the Skilled Worker Visa.
Therefore, this will only apply to certain companies. The main advantage to this route is that it does not incur the Immigration Skills Charge (which can be up to £1,000 per year). It also allows the migrant more flexibility to switch employers after 6 months of employment. Though in most cases this is likely to be more of an advantage to the migrant than to the employer.
High Potential Individual Visa
This is another new route which went live on 30 May 2022. This visa allows graduates from top universities outside of the UK to live and work in the UK without a sponsor. A list of eligible universities will be compiled on an annual basis and they will be ranked in the top 50 of at least two of a prescribed list of ranking systems. The leave to remain will be for two years (three with a PHD) and does not lead to settlement.
The intention is therefore for a route which is similar to the graduate visa (which applies to graduates of UK universities) and which will give recent
MPANI 2022 | 2023
