The UK government launched three new visa routes this year and these are now in force. The idea behind these routes is to help attract and retain global talent, while also aiming to support businesses left with labour shortages from Brexit.
What Are The New Immigration Routes?
The three new visa routes are categorised into: Global Business Mobility, High Potential Individual and Scale-Up. Each has its criteria for eligibility, read on to learn more.
Global Business Mobility Visa Routes
This is a new category of sponsored routes which opened in April 2022 for overseas businesses seeking to establish a presence in, or transfer staff to, the UK for specific business purposes. There are five sub-categories within this route:
- Graduate Trainee: This route is for workers undertaking a UK-based work placement as part of a graduate training course, to lead on to a senior management or specialist position.
- Secondment Worker: Looking to attract overseas workers who are looking to come to the UK on a short-term secondment. These arrangements would be a part of an investment by their overseas employers or as a high-value contract.
- UK Expansion Worker: This route allows senior staff to come to the UK for a limited period to work on their organisation’s expansion plans.
- Service Supplier: For international workers providing the services mentioned within the UK’s international trade agreements, this route looks to encourage them. They must be a self-employed professional overseas or a contractual service provider for an overseas organisation.
Senior or Specialist Worker: This is for a senior manager or specialist employee being deployed to a UK business linked to their overseas employer.
High Potential Individual Visas
This is a new route, introduced on 30 May 2022, aimed to attract the brightest and best international talent to the UK.
This visa aims to attract international graduates from the Home Office’s top 50 global universities. This new route, in particular, allows talented students the option to enter the UK, even if they don’t have a job offer. A High Potential Individual Visa can be authorised for two years; however, if the student has a qualification that is equivalent to a PhD in the UK, this can be increased to three years.
The High Potential visa route will be beneficial to businesses as it provides an alternative to costly sponsorships and offers a faster route for new hires.
Scale-Up Visas
This route, which opened on 22 August 2022, is aimed at highly skilled individuals who can support the growth of UK scale-up businesses.
It allows applicants at RQF level 6 (degree level) to be sponsored by a UK company that meets the definition of a scale-up. The applicant must, however, hold a job offer from that company at the required salary level of £33,000 per year or more.
To qualify as a scale-up company, a business will need:
- an annualised growth of at least 20% for the previous 3-year period in terms of turnover or staffing
- a minimum of ten employees at the start of the three years
Offering a more flexible work visa than other routes, this route only requires the applicant to work for the sponsoring company for an initial six-month period. After this time, they can choose to work for another employer in an unsponsored role.
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