Working In the United Kingdom

Can I come to the United Kingdom to work?

The answer may not be straightforward. There are a number of possible categories under which someone may be allowed to come to the UK for business or employment purposes. Most of these are covered the Points-Based System but can be affected by other immigration rules or by government policies or concessions.

It can be difficult to find which route is best for you. There are also potential traps you can fall into that can mean your application is refused when it might have been successful. A failed application is usually expensive and will set you back in your plans and your family’s future.

“Work Permits”

Although people still refer to applying for a work permit, or consider coming to the UK as a “highly skilled migrant” these schemes are no longer in existence, and it is very important that when you consider the options available to you that you do so with the full understanding of the current law. A recent change was the closure of the Tier 1 (General) applications to those abroad and from April 2011 further changes are planned.

The current system is a Points-Based System. Although the government introduced this to try to make the system more transparent, easy to administer and with more certainty of outcome, the difficulty is that there is little flexibility in the requirements of each rule which means that too often an application can be refused for a minor failure to comply with an administrative requirement. In addition, the criteria for these rules can be changed (often at short notice) so that scoring points is made harder or easier (and generally the trend is only for them to get harder).

The main categories now are:-

Tier 1 Post Study Work – A period of employment in the UK after completing a course at a high level of education in the UK.

Tier 1 Entrepreneur or Tier 1 Investor

Tier 2 – This used to be called the work permit system. Applications under this tier are for people who have a specific highly skilled job with a specific employer (the sponsor) to go to in the UK. Only employers registered with the UK Border Agency can sponsor applicants.

Temporary Workers

Domestic Workers – For people already established in employment with an employer who is coming to the UK.