UK Skilled Worker Visa: Guide and Application Process
Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence: Legal guidance for employers
In our last week’s article, we talked about common business immigration visa routes and today we want to take a closer look at the most popular route – the Skilled Worker Visa. This article will take you through how your business can become a sponsored employer and how you can hire skilled workers.
How does my business become an Authorised Sponsor?
If you wish to employ a person who is not a settled worker, or who does not otherwise have immigration permission to work for you in the UK, you will need to be authorised by the Home Office. This authorisation is known as a ‘sponsor licence’, and employers who hold a sponsor licence are known as ‘Authorised Sponsors’.
When a sponsor is granted a licence, significant trust is placed in your business. With this trust comes a direct responsibility to act in accordance with the UK’s immigration laws, all parts of this sponsor guidance, and with wider UK law, including, but not limited to:
Payment of National Minimum Wage, holiday and sickness pay, maximum working hours, health and safety, and trade union and worker rights;
Preventing illegal working; and
Safeguarding children.
Only businesses who meet the eligibility requirements can become Authorised Sponsors. Immigration specialists like Dragon Argent can assist you through the whole process of gaining a sponsor licence through to sponsoring your first employee. The steps set out below provide an overview of the process:
Assessing the Company’s eligibility to be a sponsored employer;
Collating required documents to support the Company’s application;
Identifying sponsorship management roles;
Advising on the appropriate HR systems that should be in place;
Preparing and submitting an online application form and paying the applicable fee;
Assessing the vacant job role;
Assessing the candidate identified to take the role and who needs sponsorship;
Collating the required information and supporting documents for the candidate’s application
Assigning a certificate of sponsorship
Applying for the Skilled Worker Visa and paying the necessary costs;
Identifying your responsibilities as a sponsored employer.
Once your application is granted, your Sponsorship Licence will be valid for 4 years and you will be free to hire and sponsor migrant workers!
What is UK Skilled Worker visa?
A Skilled Worker Visa allows an individual to come to or stay in the UK to an eligible job with an approved employer. Any job that you wish to sponsor a worker for, must be at an appropriate skill level and must meet the minimum salary requirement.
Our skilled worker visa solicitors will assist you in determining the appropriate details for the role you wish to sponsor and ensure the specifics of the role meet the minimum requirements. Additionally, we will evaluate whether the individual you wish to sponsor has the appropriate skills, qualifications and experience needed to do the job.
Once the application is submitted, it can take between 3-8 weeks to receive a decision. However fast track options ranging from Next Day to 5-working days may be available at an extra cost.
What are the costs and who pays?
The costs can be broken down into two tranches. Firstly, the cost for a company wanting to hire a migrant worker by applying for a sponsor licence through the home office is £536 with an additional £500 for priority service. Typical legal fees to assist throughout the 11 steps outlined above to obtain a sponsor licence range between £3,000 and £6,000 plus VAT. However, this allows a business to hire multiple individuals over the period the sponsor license is valid for.
The second tranche of costs are the legal costs for a Skilled Worker Visa application and these can vary depending on the nationality of the individual, where they are applying from, whether they are required to prove their knowledge of English or medical history, the job they are doing and the length of the visa they are applying for. Guideline costs are mapped out below:
£199 for the certificate of sponsorship;
£364 for the Immigration Skills Charge for the first 12 months then £182 for each subsequent 6 month period (longest can sponsor is 5 years);
£610 to £1,220 for the Visa Application Fee
£624 per year for the Healthcare Surcharge
£20 - £1,000 for Biometric information and visa centre appointment
It is common for the company to bear the costs of the skilled worker visa application process and fees. Dragon Argent advises to get employment law advice and consider inserting repayment of immigration fees in the individuals contract of employment should they leave the company within a certain period.
Obtaining a sponsor licence and sponsoring migrant workers is an admin heavy process and the immigration rules are not particularly easy to understand or straight forward to follow. This is why we suggest hiring expert advisers who are familiar with the application process and know what the Home Office wants to see in an application to ensure a smooth and successful process. However, this does open a huge talent pool to tap into for companies willing to navigate business immigration rules.
How can I get support?
Our Immigration Specialist can be on hand to assist with the entire process or bit by bit, as and when support is needed. We can also be the point of contact for your employees for all of their visa questions, giving you more time to focus on what is important - your business.
For more information on hiring migrant workers, procuring a Sponsorship licence or any of the other immigration services, schedule a discovery call with our business immigration solicitor and we would be delighted to support you!
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