The Scale-Up visa, High Potential Individual visa, and Global Business Mobility Visa are among the new work visas which the UK government plans to launch in 2022. This development aims to support the UK economy, which is suffering from skills shortage as a result of Brexit and the coronavirus epidemic.
However, the main goal is to fulfil the government’s innovation strategy. The UK Innovation Strategy is a vision to make the country a global innovation hub, making it simpler for talented people to come. Notably, these new work visas are fast routes to working in the UK for those with highly-valued skills. They’ll enable UK companies to hire top international talents and bring in temporary workers from branches overseas.
The question, however, is if they require sponsorship. Well, some do while some do not. Here’s a quick overview of the visas.
1.Scale-Up visa
This visa welcomes top talents with a job offer from eligible scale-up companies. To qualify as a scale-up, a business must record at least a 20% annual increase in employee count or turnover for the past 3 years, with a minimum of 10 employees in the first year. Applications start in late August.
2.High Potential Individual visa
Only graduates of the “world’s best universities” are eligible for the High Potential Individual visa. To qualify, you must have graduated no more than 5 years before your application date – this will be confirmed by Ecctis. As an “individual visa,” you must not have an employment offer from a UK company to apply. Applications start in early May.
3.Global Business Mobility Visa
The Global Business Mobility visa will allow UK businesses to temporarily transfer staff from abroad offices or other overseas partners to the UK. To qualify, applicants must have worked for the company for at least 3 months immediately before applying. It’s the only visa out of the three that’s open for application.
4.Do The Visas Require Sponsorship?
A sponsor license is mandatory for the majority of UK work visas. Popular work visas like the Skilled Worker visa, Seasonal Worker visa, and Health or Care Worker visa all require a sponsorship licence. It’s no different for the Scale-Up visa and Global Business Mobility. Only the High Potential Individual visa, among the new UK work visas, does not require an employer to apply for a sponsor licence.
You’ll need an unused Certificate of Sponsorship from your UK employer for the Scale-up visa. Your employer can only issue sponsorship certificates after getting a sponsorship license. Notably, an employer only needs to apply for a sponsor license once. If they get an A-rated license, they can then issue several certificates of sponsorship to multiple workers for 4 years.
You must apply for your visa within 3 months after receiving your certificate of sponsorship from your employer. Note that this is a digital certificate, not a physical one. It’ll contain your employer name, your name, job title, and most importantly, your employer’s sponsor licence number.
There’s a Register of Licensed Sponsors with A-rated licenses on the Home Office website. You can confirm if your employer holds a valid sponsor license and if they are permitted to sponsor your employment type.
The Global Business Mobility is a reformation of the Intra-company Graduate Trainee visa which required sponsorship; this didn’t change. However, your employer will receive a ‘provisional’ rating instead of an A-rated license if you’re coming to the UK as an expansion worker under the Global Business Mobility route. With a provisional-rated sponsor license, they can only issue one certificate of sponsorship.
The High Potential Individual visa doesn’t require sponsorship; you can work in a self-employed or employed position. However, the visa has high requirements. As mentioned before, you must be a top global university graduate within the past 5 years before you can apply. Your university must appear on the Home Office Global Universities List which is compiled annually.
Without sponsorship, you must prove that you have enough funds to support your stay. This is also a requirement for the sponsored routes – Scale-up and Global Mobility visas – but your sponsor can take up the responsibility. You can contact UK immigration lawyers for guidance and more information about these new work visas.
