Moving to the UK To Work

So I've received quite a few questions regarding ways to move to the UK.  Honestly, its becoming really hard to do so right now with the coalition government's current crackdown on allowing non-EU migrants to work here - unless of course you're the former police commisioner of LA!

But for us regular folk, you may be wondering how are you able to move to the UK to work.  I'm going to focus specifically on people who are not going the eduation route ie studying for a Master's degree in the UK and will instead focus on people who are looking to move to London and work.  Please note that this blog post does not apply to people who are already in the UK.  This is only for people who are applying for work visas from outside the UK.

If you fit into this category, you can still come over to the UK under several different schemes.  Some schemes require that you obtain sponsorship before you apply for a work visa while other do not. I'll discuss each of these options below.

Work Visas Which DON'T Require Sponsorship 

Tier 1 - General
This allows for highly skilled individuals to look for work or be self employed while in the UK.  Application for this and many other categories is based on a points system.  You must obtain at least 100 points to be able to apply for the Tier 1 General visa.  The number of points that you earn depend on a variety of factors including your age, qualifications, previous earnings and your UK experience. You can read up more about the points system here as well as review the full guidance here.  Please note that this category is currently closed to applicants from outside the UK.  I've yet to find more information about when or if it'll be re-opened.

Tier 1 - Entrepreneur
You can apply for this visa if you wish to come over and start your own business or if you want to take over a pre-existing one.  You can apply for this while you are in the UK or before you come over. This via will allow you to remain here for an initial period of 3 years.  Upon renewal, you may be granted either a further two or three years leave to remain.  Most people are allowed to switch into this category as long as they've been granted previous permission to remain in the UK.  You can read more about this in the UK Border Agency's guidance.  One of the important requirements that you need to prove while applying for this visa is to show that you have access to £50,000 from either a venture capital firm, a UK seeding fund or from a UK goverment body.  The fund must also be held in a financial instuttion and be dispoable ain the UK.  If you're unable to meet this bare minimum requirement for access to £50,000, then you'll have to consider another way to enter the UK as this accounts for the majority of points allocated to applicants.

Tier 1 - Exceptional Talent
This for people who have shown outstanding progress in the fields of science or art.  you can apply through the four competent bodies that include The Royal Society, Arts Council England, the British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering.  There are a very limited nuumber of annual endoresments available from each of these bodies - 200 for the British Academy and Royal Academy of Engineering and 300 for the Royal Society and the Arts Council England. They do recommend that you be "world leaders in your field".  I suppose this means that if you don't' have a Nobel prize then you really shouldn't bother to apply.  But I'm not really sure to be honest.

Sole Representative of an overseas company
For this category, you must fulfill quite a few requirement.  You must have been recruited and have worked for the company outside of the UK.   You must be a senior employee who has come here with the intention of creating a  commercial presence for your company in the UK.  Your company can not have any other branch, subsidiary or representative in the UK and you must have full authority to make operation decisions on the company's behalf. You can read a bit more about this category here.

Work Visas Which Require Sponsorship 

Tier 2 - Intra-company transfer
This visa category is for people who are looking to move over to the UK through their jobs.  You can either come over on a long term or short term basis.  To apply for this visa, you must have been with your US job for at least 12 months prior to your application unless you are applying as a graduate trainee in which case you must have been with the company for at least 3 months.  You must also be paid more than £24,000 if you are coming as a graduate trainee, more than £24,000 if you're coming as short term staff and more than £40,000 if you're coming as long term staff.  You can find out more by reading the official guidance.

Tier 2 - General
For this work visa category, you must be filling a gap that can't be replaced by an EU worker.  You see a list of careers that currently have job shortages here.   I suspect that this will be the category that will be the easiest for most people to apply when trying to come to the UK.  There is a limit on the number of non-EU nationals who come to work in the UK for a salary less than £150,000.  However there is no cap on the number that come to work for salaries higher than that. If you're looking to obtain a Tier 2 visa, along with finding a sponsor, you need to make sure that the position pays more than £20,000 per year and ensure that you work more than 30 hours a week.  There are a host of other requirements that you'll need to meet or that will help your chances of obtaining the visa as it is awarded on a points system.  You can find out more information by checking out the official guidance here.

Finding a Sponsor

The UK Border Agency has a list of company's who are willing to sponsor workers which you can access here. Unfortunately its a .PDF which only lists company's by their name which is not super helpful at all.  It would be a hell of a lot easier to navigate if it was interactive so that you could search by industry and location as well.  But its a start I suppose.

Another way that you could find a sponsor would be to start searching the classified sections of various newspapers and by using Monster.co.uk or any other job search engine.  Depending on your field, some companies will advertise that they're willing to hire people from outside the EU.  Before I moved to London, I contacted several law firms and mentioned in my cover letter that I would be available for an interview during a week that I'd be in London and that I'd love to meet them if they were interested.  I was able to secure two interviews doing this.  So its worth a try!