Working in the UK - Immigration issues

The UK Immigration system is constantly evolving and is now a complicated area. At the end of 2008 and early 2009, the UK saw the most significant changes in over 40 years with the introduction of the Points Based System.

There are several different levels and types of visa that you can apply for, depending on your circumstances. For an appropriate fee you can also enlist the help of a visa expert or specialist who will guide you through the process. We recommend that you consider this approach given the complexity of the legislation.

If you are considering working in the UK, even on a temporary contract, it is critical that you have considered your visa status. To help you achieve a broad understanding of your options we have detailed below a brief overview of the different visas and levels, or tiers.

Qualification/Fees - Tier 1
To qualify to apply under the points-based system, you must score the following points:

At least 75 points for your attributes (age, qualifications, previous earned income and experience in the UK)
10 points for English Language
10 points for available maintenance (funds)

A fee of £675 is payable to the British High Commission in the applicant’s home country for the Tier 1 General visa and a fee of £265 is payable to the UK Border Agency for the Tier 1 Post Study visa.

Tier 1 General - Highly Skilled workers
Applicants who wish to apply for a Tier 1 (General) permit must hold a Masters degree level qualification, and must have earned the equivalent of at least £20,000.
If you hold a professional qualification, such as a CA qualification, this is considered comparable to a British Masters degree and therefore you should still be able to apply for the Tier 1 (General) permit.

Tier 1 Post Study
This category allows the most able international graduates, who have studied in the UK, to work in the UK for a period of two years, without having a sponsor for the length of their Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) leave. The aim of this category is to provide international graduates with a bridge to highly skilled or skilled work in the UK. Individuals with leave in this category will be expected to switch into another part of the points-based system as soon as they are able to do so.

Tier 1 Entrepreneurs
For migrants investing in or setting up a business, and being actively involved in the running of it. At least £200,000 needs to be available for the purpose of investing in a business in the UK. The investment sum can either be provided by a third party or the funds could belong to the individual applicant. The investment can be made in an existing business or in a new venture.

A fee of £675 is payable to the British High Commission in the applicant’s home country.

Tier 1 Investor
The Tier 1 Investor category is for high net worth individuals that are making a substantial investment in the United Kingdom. The applicant needs money of his own, held in a regulated financial institution and disposable in the UK amounting to no less than £1 million, or hold personal assets of at least £2 million, with an amount of at least £1 million accessible to and disposable by them, which may be loaned.

A fee of £675 is payable to the British High Commission in the applicant’s home country.

Family and settlement visas
There are a number of visas that fall under the family and settlement visa category, and the length of time that your UK settlement visa is issued for is dependent on the type of visa that you are applying for.

UK Spousal visa
A Spouse visa enables the spouse of a person settled in the UK (British citizen or those on Indefinite Leave to Remain) to join them in the UK. If your application for a UK Spouse visa is accepted, you will be allowed to work in the country as soon as the visa is granted.

There are certain requirements that must be met to enable you to qualify for a UK Spouse visa including:

Both you and your spouse must have settled status in the UK and must be 21 years old or over
You and your spouse must have met each other and be legally married. This is to prevent situations such as arranged marriages where the husband and wife have never met
You must both intend to live together on a permanent basis
You must both have sufficient funds to support yourselves without having to claim public funds in the form of benefits
You must have suitable accommodation in place for you, your spouse and any dependants

UK Spouse visas are issued for two years. After this period, you can then apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)/Permanent Residence but only if you are still married and living with your spouse in the UK.

In some circumstances you may be eligible for ILR straight away but only if you have been married and living with your spouse in another country prior your application for entry into the UK. Once ILR has been granted you can then go on to apply for full British citizenship once you complete three years as a resident in the UK.

A fee of £585 is payable to the British High Commission in the applicants home country.

UK Unmarried Partner visa
If you have been in a relationship similar to a marriage for a period of 2 years or longer, with either a British national or an individual in the long stay category (Tier 1, Tier 2, Ancestral ) or EEA Citizen, you may be eligible to apply for a visa to allow you to remain in the UK with your partner.

The UK Unmarried visa or Unmarried Partner visa is eligible for both heterosexual and same-sex couples, and dependant children can be included on the visa application.

To be eligible for the UK Unmarried visa you must fulfil certain criteria including:

The sponsor and applicant must have lived together in a relationship ‘akin to marriage’ for at least two years
Both sponsor and applicant must intend to live together permanently
The applicant must be able to support themselves or be supported by their partner without having to access public funding (benefits)
There must be adequate accommodation in place

Applicants who have been in an unmarried relationship for two years or more will be granted a visa to live and work in the UK. This visa could lead to settlement and British citizenship.

A fee of £585 is payable to the British High Commission in the applicants home country. This is only for people with British partners. There is no British High Commission fee if the partner is an EU national.

EEA Family visa
The UK is a part of the European Economic Area (EEA). The rules of the EEA permit the free movement of nationals between member states. Thus an EEA national who lives or intends to live in the UK may be eligible to sponsor a dependent relative by applying for an EEA Family visa.

Non-EEA nationals whose family members are EEA members exercising their Treaty Rights in the UK can apply for an initial five-year residence family permit (or 6 month permit on entry clearance and then extend to the full 5 years once in the UK), allowing the applicant to live, work and study in the UK without restriction. As with all five year residence visas, once that time is up, the applicant can then apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain and ultimately for British citizenship.

An EEA Family visa is initially granted for six months on entry clearance to allow you and your family to enter and settle in the UK. During that initial six-month period, you will be required to apply for an extension of five years.

To qualify for an EEA Family visa you must fulfil basic criteria set out by UK immigration services including:

Both spouses/partners must be over 18 years of age
The relationship must be genuine
Applicants must be dependent on their EEA relative

There is no fee payable to the British High Commission for these applications.

EEA FMRS
If you are married to an EU national from one of the new accession states (A8 - Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland Slovakia or Slovenia) you will be able to apply for an EEA/EU Family Permit in order for you to remain in/enter the UK with your EU national spouse.

Nationals from the new member states need to undergo what is known as the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS). This scheme lasts for 12 months. If your partner has not yet undergone this, or is currently on this status, you will need to be a dependent on this status first.

Once the 12 month period is over, you will then be able to apply for the full EEA Family Permit, which will be issued for 5 years.

There is no fee payable to the British High Commission for these applications.

Dependant of person in long stay
If you are married to, the unmarried partner of, or the civil partner of a migrant in the UK in the long stay category; i.e. Ancestral Visa, EU national, tier 2 permit etc, you can apply to be a dependent on that migrant’s visa status.

Your stay will be granted for the same period as the migrant’s leave to remain and usually you are allowed to work unrestrictedly in the UK.

This fee will depend on the visa status of the migrant who already has leave to remain in the UK.

UK Ancestral visa
If you are a citizen of a Commonwealth country and have a grandparent who was born in the UK and Islands, you may be eligible for an Ancestral visa. The grandparent does not have to be alive for your application to be eligible. Commonwealth nationals with a grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland prior to 31 March 1922 are also eligible to apply. UK Ancestral visas provide you with the freedom to work in the UK.

If you have a spouse, unmarried partner or children under 21 years of age, you can apply for them to join you on a UK Ancestry Dependency visa.

To apply for a UK Ancestral visa you must be able to fulfil the following criteria:

You must be 17 years of age or over
Be able to prove that your grandparent was born in the UK and Islands
It must be your intention to settle in the UK and be able to support yourself without access to public funding (i.e. benefits)
Be able to apply for a United Kingdom Ancestral visa in your home country or the country where you are legally resident. You must also apply for entry clearance prior to coming to the UK

The visa is valid for a period of five years. You may then be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK, which can lead on to full UK citizenship. If you are staying in the UK on an Ancestral visa issued for a four-year period you can apply for an extension to this visa whilst in the UK. To be able to apply for an ILR you must be able to prove that:

You continue to meet the requirements of the immigration rules for UK Ancestry
You have spent five years continuously in the UK and can show that you have an employment history throughout that period. If you intend to apply for ILR you should not spend more than 90 days per year outside the UK during the five-year period in which your visa is valid for

A fee of £215 is payable to the British High Commission in the applicants home country.

UK indefinite leave to remain
If you hold Permanent residence or Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) you will have no time restrictions on your UK immigration status. This is usually the final stage before applying for British Citizenship.

In order to qualify for Permanent Residence or ILR, you will need to have spent a certain amount of time on a particular visa and will have complied with the legislation relevant to that visa. ILR will usually follow once a person has spent the required amount of time on one of the following visas:

Ancestral Visas
Spouse Visas
HSMP/Tier 1 Visas
Work Permit/Tier 2 Visas
Dependency Visas
EEA Status
EEA Family Permits

ILR does not have a time limit, so you are able to come and go as you please once you have this status, however, the UK government only issues this status to people who have the intention to make the UK their home. Therefore, whilst there is no ‘end date’ on the ILR status, there are certain requirements that need to be complied with in order for a person to retain this status.

A fee of £820 is payable to the UK Border Agency.

British Citizenship
In order to qualify for British Citizenship you will need to satisfy a number of requirements. Some of these requirements are: you have spent a certain amount of time in the UK on a certain visa status; you currently hold Indefinite Leave to Remain status; you have not spent more than the allotted time period outside of the UK within the last 3 or 5 years (as may be applicable to you).

There are a variety of different UK citizenship statuses and a variety of different ways in which you would qualify for this status.

The two main ways in which people become UK citizens is either through the process of Naturalisation or the process of Registration.

Once you have successfully completed this process and are a UK citizen you will be able to apply for your British Passport.

A fee of £720 is payable to the UK Border Agency.

Smooth Migration are specialist immigration advisors with many years experience of the issues affecting Contractors, you can find out more about the services that they offer by clicking here http://www.smoothmigration.com

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