Work Visa UK From Germany - Employer's Guide

For employers wishing to hire overseas workers in the UK, the recruitment planning must start with a thorough understanding of who needs a visa to legally work in the country. Your potential hire will have the right to work in the UK if they are:

• A British or Irish citizen
• An EEA national with pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or who has applied for the same and is awaiting a decision
• A foreign national with
  • Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK
  • A family permit under the EU Settlement Scheme
  • A Dependent visa
  • A family visa
  • A Student visa (for a limited number of hours)
  • A British National (Overseas) visa
  • A UK Ancestry visa
  • Right of abode in the UK

Do keep in mind that since Brexit, EU citizens (except the Irish) without a pre-settled/settled status must have a valid visa to rightfully work in the UK. So, German companies planning to hire overseas talent or send their staff from Germany to work in their UK branch, must consider which work visa option will be appropriate for their migrant workers.

Page Contents

• Who Needs a UK Work Visa?
• Types of Work Visas in the UK
• Work Visa UK for Skilled Migrant Talent
• Global Business Mobility Visa Routes
• Representative of an Overseas Business Visa
• Work Visa UK Without a Job Offer
• Temporary Worker Visas UK
• Sponsor Licence Requirement for Employers Hiring Foreign Talent in the UK
• How Total Law Can Help
• Frequently Asked Questions

There are several work visa options in the UK, which vary both in scope and validity depending on the migrant worker’s skill/qualification, employment status, whether they have a job offer in the UK, how long they will be working in the country etc.

We may divide the UK work visas in a few categories depending on certain common attributes. The goal is to summarise the main features of each visa option for an overall understanding, before we move on to discuss what German companies/employers may require prior to hiring overseas workers in the UK.

There is a considerable demand in the UK for qualified foreign nationals, especially in certain sectors or for certain roles where there is a skill gap in the domestic labour market.

A Skilled Worker visa allows overseas talent to come and work for an employer holding a sponsorship licence in the UK. The offered job type must be on the eligible occupations list and meet the minimum salary threshold for the said occupation.

Similar to the Skilled Worker visa, the Health and Care Worker visa is meant for qualified foreign doctors, nurses and other health and care professionals who must be sponsored by a licensed health and care sector employer to come and work in the UK, in roles that are listed as eligible occupations and meet the specified salary levels.

Another sponsorship option for hiring a skilled foreign worker in the UK is a Scale-up visa, provided your UK branch or subsidiary meets the Home Office’s criteria for a scale-up business and holds a scale-up sponsor licence. Unlike a Skilled Worker visa, Scale-up visa holders may change jobs and/or employers after six months without a Home Office permission, so comes with a greater flexibility for both employers and employees.

Both a Skilled Worker visa and a Health and Care Worker visa are initially valid for up to five years and renewable thereafter. A Scale-up visa is valid for two years and then can be renewed for three years as many times as required.

All the above visas provide a settlement route to the UK, meaning the visa holders can apply for ILR after living and working in the country for five years if they are otherwise eligible.

The Global Business Mobility visa routes allow foreign employers to post their overseas employees in the UK to work for their branches or subsidiary companies, or to set up and run their business operations in the country. There are five different types of UK work visas that come under the Global Business Mobility visa category:

• Senior or Specialist Worker visa, which allows a foreign employee to be temporarily transferred to the UK to work as a senior manager or specialist in a UK branch of their employer based overseas
• Graduate Trainee visa, which allows a foreign national to work in the UK in a job to fulfil the requirement of their overseas employer’s graduate training programme for a managerial or specialist position
• Secondment Worker visa, which allows a foreign employer to transfer their staff to the UK to take up temporary business or operational activities
• Service Supplier visa, which allows an overseas business to send their employees temporarily to the UK to perform work under a contract to supply services covered by UK’s international trade agreements
• UK Expansion Worker visa, which allows a foreign company to transfer their senior or strategic workers to the UK for setting up a branch in the country and running the initial business operations

As a German business, you may send your existing employees in Germany to the UK through any of these Global Business Mobility visa routes as long as you hold a valid sponsor licence and your employment contract meets specific criteria for your chosen visa option.

Your foreign employees can live and work in the UK from six months to five years under the Global Business Mobility scheme. However, none of these visas will allow them to permanently settle in the UK.

If you are a German newspaper, news agency or broadcasting organisation, you can post your foreign staff on a long-term assignment to the UK as a representative of an overseas business. This visa does not fall under the Global Business Mobility category, but is a valid visa route for foreign staff to come and work in the UK for their overseas employer.

A Representative of an Overseas Business visa is initially valid for three years and then renewable for an additional two years. Unlike Global Business Mobility visas, this visa offers an option to the visa holder to apply for ILR after living and working in the UK for five years.

There are certain UK work visas that foreign nationals can apply for without a job offer in the country, provided they meet the specific eligibility requirements. These are unsponsored work visa routes in the UK, meaning that if your potential recruit is holding any of these visas, you will not need to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship to hire them.

These unsponsored work routes in the UK are as follows:

• Global Talent visa, which allows foreign nationals to live and work for up to five years in the UK if they are a recognised leader or potential leader in academia or research, arts and culture or digital technology. A Global talent visa holder can apply for ILR after three or five years
• High Potential Individual (HPI) visa, which allows foreign nationals, who have graduated from an eligible university in the last five years, to live and work in the UK for up to two years (or three years for doctoral qualification holders)
• Graduate visa, which allows international students to live and work for up to two years (or three years for doctoral qualification holders) after they have successfully completed an eligible course in the UK
• Youth Mobility Scheme visa, which allows foreign nationals aged 18-30 years (or up to 35 years in some cases) to live and work in the UK for up to two years (renewable for an additional 12 months for certain nationalities)
• India Young Professionals Scheme visa, which allows Indians aged 18-30 years to live and work in the UK for up to two years

In addition to the work visas we have discussed so far, there are six Temporary Work visas that allow foreign nationals to live and work in the UK for a period of six months up to two years. These are:

• Seasonal Worker visa
• Government Authorised Exchange visa
• Creative Worker visa
• Religious Worker visa
• Charity Worker visa
• International Agreement visa

All these are sponsored routes, meaning you must have an appropriate sponsor licence before you can bring your overseas workers to the UK through any of these routes. This is in addition to a financial maintenance requirement as well as several other specific conditions.

As an employer, you will have to obtain a valid sponsorship licence if you are bringing overseas talent to the UK through any of the sponsored work routes discussed above. The type of sponsor licence you must apply for depends on whether you are hiring foreign nationals for skilled or long-term employment, or temporary workers for specific types of temporary employment. You may apply for a licence covering both types of workers as well.

You must meet the below mentioned criteria to be eligible to apply for a sponsor licence in the UK:

• You have appropriate systems in place to monitor sponsored workers, and people to manage sponsorship in your business
• You do not have unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences or financial crimes like money laundering, fraud etc.
• You have not had a sponsor licence revoked in the last 12 months
• You have suitable HR systems, policies and processes in place to meet their sponsor duties
• Your job offer complies with the UK minimum wage and working time regulations. You may lose the sponsor licence, and your overseas worker may be refused a UK work visa, if this criterion is not met
• Your potential foreign hire meets the other requirements specific for the visa they are applying for