UK Work Visa For Filipinos - Employer's Guide

Recruiting from abroad is an excellent way to widen your recruitment pool, find candidates who will suit your business needs, and fill your employment gaps. However, if you are hiring a candidate from the Philippines, they will need a visa to legally enter, work and live in the UK, regardless of the length of employment.

There are a number of different visas available, each covering a variety of types of employment and having different eligibility requirements. So, first, you must choose which visa applies to your new member of staff before gathering the required supporting documents for their application.

For nearly all the UK work visas, in order to employ someone from the Philippines, you will have to be a licensed UK sponsor and provide them with a formal job offer and Certificate of Sponsorship.

Page Contents

• UK Work Visa Overview
• Skilled Worker Visa
• New Immigration Rules for UK Skilled Worker Visa
• Health and Care Worker Visa
• Global Business Mobility Visa
• Scale-up Worker Visa
• International Sportsperson Visa
• Minister of Religion Visa
• Temporary Worker Visas
• UK Work Visa Application Process
• UK Work Visa Requirements
• Documents Required for UK Work Visa
• UK Work Visa Cost and Processing Time
• How Can Total Law Help?
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Skilled Worker visa is a sponsored points-based visa that covers a variety of eligible jobs and allows a skilled employee to work in the UK. The candidate must score enough points on the Home OFfice points based system with the job you have offered them, and they must:

• Have a job offer from a licensed UK sponsor.
• Have a Certificate of Sponsorship.
• Have a job from the list of occupations eligible for this visa.
• Meet the minimum salary requirements.
• Meet the English language requirements.

This visa covers a range of jobs, for example, including:

• Entertainers or creative artists.
• Managerial roles in arts and culture.
• Programmers or software development professionals.
• IT business analysts, architects and systems designers.

The Skilled Worker visa is typically valid for up to five years, after which the employee can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. The applicant can also extend the Skilled Worker visa as many times as they like as long as they still meet all the eligibility criteria.

The Health and Care Worker visa is very similar to the Skilled Worker visa but applicable for healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses or adult social care professionals. The position you are offering them must be for the NHS, an NHS supplier or in adult social care.

You may choose to apply for this visa over the Skilled Worker visa as the application fee is lower.

The applicant of the Health and Care Worker visa must:

• Have a job offer from a licensed UK sponsor.
• Have a Certificate of Sponsorship.
• Have a job from the list of occupations eligible for this visa.
• Meet the minimum salary requirements.
• Meet the English language requirements.

This visa lasts up to five years, can be extended as many times as the applicant wants, and is a valid route to Indefinite Leave to Remain after the applicant has stayed in the UK after five consecutive years.

The Global Business Mobility visa comprises five visas that allow existing employees within your company who work in the Philippines to move to the UK to work in a UK office, new branch or subsidiary of your business.

These five Global Business Mobility visas include:

• Senior or Specialist Worker visa.
• Graduate Trainee visa.
• UK Expansion Worker visa.
• Secondment Worker visa.
• Service Supplier visa.

Each visa has different application requirements, allows your employee to stay in the UK for different lengths of time (from six months to five years), and only some have minimum income requirements. Generally, your employee must:

• Have a certificate of sponsorship.
• Have been working for your business overseas for a minimum amount of time, in most cases this is 12 months, unless your Filipino employee is a Graduate or earns over £73,900 per year.
• Be working in a job eligible for a visa.

None of these visas offers a route to settlement in the UK and the options to extend are generally limited; for example, an employee working in the UK with a Senior or Specialist Worker visa may be able to extend depending on their initial visa and salary, whereas a no extensions are allowed under any circumstances for someone with a Graduate Trainee visa.

The Scale-up Worker visa is an immigration route available for highly skilled foreign nationals to work in the UK during a company’s growth phase. If your business is growing rapidly and there is a need to bring in international talent to support the growth of your business, your employee could be eligible for this visa provided:

• They are in an eligible high-skilled job, such as a web design professional or IT project manager.
• Your business is an approved scale-up business and meets the eligibility requirements, such as growing by 20% every year over the previous three years.

For this visa, your new employee must have an official job offer from you, meet the minimum salary requirements and have a minimum level of English language.

This visa allows them to work in the UK for two years, with both options to extend and to settle after five years.

If you’re recruiting very specifically for an internationally established high-level sportsperson or coach, your employee from the Philippines may be eligible for an International Sportsperson visa. They must be endorsed by the sport’s governing body and have an official job offer.

This visa has no minimum salary requirements, and if they are applying to stay for less than 12 months, there is no English language requirement.

The employee can stay up to three years, with options to extend and apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after five years.

Religious Ministers and missionaries who are looking to stay in the UK for longer than the Temporary Religious Work visa could be eligible to apply for the Minister of Religion visa. For this visa, applicants require a job offer from a registered sponsor and a minimum level of English language; there are no minimum salary requirements.

This visa is valid for up to three years initially but can be extended for up to six years and is an eligible route to settlement after five years.

The UK offers people from the Philippines several different visas that allow them to work in the UK for a short duration, usually for limited purposes. These temporary visas include:

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

All these visas require the employee to have an official job offer and certificate of sponsorship from a license temporary worker sponsor and sufficient funds to initially support themselves.

Typically, Temporary Worker visas can be extended but often have a maximum length of stay and are not eligible routes to Indefinite Leave to Remain. The applicant is not able to apply for permanent work either, but they may be able to switch to a different type of visa if they are eligible for another visa.

The UK government .gov website allows for online submission of visa applications and documents, with payment for the visa and healthcare surcharge taken at the point of application.

As part of the application process, the applicant will need to prove their identity, either by having their fingerprints and photograph taken at a visa application center or by using the UK Immigration ID Check app to scan an identity document.

To apply for a UK Work visa, your new employee must have enough personal funds to meet the financial requirement for their visa and have a certificate of sponsorship to submit as part of the application process.

Meeting the financial requirement shows that the person entering the UK has enough money to support themselves during their initial stay before their first pay date. Most visas require at least £1,270 and may not be required if the employer agrees to support them financially in the first month for at least this amount.

The certificate of sponsorship is a document issued by the employer and is needed for nearly all visa applications.

When applying, supporting documents will need to be submitted alongside the visa application. Visa requirements may vary depending on which visa the applicant is applying for; typically the following documents are required:

• A certificate of sponsorship reference number from a UK employer.
• Proof of their level of English language.
• A valid Philippine passport, or another document that proves their identity.
• The job title, job description, and annual salary.
• The job’s occupation code.
• The Name of the employer and their sponsor license number.
• Evidence that the applicant holds sufficient funds to support themselves in the UK, such as bank statements.
• Proof of relationship with their partner or children if they apply as dependents.
• A criminal record certificate (for certain jobs only).

Any supporting documents that are not in English will need to be translated by a certified translator.

The application fees can vary depending on what visa the employee applies for. The Temporary Worker visa and Global Business Mobility Worker visa have the lowest application fee at £319 ; this fee can range up to a cost of £1,519 for certain Skilled Worker visa applicants.

Visa applicants will also have to pay a healthcare surcharge, which is calculated at £1035 per year.

Applicants will typically receive a decision within three weeks if applying from inside the UK or eight weeks if applying from outside the UK. Their application may take longer if any documents need to be verified, the applicant needs to attend an interview, or if their personal circumstances need further scrutiny.