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• Family & Settlement


• Tier 1 UK Visa – Exceptional Talent
• Tier 1 UK Visa – Investors & Entrepreneurs


• Tier 2 UK Visa – Sponsored Skilled Workers


• Tier 4 UK Student Visas
  
  

Sponsorship Licence application

This scheme is aimed at skilled workers from outside the European Economic Area who have a full time job offer from a UK employer.

The application consists of four stages.

STAGE 1 - Joining the Register of Sponsors

In order for a UK company to be able to employ non-UK and EEA nationals, you will firstly need to apply for a Sponsorship License and add your company to the UK Border Agency official Register of Sponsors.

In order to do this, you will need to make an application to the UK Border Agency and submit various supporting documentation to show that your company exists and has a legitimate UK trading presence. Such documents would include (but are not limited to): audited accounts, premises / office lease, VAT certificate, and recent bank statements.

This process, on average can take up to 16 weeks and the UK Border Agency Fee for this is currently £500 for a small company or £1,500 for a large company. Those fees are refundable should the application be unsuccessful.

STAGE 2 - The Resident Labour Market Test

Unless you intend to pay your employee at least £150,000 pa or more, you will be required to test the resident UK and EU labour markets by way of placing advertisements. The advertisements need to run for at least 28 days. There are strict guidelines as to what information needs to be included in the advertisement. Where you advertise very much depends on the nature of the role on offer.

STAGE 3 - Allocating the Certificate of Sponsorship

Once your employer has been granted your sponsorship license, you will need to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship (COS).
A certificate of sponsorship is not a paper certificate; it is a "virtual document" with a unique reference number which you issue to your prospective employee so that they can apply for permission to enter the UK if they are overseas (known as "entry clearance"), or permission to stay in the UK if they are already here (known as "Leave to remain").
The COS contains all the necessary information regarding the job and details about the employer. The cost of applying for a COS is currently £175 and can take up to 2 weeks.

STAGE 4 - Making the Tier 2 Application

Subsequent to a UK employer issuing the Certificate of Sponsorship, the prospective employee can then apply for permission to live and work in the UK. The employee's application is assessed on the following criteria;

• Future expected earnings;
  
• Sponsorship;
  
• English language skills; and
  
• Available maintenance (funds).
  

You do not need a job offer to apply under the exceptional talent category. When you apply you will be awarded points based on being considered a person of exceptional talent by a designated competent body. The Home Office will decide what is a designated competent body.

Only 1,000 of these visas will be granted each year, 700 in the field of the sciences, 300 in the arts.

You will need to show that you can afford to support yourself in the UK without recourse to public funds. There is no minimum maintenance requirement, and there is no language requirement for initial entry.

In order to extend this visa, you need to provide evidence of working in the UK, either in the form of payslips (if employed) or evidence from an accountant (if self employed).

Applicants for extension must also meet the English language requirements.

Validity of Visa: Initial 3 years.

In order to qualify for leave to enter or remain in the above category, your sponsor in the UK must meet one of the following criteria:

• be in permanent employment earning £18,600 per year
  
• be self employed and have average earnings of £18,600 over the past 18 or 24 months
  
• have other specified non-employment income amounting to £18,600
  
• have savings amounting to £62,500
  
• have earnings from employment or income from other sources which, although lower than £18,600, can be 'topped up' from savings
  
• be in receipt of specified benefits, including Disability Living Allowance or Carer's Allowance, and be able to support their family as per government minimum requirements.
  

If you would like MediVisas to assess your eligibility, please click here to email us.

Accommodation

The accommodation requirements remain the same, that is that you have somewhere to stay with the permission of the owner of the property, with at least one room that you and your sponsor occupy exclusively, and that will not be overcrowded.

Relationship

You must be in a genuine relationship with your sponsor. The government have introduced a number of new tests to make sure that the relationship is genuine. Legitimate couples should not be greatly affected by this.

If successful, an out-of-country applicant will be issued a visa valid for 33 months. If in- country, the visa will be granted for 30 months. The visa will then need to be extended until you have been in the UK for 5 years, at which point you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Entrepreneurs Setting Up a UK Business (Active Investors)

Requires at least GBP £200,000 or GBP £50,000 which you intend to invest in a UK business. In order to qualify for an active investor (Entrepreneur) Visa, you will need to show that:

• Proof that £200,000 is available in cash under your control
• That you can afford to maintain and accommodate yourself in the UK
• You meet the basic English Language Requirement
• You meet the basic Maintenance Requirement
• That you will be acting as Director of the company, on a full-time basis
• That you will have a controlling interest in the business
• That you intend to hire two full-time UK residents during your first year of business
  
  OR
  
  
• Proof that £50,000 is available in cash under your control
• You are a Tier 1 Post Study Worker
• Registered with HMRC at least 3 months prior to application
• That the business you intend to set up involves work at 'graduate level'
• That you can afford to maintain and accommodate yourself in the UK
• You meet the basic English Language Requirement
• You meet the basic Maintenance Requirement
• That you will be acting as Director of the company, on a full-time basis
• That you will have a controlling interest in the business
• That you intend to hire two full-time UK residents during your first year of business

Validity of Tier 1 Investor Visa: Initially granted for 3 years and 4 months, after which you will need to show that all your business commitments have been kept in order to extend your Leave.

Indefinite Leave to Remain: Available after 5 continuous years as an Entrepreneur

Passive Investors

Requires a minimum passive investment of GBP £1,000,000 of your own money which you intend to invest in UK listed companies and / or property in the UK. In order to qualify for a passive investor Visa, you will need to show that:

• You have access to not less than £1 million of your own money that you will take to the UK, and which must not be held in trust, or
• You own personal assets which, taking into account your liabilities, are worth more than £2 million, and
• You have not less than £1 million under your control in the UK. (This can include money loaned by a financial institution regulated by the Financial Services Authority.)
• You intend to invest not less than £750,000 in active and trading UK registered companies or UK government bonds
• You intend to make the UK your main home
• You can support yourself and your dependants and live without having to work as an employee or receiving financial help through Public Funds.

Type of investments permitted


• Unit trusts: you can invest in a regulated collective investment scheme such as a unit trust as long as you invest £750,000 in companies that meet the requirements of the investor rules.
• Private companies: you must provide evidence of shareholdings or loans you have in the form of legal documents signed by or on behalf of the company (for example, audited accounts).
• UK Government Bonds

Validity: Initially granted for 3 years and 4 months, after which you will need to show that all your business commitments have been kept in order to extend your Leave.

Indefinite Leave to Remain: Available after 5 continuous years as an Investor

If you'd like MediVisas to assess your eligibility as an Investor or Entrepreneur, please click here to email us. We can also help with other aspects of the visa application such as the drafting of a business plan.

The key features of Tier 4 are as follows;

There are two types of student categories;

a) Adult student – for students coming to the United Kingdom for post 16 year old education

b) Child student – for children between 4 and 17 years old – those between 4 and 15 may only be educated at independent fee paying schools

Applicants must have met the requirements of the immigration rules and have 40 points in total;

30 Points which is proved by a Visa letter from the licenced education provider
10 Points for having enough money to cover the course fees

The Education Provider otherwise known as the Sponsor
The school or college must have a licence from the UK Border Agency.

The Visa Letter
The Sponsor will issue a visa letter which is an official and unconditional offer of a place on a course of study.The visa letter must be issued no more than 6 months before a visa application is made.

Money required

The money needed must cover the course fees for your first year of study and living costs for up to a maximum of nine months.

The money must be held in cash and have been in the possession of the applicant for at least 28 days.

The following amount of money must be shown to meet basic living costs (not including fees)

• £800 per month if living in London
• £600 per month if living outside London

Proof of the money can be shown by way of;

Cash in an account in your name or;
A loan in your name or;
Official financial or government sponsorship

General conditions of stay in the United Kingdom

• If at a publicly funded university - work no more than 20 hours a week during term time
• If at a publicly funded FE college - work no more than 10 hours per week during time
• If at another institution - no work at all
• No right to bring family members unless on a post-graduate course of more than 12 months