Select Work Permit -

• Employees - General Advise
• Work Permit Types
• Shortage occupations
• Sector Based Scheme
• Training & Work Experience Scheme
• Application Information
• New Hires Advertising Procedures
• F.A.Q.

Employees - General Advise

To qualify for a work permit the job is expected to require an individual to have EITHER - the following qualifications:

• A UK equivalent degree level qualification; or
• A Higher National Diploma (HND) level qualification which is relevant to the post on offer; or
• A HND level qualification, which is not relevant to the post on offer plus one year of relevant full time work experience;

OR the following skills:

• 3 years full time experience of using specialist skills acquired through doing the type of job for which the permit is sought. This should be at National/Scottish Vocational Qualification (N/SVQ) level 3 or above.

For those professions where the employee needs to be registered with the appropriate UK professional organisation (for example, GMC NMC, GDC and RCVS), the Home Office will accept registration as proof that the individual meets the criteria. The Home Office will expect you, however, to obtain any registration or licensing necessary for the employment which is the subject of the application.

These criteria apply to all Business and Commercial applications.

The person should have the skills, qualifications and experience to enable them to do the job on offer.

If the job on offer does not require specific qualifications, the person should have at least three years experience of doing the job, at N/SVQ level 3 or above.

Experience gained through working illegally in the UK will not be taken into account.

For certain professions where the person has to be registered with a UK professional organisation, for example, doctors, dentists and nurses, the Home Office can accept the person's registration number instead of statements from previous employers.

Work Permit Types

Level 1

• Intra Company Transfers
• Board Level Posts
• Inward Investment
• Shortage Occupations
  (refer Skills Shortage category for a comprehensive list)

Level 2

Level 2 applications must be able to show a person's academic or professional qualifications, reasons why a suitably qualified resident worker has not been appointed and evidence of a national recruitment search.

Multiple Entry Work Permits

Allow workers who are based overseas to enter the country for short periods of time on a regular basis to work, rather than obtaining a Work Permit each time they enter the country.

Extension Applications

If you already have a Work Permit and wish to extend it this can be done without the need to re-advertise if the role remains the same.

Change of Employment Applications

If a person already has a work permit and wishes to change companies into a similar role this can be done without the need for a recruitment search.

Supplementary Employment

If a person has a work permit and wants to take on additional work they can only do so if the work is of a similar nature, part-time, outside of normal working hours and with a different employer.

Shortage occupations

The following occupations are recognised as 'shortage occupations'. This recognition acknowledges that there are acute shortages of suitably qualified and skilled workers within the resident labour market. The resident labour market is defined as countries within the European Economic Area including the United Kingdom.

Work permits are only issued for employment undertaken on a PAYE basis. Identification and classification of a shortage occupation only recognises that there are acute shortages of suitably qualified and skilled workers available to work in a PAYE capacity...

• Engineering Shortage Occupations
• Healthcare
• Other Occupations

Sector based scheme

Work Permits (UK) has introduced a new low skilled work permit scheme, which commenced operation on 30 May 2003.

The Sectors Based Scheme (SBS) operates in the food manufacturing (fish processing, meat processing and mushroom processing) and hospitality (hotel and catering) sectors. In order to ensure that the Entry Clearance process works smoothly, it has been decided by the Home Office that the quota for Sectors Based Scheme will be reduced considerably as work permits in this category are issued.

The scheme operates in the same way as the existing work permit arrangements.

Permits are available where employers can show that they have been unable to recruit resident workers in certain posts, which are below NVQ level 3, but they are only be issued in respect of individual overseas employees aged 18-30. The cost of an SBS application is £153, with the exception of those nationalities exempt from charging.

Training and Work Experience

The Training and Work Experience Scheme (TWES) enables UK employers to provide Training for a Professional or Specialist Qualification, or Work Experience to a person from abroad who needs permission to work in the United Kingdom. TWES permits are a specific type of work permit.

The purpose of a TWES is to enable individuals to gain skills and experience through work-based learning, which builds on their previous education and training and which they intend to use on their return overseas. The Home Office issue TWES permits where a genuine need exists for a person to do:

• work-based training for a professional or specialist qualification or
• a period of work experience

Decisions on work permit applications are made against the following:

• Whether there is a UK-based employer
• Whether the person is going to be an employee of the UK employer
• Whether the pay and conditions of employment are equal to those normally given to a resident worker doing similar work
• Whether the employment complies with UK legislation and any requirements for registration or licensing necessary for the employment for which the permit is being sought
• Whether the post is additional to your normal staffing requirements
• Whether the person has had a TWES work permit previously
• Whether the person is going to be working or training for a minimum of 30 hours per week
• whether the entry level to qualify for the training or work experience is at National/Scottish Vocational Qualification (N/SVQ) level 3 or equivalent; and
• whether the person has the suitable skills, qualifications and/or experience for the training or work experience.

A person who has held a Training and Work Experience Scheme (TWES) permit will not normally be eligible for another work permit until they have completed a period of time outside the UK. If the person was on a TWES permit for up to 12 months, they will not normally be eligible to return for a further work permit until they have spent 12 months outside the UK. If they were on a TWES permit for over 12 months, they will not normally be eligible to return for a further work permit until they have spent 24 months outside the UK.

Application Information

Please select the form that is relevant to your application:

• Employers Application Form
  This form is for Employers seeking employees.
  
  
• Employees Application Form
  This form is for Employees seeking employers.

New Hires Advertising Procedures

You can make a work permit application if you are an employer based in the UK and you need to employ a person to work here. You should make a work permit application for a named person to do a specific job for the employer, normally on a full-time basis. The person cannot transfer a work permit to a different job or to work for a different employer.

If an individual wishes to employ someone, they will need to do so on a Class 1 National Insurance basis.

Whilst in the UK the Home Office will expect the person to be your employee. There should therefore be a contract of employment between yourselves and the person. If the person is being transferred from an overseas parent or subsidiary branch of your company or is being seconded to you from an overseas company, it may be appropriate for the overseas contract of employment to continue but it should nevertheless be clear that there is an employer/employee relationship between the UK-based company and the person.

There must be a genuine vacancy. The post must not have been created for the purpose of recruiting a particular person.

The Home Office will only issue a work permit where it is clear that the employer has clear responsibility for determining the duties and functions of the post. You may apply for a work permit for a person who will be employed to provide services to a client under a contract, which may mean that the person will need to work at the client's premises. However, you will need to demonstrate that you are responsible for the delivery of a particular job, project or piece of work with which the vacancy is associated. If your application involves providing a service to a client under a contract, you will need to send a copy of the contract between everyone involved to the Home Office.

The Home Office will not issue a work permit if the service that the employer is providing to a client is the supply of personnel only. Consequently, they do not issue work permits to recruitment or employment agencies and similar types of business where they are employing a person solely to provide the person's services to one or more clients under a contract. This restriction on employment with an employment agency or similar business to provide the worker's services to a third party also applies where this employment would be supplementary to the job for which the work permit has been issued. These restrictions do not, however, prevent an employer using an agency to assist in recruiting a person, providing the permit is to be issued to the employer and not the agency.

If you have not applied for a work permit in the past five years you will need to send documents that show you are a UK-based employer, which has been established in accordance with UK legislation. It is particularly important for you to show that your company already has a presence in the United Kingdom and that it is capable of offering a genuine vacancy.

F.A.Qs