Tier 2: Visas for Skilled Workers (Work Permit)

Tier 2 of the Points Based System replaces the work permit entry route to the UK.

Applicants are required to have a job offer to submit a successful application. Tier 2 caters for people with qualifications or work experience in a wide range of sectors. Tier 2 visas are meant to fill jobs where there are shortages in the labour market such as engineering, information technology, and teaching and nursing.

Applying for a Tier 2 visa requires a certificate of sponsorship from your sponsoring company. Tier 2 visa applications are employer led, whereby it is the employer who submits the application, as it was in the old UK work permit application.

The Points Based System (PBS) is also in effect for Tier 2 visas and applicants are required to score at least 50 points on a skills assessment and prove that they are proficient in the English language.

Benefits

Entering the UK through a Tier 2 visa provides a potential route for permanent settlement in the UK. After 5 years in the UK you would be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) or permanent residence. Once this is achieved, you would be able to naturalise as a British citizen.

Eligibility assessment

The information below gives an overview of how the tier 2 points criteria are likely to function.

Qualifications

• NVQ3 = 5 points
• Bachelors Degree = 10 points
• Masters Degree = 10 points
• PhD = 15 points

Earnings

• £15,000 - £18,000 = 5 points
• £18,000 - £19,500 = 10 points
• £19,500 - £21,000 = 15 points
• More than £21,000 = 20 points

Job offers for positions identified as being in shortage sectors by the Skills Advisory Body are worth 50 points.

Intra-Company Transfer candidates [see below] will automatically receive 50 points.

Non-shortage positions which pass the Resident Labour Market Test are worth 30 points.

In addition to the points system outlined above, you will also be required to show that you are proficient in the English Language.

Employer responsibilities

Employers recruiting candidates through the tier 2 work permit system must provide a sponsorship certificate detailing the job title and demonstrating that the salary offered is appropriate for such a position and that the role is at or above NVQ3. The certificate acts as confirmation that the candidate has the necessary skills and the intention to fill the specified position.

Where a position being offered is not a shortage occupation the employer must illustrate that they have attempted to fill the role from the domestic workforce through appropriate advertising, without success.

In circumstances where a candidate wishes to change employment, a new certificate of sponsorship will be required and a re-assessment against the points system need to take place. Like the existing working permit service, a UK visa application under Tier 2 does not grant permission to live and work in the United Kingdom as such, and a new certificate will be required for each change of employment.

Intra-Company Transfers (ICT)

The current system of ICTs will also be catered for by second tier visas, however under the new Intra-company transfer system, an ICT will place more reliance on the responsibility of the employer to show that a position cannot be filled from within the domestic workforce and that the salary is appropriate.

Dependants

Under the Tier 2 of UK immigration services family immigration will be permitted for your dependants, meaning that your wife, husband, civil partner, unmarried partner and/or dependent children would be eligible to join you in the UK. Spouse immigration and dependency immigration will continue to operate along similar lines to the current dependency visa. Furthermore, the marriage visa, unmarried partner visa and fiancé visa categories will remain distinct from the new visas for points based immigration.

Tier 3: Visas for Low Skilled Workers

Tier 3 visas of the Points Based UK visa service caters for people immigrating to the UK to perform temporary low skilled work. The new Tier 3 category replaces the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) and the Sectors Based Scheme (SBS). Under Tier 3, migrants will be granted leave to enter the UK from countries where an effective returns arrangement with the United Kingdom is in place.

Entry requirements

A Tier 3 visa application is primarily an employer led process, similar to the UK work permit visa, which this replaces. Companies looking to sponsor workers under the tier 3 visa system will need to attempt to source labour domestically before recruiting from outside the EU. Tier 3 visas are intended to cater for the fluctuating need for low skilled workers throughout the year and will be used in circumstances where the Skills Advisory Body (SAB) identifies a shortage area which cannot be filled by the domestic workforce.

As with tier 2 visas, tier 4 visas and tier 5 visas, entry to the UK under a tier 3 visa will require a certificate of sponsorship as part of the application. For tier 3 visas the sponsor will be the operator of a particular low skilled worker scheme and the certificate will serve as confirmation that the applicants who are immigrating to the UK will be bound by the terms of the route.

Unlike a Tier 1 visa or a Tier 2 visa, applications at the tier 3 level do not constitute a route to settlement and will not provide you with an opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the UK. A visa for Tier 3 of the five tier immigration system will be granted for a maximum of 12 months and you will be obliged to return home at the end of this period. Switching to other tiers is not permitted and UK visas of this kind do not make provision for spouse and dependant immigration. This means that although the marriage visa , fiance visa and unmarried partner visa will continue to function independently of the new five tier system system, they will not be relevant to applications of this kind.