A Guide to the Scale Up Visa
The new scale up visa is due to open to applications on the 22 August 2022. In this guide our immigration solicitors answer your questions on the sponsored scale up visa route.
UK Online and London Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
For advice on the scale up visa or sponsor licences call the immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
What is the scale up visa?
The scale up visa is a new fast track visa route to enable growing UK businesses to recruit skilled workers. Not every UK company will be able to recruit workers using this points based immigration system route as the UK business has to meet the scale up eligibility criteria.
Eligibility criteria to sponsor a worker under the scale up visa
The first step in recruiting workers under the scale up visa route is for your business to meet the Home Office scale up criteria. To qualify as a scale up your business needs to be able to show that:
- Your company has had an annualised growth of at least 20% for the last 3 years – this can be in turnover or in staff
- Your business had a minimum of 10 employees at the beginning of the 3 year period
As well as meeting the scale up criteria, your company needs to apply for a Home Office issued sponsor licence to sponsor scale up visa applicants. Alternate sponsor licences, such as a sponsor licence to sponsor skilled worker visa applicants, won't suffice. However, if your company already has a sponsor licence to sponsor skilled workers, it should be a bit easier to secure the additional licence as you will already be familiar with the sponsor licence application process, the appointment of key personnel, and the reporting and recording duties under a sponsor licence.
Once the sponsor licence has been obtained, the process of recruiting a scale up worker is the same as recruiting a skilled worker, for those already familiar with the procedure. If you are not familiar then it involves:
- Recruiting for the post – the post has to be a genuine vacancy
- Allocating the successful overseas job applicant with a certificate of sponsorship to enable them to apply for their scale up visa
- Conducting a right to work check before the new employee commences employment
- Complying with sponsor licence reporting and recording duties, such as reporting absences
Certificates of sponsorship for the scale up visa
A certificate of sponsorship is a unique reference number allocated by the Home Office via the sponsor management system to the sponsor licence holder. The employer then allocates the certificate of sponsorship to the successful scale up visa job applicant so they can apply for their visa. Immigration solicitors issue one word of warning. Certificates of sponsorship must be used within 3 months of allocation.
Work that can be undertaken on the scale up visa
A scale up visa holder can work at any job for their sponsoring employer. Accordingly, the scale up visa is far more flexible than the skilled worker visa. However, there is one proviso, namely that the scale up visa holder has to do the job allotted to them on the certificate of sponsorship for the first 6 months of their visa.
If your company has ambitious growth plans, the flexibility offered under the scale up visa means you can transfer the scale up visa holder to the most appropriate job role in your organisation, without having to first obtain approval to a change in job function.
The scale up visa eligibility criteria
The scale up visa applicant has to meet various eligibility criteria, as well as the company being able to prove that it is a ‘scale up’. The individual eligibility criteria are:
- The applicant can secure at least 70 points under the points based immigration system
- The applicant is age 18 or over at the date of their visa application
- The applicant has been offered a scale up job from a sponsoring employer and the business meets the definition of a scale up business
- The job meets the minimum salary threshold for a scale up visa, namely an income of at least £33,000 gross per year or the ‘going rate’ for the job occupation code, whichever is the higher
- The job meets the skills threshold namely graduate level, referred to as RQF 6 and the job is listed in the immigration rules ‘appendix skilled occupations’
- The applicant meets the English language requirement at standard B1 or above of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
- The applicant meets the financial requirement - unless the applicant has already been lawfully in the UK for 12 months or more at the date of the scale up visa application, the applicant must show that they have held funds of at least £1,270 for at least 28 days. Alternatively, Sponsorship Licence lawyers advise that the sponsoring employer can certify that they will maintain and accommodate their sponsored employee until the end of the first month of the scale up job
- The applicant meets the UK general entry clearance rules, for example, not being in breach of immigration rules from previous visa applications etc
Reaching the 70 points under the points based immigration system can be achieved through:
- Getting 50 points for sponsorship and having a scale up a job offer that meets the skill and minimum salary thresholds
- Receiving 10 points for meeting the financial requirement
- Getting 10 points for meeting the English language requirement
Paperwork needed for a scale up visa
A scale up visa applicant can apply online from the UK or overseas but needs to provide the Home Office with the right documents, namely:
- Evidence of identity – passport or national identity document or travel document
- TB certificate if necessary – depending on where the applicant is applying from
- Evidence that the financial requirement and English language requirement is met
- Biometrics – photo and prints
- Certificate of sponsorship
- Payment of fee and immigration health surcharge
If the applicant is applying from within the UK, then they can't be in the UK on a visitor visa or student visa or seasonal worker visa.
Long term employees and the scale up visa
Most sponsoring employers want their overseas employees to be able to choose to settle in the UK so that they don’t need to recruit to replace a short term employee and so they get the benefit of continuity and the worker’s developing knowledge of the business.
The scale up visa is a 2 year visa but , unlike other visas, an applicant can apply to the Home Office to extend the visa provided they do so before their visa expires. Sponsorship Licence lawyers say that when applying to extend the scale up visa the applicant does not have to prove that they have a sponsoring employer with a sponsor licence. That’s because the immigration rules say that the scale up visa holder only needs to work in a sponsored job role for the first 6 months of their visa. However, the visa applicant has to be able to prove earnings of at least £33,000 gross per year during at least half their time on the scale up visa.
An extension application will be granted for up to three years. Once the scale up worker has been in the UK for at least 5 years they may meet the residence requirement to enable them to settle in the UK by applying for indefinite leave to remain.
UK Online and London Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
For advice on the scale up visa or sponsor licences immigration law call the immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.