Does the Skilled Worker Visa Meet Your UK Recruitment needs?

Many HR directors are currently scratching their heads over how to meet their UK recruitment needs in the post Brexit era. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, there was a general belief that the impact of the end of free movement would be wiped out or cancelled by the availability of potential UK employees, available for employment because of redundancy. It hasn’t worked out that way as, if anything, the UK skills shortage and recruitment crisis is worse than anticipated in some industries and specialist sectors. In this article our immigration solicitors answer the question ‘Does the skilled worker visa meet UK recruitment needs?’

UK Online and London Based Sponsorship Licence lawyers and Immigration Solicitors 

For advice on any aspect of sponsorship licencing or business immigration law call the expert London immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

The sponsor licence and skilled worker visa conundrum

Sponsorship Licence lawyers are getting enquiries from company owners and HR directors about first time sponsor licence applications so that their business can become a sponsoring employer and sponsor skilled migrant workers on the skilled worker visa.

For many UK employers, the decision to apply for a sponsorship licence has been a hard one to take as they weren’t  expecting that Brexit would have such a profound impact on their ability to recruit workers because of the end of free movement and the reduction of available EU national workers. Many EU nationals have chosen to return to the EU rather than apply for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, further limiting the available supply of EU national workers.

The first step to recruiting overseas workers is to secure a sponsor licence from the Home Office. Small employers or business start-ups who need specialist staff are often concerned that they are ‘too small’ to qualify for a sponsor licence but Sponsorship Licence lawyers say there is no minimum size of organisation and no minimum turnover required.

The next obstacle to applying for a sponsor licence is a concern that the application process and the post-grant administration of the sponsor licence will involve too much red tape, and that your business either doesn’t have the time or resources to deal with sponsor licence reporting and recording duties. Again, that is easily fixed as you can elect to employ a specialist sponsor licence management service to help you manage your sponsor licence and the same business immigration solicitors can also help your successful overseas recruits secure their skilled worker visas.

With those obstacles out of the way, it is then a question of looking at whether your business can afford to not apply for a sponsor licence. That means looking at the costs of recruiting from overseas (such as the Home Office sponsor licence application fee and the immigration skills charge fee) as against not being able to fill job vacancies. Not having the right staff may mean you can't expand your business or even open during current operational hours or fulfil commercial contracts. Reduced staff numbers can also lead to health and safety issues and industrial action by overstretched existing staff.

The skilled worker visa 

To employ a skilled migrant worker on a skilled worker visa, your business will need:

• To hold a valid Home Office issued sponsor licence.
• To have genuine job vacancies that meet the skill level and minimum salary threshold for the skilled worker visa.
• To allocate a certificate of sponsorship to the successful overseas job applicant. The job will need to be on the Home Office list of standard occupation codes.
• Pay the immigration skills charge.

It is then over to the successful job candidate to apply for their skilled worker visa using the certificate of sponsorship allocated to them. Under the UK points-based immigration system the skilled worker visa applicant will need to score seventy points to obtain their skilled worker visa. Fifty of those points are mandatory but the other twenty are ‘tradeable’.

The fifty mandatory points are:

Mandatory requirement	Points allocated
An offer of a job from a sponsoring employer	20 points
The job is at RQF Level 3 or above. This is A level standard although the skill level relates to the job not the individual qualifications of the work visa applicant	20 points
Speaking the English language to the required standard	10 points

The twenty tradeable points include:

Meeting the minimum salary threshold. The minimum salary threshold has to be at least £25,600 or the going rate for the job, whichever is the higher. The going rate for a job is set by the government  rather than a sponsoring employer 20 points PhD relevant to the job, in which case the minimum salary threshold must be at least £23,040 or ninety percent of the going rate for the job, whichever is the higher 10 points Science, technology, engineering or maths PhD qualification relevant to the job, in which case the salary must be at least £20,480 or eighty percent of the going rate for the job, whichever is the higher 20 points The job is on the shortage occupation list, in which case the minimum salary threshold is at least £20,480 or eighty percent of the going rate for the job, whichever is the higher 20 points The skilled worker visa applicant is classed as a ‘new entrant’ in which case the minimum salary threshold must be at least £20,480 or seventy percent of the going rate for the job, whichever is the higher

 

The skilled worker visa and meeting UK recruitment needs

Although the skilled worker visa eligibility criteria can appear highly complex, with the use of specialist Sponsorship Licence lawyers and professional sponsor licence management, the skilled worker visa can successfully meet the recruitment needs of your business provided the jobs your business is recruiting to fill have some degree of skill to them. The job skill level doesn’t have to be high (the skilled worker visa job skill criteria is A level standard) but that skill level requirement means that if your business is recruiting for non-skilled workers, your business will be confined to employing British citizens, those with indefinite leave to remain, or those who have pre-settled status or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or those who are subject to UK immigration control but are nonetheless able to take up any level of employment as part of their visa conditions, such as those on the UK graduate visa.

UK Online and London Based Sponsorship Licence lawyers and Immigration Solicitors 

For expert legal advice on any aspect of sponsorship licencing or  immigration law call the immigration team at OTS Solicitorson 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.