UK Secondment Worker Visa - All You Need to Know!

Under the Global Business Mobility Routes, the UK Secondment Worker Visa has been recently added along with four other sponsored routes to the UK. Under this newly launched route, the Government has introduced new requirements to expedite economic progress in the UK.

In this article, we will take you through the UK Secondment Worker Visa in detail, including the following:

What is the UK Secondment Worker Visa
Advantages of having a Secondment Worker Visa
Requirements of a Secondment Worker Visa
UK Secondment Worker Visa application
Frequently Asked Questions

What is the UK Secondment Worker Visa?

Under the Global Business Mobility Route, the UK Secondment Worker Visa allows overseas workers to work temporarily in the UK. As a part of an investment or important contract, foreign workers can be posted in the UK by their overseas employers under this Global Business Mobility route.

You must note that you cannot directly settle in the United Kingdom with a UK Secondment Worker visa. But in the future, you can choose to settle in the UK through a different immigration route. Applicants can include their spouse and children in their Secondment Worker Visa application.

Advantages of the UK Secondment Worker Visa

In addition to allowing you to work in the United Kingdom, the UK Secondment Worker Visa has numerous benefits:

You can include your family members in your Secondment Worker Visa application process and bring them to the UK if their application is approved.
You are allowed to study in the UK
You can associate yourself with charitable organizations and volunteer with them.
You are allowed to travel within and outside the UK.

UK Secondment Worker Visa – Eligibility Criteria

If you plan to relocate to the UK for work, you must fulfill the following eligibility criteria to apply for the UK Secondment Worker Visa.

Your overseas employer should have a high-value contract with your UK sponsor.
You must work under your overseas employer outside the UK for a minimum period of one year before applying for the visa.
The Home Office should give its approval for the candidate’s sponsor in the United Kingdom so that it can sponsor foreign workers.
You must possess a Certificate of Sponsorship given by your UK sponsor.
Your job should be enlisted under the eligible job list in the UK.
You must have enough funds to support your stay in the United Kingdom.

Moreover, your overseas employer should have a valid contract with your UK sponsor, wherein the valuation of the contract should be a minimum of £50 million.

Secondment Worker Visa – Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)

As part of the eligibility criteria for the Secondment Worker Visa, you are expected to have a Certificate of Sponsorship issued by your employer based out of the UK. In order to issue this certificate, your patron must be a UK Home office-approved employer.

In addition to the above requirement, your sponsor in the UK must be able to provide a high-value contract with your overseas employer. You also need to ensure that this contract has been approved and registered with the Home office in the UK.

You need to make sure that your certificate of Sponsorship is valid, i.e., issued before three months of your Secondment Worker Visa application.

Secondment Worker Visa – Qualifications needed

In order to be qualified to apply for the UK Secondment Worker Visa, the job for which you are being sponsored must be enlisted under the eligible job list. You should also possess an essential skill or higher.

Your potential job in the United Kingdom must be qualified as per the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) Level 6. It is not compulsory for you to have a degree, but your role should be on par with a graduate-level role.

The Home Office has enlisted jobs eligible for a UK Secondment Worker Visa. You can go through the list to learn about the various occupation codes, job categories, job titles, and more.

UK Secondment Worker Visa – Salary requirement

You need to meet the criteria of the minimum salary requirement or the going rate for the occupation for the application for a Secondment Worker Visa.

Secondment Worker Visa – Costs

You must pay specific fees after applying for a UK Secondment Worker Visa. They include:

Application Fee – £259

An annual healthcare surcharge – £624, approximately

You also need to showcase that you have a minimum of £1,270 in your bank account to support yourself during your first month in the UK. In certain circumstances, you may be exempt from providing proof of this amount.

Secondment Worker Visa – Requirement of a language

It is not compulsory to meet an English language requirement to be able to apply for the Secondment Worker Visa in the UK.

Things to keep in mind

Interested UK Secondment Worker Visa applicants must ensure that their job in the UK is legitimate. If your job is found to be a hoax, scam or has been enlisted just to grant you the Secondment Worker Visa, then your application can be canceled by the respective authority.

UK Secondment Worker Visa – Application Process

You must start your application process at least three months before you plan to relocate to the United Kingdom for work. Once you complete your application process online, you need to share all the supporting documents, make the payment of visa fees, and prove your identity in front of the respective authority.

In order to complete your identification process, you must share your biometric details, like photos and fingerprints, with the Visa office. You can contact the Visa Application Center for biometric information. You must note that your biometric information is used for the creation of a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP).

In some cases, applicants can be called upon to prove their identity by scanning relevant documents from the “UK Immigration: ID Check” application. Depending on your home country and passport, you can be asked to choose the way you want to prove your identity.

Important: UK Secondment Worker Visa holders must obtain their Biometric Residence Permit from their assigned location within ten days of their arrival in the UK.

Secondment Worker Visa (Global Business Mobility) – Documents Required

If you are applying for a visa through the UK Secondment Worker route, then you need to provide the following documents to support your application.

Your passport or any other equivalent document to prove your identity and nationality.
You need to provide your reference number that was given at the time of the issuance of your Certificate of Sponsorship by your sponsor in the UK.
You need to provide your occupation code and the job title of your job in the UK.
Proof of your employment under your employer outside the UK such as payroll, official employment letter, etc. You must keep in mind that you should work under your employer outside the UK for at least one year.
Proof of your financial documents to showcase that you can support yourself upon arrival in the UK.
If you need to research a sensitive topic as part of your job role in the UK, you need to provide a valid Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) Certificate.
Certain nationals need to provide their tuberculosis test reports.
If you are including your family members in your application for the Secondment Worker Visa, you need to prove your relationship with them. For instance, you must provide a marriage certificate or prove your civil partnership with your partner. If you are bringing your children along, you must provide their birth certificates.
Your biometric information is requested at the Visa Application Center. In this case, you will need a blank page in your passport to obtain the visa.

Applicants must note that all supporting documents must be in English or Welsh. If not, documents must be submitted with certified translations.

UK Secondment Worker Visa Route – Inclusion of Family Members

Applicants of the Secondment Worker Visa under Global Mobility Visa UK 2022 can include their family members in the application. They can bring them along to the UK if their application is approved. Applicants can include the following family members:

Your spouse, civil partner, or unmarried partner
Children (unmarried) under 18 years.
Unmarried children 18 years and above but dependent on you

If you can prove your relationship status with your family members and dependent children, they can stay in the UK as long as you. We recommend you contact an experienced immigration specialist to find out, in detail, if any other supporting document is needed for their stay in the UK.

In addition to this, family members should possess enough funds to support their stay in the UK. To include your family in your application, you need to incur extra charges. They include:

£315 for a dependent child
£200 for each other dependent child
£285 for a spouse or partner

Global Mobility Visa UK – Validity for Secondment Workers

After obtaining the Secondment Worker Visa, you can reside and work in the UK for either two of the periods:

One year after your start date of the job that has been mentioned in your Certificate of Sponsorship.

Until the time mentioned in your sponsorship certificate and additional fourteen days.

If you wish to stay in the UK for a longer period, you need to apply to extend your stay. Once your application is approved, you can stay in the United Kingdom for an additional 12 months. You must note that with a Secondment Worker Visa, you can stay in the UK for a maximum of two years.

Global Mobility Visa UK Settlement

With a Secondment Worker Visa, you cannot directly settle in the United Kingdom.

If you wish to settle in the UK directly, you need to choose a different type of immigration visa that leads to settlement. For example, you can obtain a Start-up Visa or Skilled Worker Visa in addition to an Innovator Visa. You must remember that if you plan to choose a different type of immigration visa, you must fulfill all the requirements for the visa.

If you want permanent residence or UK Citizenship by Investment, you need to fulfill all the criteria and requirements for the UK Investor Immigration Programme.

If you are planning to set up a new business in the UK or take over an existing business in the region, you can consider acquiring an Entrepreneur Visa.

To know more about the various UK visas, you should read our article: UK Visa: options open to you and how to apply.

This part will take you through the application process for a Global Business Mobility Sponsor by an overseas company. Small and large companies can apply for the sponsor license under the Global Business Mobility routes if they have business operations outside of the UK and a connection to a UK-based company. Here is the list of the eligibility criteria that you need to meet to obtain a Global Business Mobility Sponsor license:

Company presence in the United Kingdom
Proof of connection to a company with foreign operations from where the company will receive the overseas workers.
Qualified staff to manage the sponsor license
Infrastructure to manage the sponsor license responsibilities

Global Mobility Visa 2022 (Secondment Workers) – Overview

The Secondment Worker Visa allows foreign workers employed under an overseas company with business operations in the UK to work in the United Kingdom. Under this Global Mobility Visa UK route, foreign companies can expand their business operations in the United Kingdom, establish a commercial asset and relocate their employees.

Like the other visa routes, the UK Secondment Worker Visa has been designed to fuel the UK’s economic progress. With expert guidance, you can efficiently complete the application process for the UK Secondment Visa.

If you want to know more about UK visas and British citizenship, have a look at these articles:

Frequently Asked Questions About the UK Secondment Worker Route

How much time does the UK Secondment Visa application take?

After you submit all your documents online, prove your identity and complete other formalities, it takes around three weeks to get approval from the respective authority if you are staying outside the United Kingdom. If you are residing in the United Kingdom, it takes around eight weeks for approval.

What is the difference between a Secondment Worker Visa and a UK Expansion Worker Visa?

To obtain a UK Secondment Worker Visa, your overseas employer and the UK sponsor must have a high value contract of at least £50 million. On the other hand, there is no such requirement to fulfill under the UK Expansion Work Visa. The Expansion Visa allows individuals to stay in the UK to establish a branch of an overseas business that has not initiated business operations in the UK.

Can all employees apply for a Secondment Worker Visa?

Foreign workers who fulfill the following criteria can apply for the UK Secondment Worker Visa:

The individual should work for their employer for one year before applying for the UK Secondment Worker Visa.
The individual must possess a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS).
The individual’s job must be enlisted under the qualifying job list in the UK.
The individual should be financially stable to support their stay in the United Kingdom.
The applicant’s overseas employer must have a high value contract with their UK sponsor.

What is the salary requirement for the UK Secondment Worker Visa?

There is no salary requirement for the application for the UK Secondment Worker Visa.

UK Secondment Worker Visa – All You Need to Know!