Global Business Mobility Visas

The visas under this category include the following:

• Senior or Specialist Worker visa
• Graduate Trainee visa
• UK Expansion Worker visa
• Secondment Worker visa
• Service Supplier visa

All of these visas have individual eligibility requirements that must be met in order to apply. However, there are also numerous commonalities between these visas, such as similar financial requirements for applicants and their dependents.

All of these visas also require applicants to have a valid certificate of sponsorship from an authorised sponsor when applying.

The Senior or Specialist Worker visa is aimed at senior or specialist employees to come to the UK and carry out work in their employer’s UK branch.

In order to be eligible for this visa, you must:

• Have a valid certificate of sponsorship from your employer who’s a registered sponsor authorised by the Home Office
• Have been working for your employer outside the UK for at least 12 months, unless you earn £73,900 a year or more
• Work an eligible job with an appropriate occupation code
• Be paid at least £42,800 or the ‘going rate’ for your job, whichever is higher
• You must fulfil the specific genuineness requirement, therefore you must show you will only undertake your proposed role and will not engage in any additional employment while in the UK.

The Senior or Specialist Worker route will allow you to stay in the UK for either 5 years or the period of time given on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter.

The maximum total stay you can complete in the UK is 5 years in any 6 year period, or 9 years in any 10 year period, depending on how much you earn. Note time spent on other Global Business Mobility visas and Intra-Company Transfer visas will also be factored into this calculation.

The Graduate Trainee visa allows employees on a graduate training programme for a managerial or specialist role to come and work in their employer’s UK branch.

In order to be eligible for this visa, you must:

• Have a valid certificate of sponsorship from your employer who’s a registered sponsor authorised by the Home Office
• Have been working for your employer outside the UK for at least 3 months
• Work an eligible job with an appropriate occupation code that is also part of a structured graduate training programme
• Be paid at least £24,220 a year

The Graduate Trainee visa will allow you to stay in the UK for either 12 months or the period of time given on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter. You will not be able to extend your visa.

The maximum total stay you can complete in the UK is 5 years in any 6 year period when taking into account time spent on other Global Business Mobility visas and Intra-Company Transfer visas.

A UK Expansion Worker visa allows overseas business owners to come to the UK and set up a new UK-based branch of their business.

In order to be eligible for this visa, you must:

• Have a valid certificate of sponsorship from your employer who’s a registered sponsor authorised by the Home Office
• Have been working for your employer outside the UK for at least 12 months, unless you earn £73,900 a year or more, or you’re a Japanese national working for a Japanese company that is expanding to the UK
• Work an eligible job with an appropriate occupation code
• Be paid at least £42,800 or the ‘going rate’ for your job, whichever is higher
• You must fulfil the specific genuineness requirement, therefore you must show you will only undertake your proposed role and will not engage in any additional employment while in the UK.

The UK Expansion Worker visa will allow you to stay in the UK for either 12 months or the period of time given on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter. You may extend your visa by another 12 months if necessary, though the maximum time you can spend on this visa is 2 years.

The maximum total stay you can complete in the UK is 5 years in any 6 year period when taking into account time spent on other Global Business Mobility visas and Intra-Company Transfer visas.

A Secondment Worker visa allows applicants to come to the UK and carry out work for their overseas employer if they have a high-value contract with a UK-based organisation.

In order to be eligible for this visa, you must:

• Have a valid certificate of sponsorship from the UK-based organisation who’s a registered sponsor authorised by the Home Office
• Have been working for your employer outside the UK for at least 12 months
• Work an eligible job with an appropriate occupation code, and in a contract that’s worth over £50 million

The UK Expansion Worker visa will allow you to stay in the UK for either 12 months or the period of time given on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter. You may extend your visa by another 12 months if necessary, though the maximum time you can spend on this visa is 2 years.

The maximum total stay you can complete in the UK is 5 years in any 6 year period when taking into account time spent on other Global Business Mobility visas and Intra-Company Transfer visas.

A Service Supplier visa allows employees of overseas companies or self-employed professionals to come to the UK and carry out services covered by a UK international trade agreement.

In order to be eligible for this visa, you must:

• Have a valid certificate of sponsorship from the UK-based organisation who’s a registered sponsor authorised by the Home Office
• Be an employee of an overseas business, or a self-employed service provider based overseas who is providing a service under a contract that is covered by a valid international trade agreement
• Have been working for your employer outside the UK for at least 12 months, or have at least 12 months’ professional experience if self-employed
• Work an eligible job with an appropriate occupation code, or prove that you have relevant qualifications or experience

The UK Service Supplier visa will allow you to stay in the UK for either 6 months or 12 months, or the period of time given on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever of these is shorter. You may extend your visa if necessary, as long as you’ve not met the maximum total stay.

The maximum total stay you can complete in the UK is 5 years in any 6 year period when taking into account time spent on other Global Business Mobility visas and Intra-Company Transfer visas.

You must apply for a Global Business Mobility visa online through the Gov.uk website.

When applying for your visa for the first time, you’ll have to fill in the application form and upload a range of supporting documents, including your certificate of sponsorship details, details of the employer who’ll be sponsoring you, and proof that you’ve worked for your employer for the minimum amount of time (if necessary).

You’ll also have to prove your identity. This will either be done at a visa application centre, where you’ll give your biometrics information, or the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app to scan your identity document.

If you need to attend a visa application centre, you’ll give your fingerprints and have a photograph taken of you for your biometric residence permit.

You’ll be notified of how you’ll have to prove your identity when you apply.

Note that there are also separate application processes if you wish to extend your Global Business Mobility visa, switch to it from another visa, or update it if your job changes.

The Senior or Specialist Worker visa costs between ££625 and £1,423 to obtain, depending on your circumstances.

All of the other visas under the Global Business Mobility category cost £259 to obtain.

When applying, you must also:

Pay the immigration healthcare surcharge of £624 a year
Prove that you have enough money to support yourself in the UK – usually around £1,270 available, unless you’re exempt

All Global Business Mobility visas will take 3 weeks to process if you’re applying from outside the UK, or 8 weeks if you’re applying from inside the UK.