Global Business Mobility
route transitional
arrangements

On Monday 11 April, the UK’s new Global Business Mobility visa routes will open to applications. This new ‘umbrella category’ consisting of five different routes has been designed for overseas businesses wishing to establish a presence in, or transfer staff to the UK for specific business purposes.

From Monday, the new Global Business Mobility routes will replace and update several existing visa categories, including the existing Intra-Company routes, the provisions for contractual service suppliers and independent professionals on the International Agreement route, and the (currently unsponsored) sole representative provisions on the Representatives of an Overseas Business route. It also includes a new sponsored route for workers being seconded to the UK by an overseas business as part of a high-value contract for services.

Businesses using the existing routes to transfer staff to the UK for temporary assignments should be prepared for the changes coming into effect next week, and be aware that any new applications from Monday will need to be filed under the new routes and meet the new salary requirements.

At the time of writing, the Home Office has not yet published its official guidance on the new routes, however details have been released on transitional arrangements that are in place for sponsors and visa applicants.

The new Global Business Mobility routes

The Global Business Mobility visa category will consist of five immigration routes for specific business purposes. The new routes and their equivalent predecessors are as follows:

  • Senior or Specialist Worker – Replaces the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) route.
  • Graduate Trainee – Replaces the Intra-Company Graduate Trainee route.
  • UK Expansion Worker – Replaces the ‘Sole Representative’ provisions of the Representative of an Overseas Business route.
  • Service Supplier – Replaces the ‘contractual service supplier’ and ‘independent professional’ provisions of the Temporary Work – International Agreement route.
  • Secondment Worker – This is a new route and therefore has no equivalent predecessor.

Important Note: The general salary thresholds have been updated under the new Global Business Mobility routes. Senior or Specialist Workers must be paid at least £42,400 per year and Graduate Trainees must be paid at least £23,100 per year.

System availability and in-progress requests

The Home Office will be making essential updates and therefore systems will be unavailable from approximately 19:00 on Friday 8 April 2022 until approximately 9.00 Monday 11 April 2022. This means that you will not have access to your SMS account or the online Sponsor Application form during these times.

During this period, all saved but incomplete applications to add routes to an existing licence will be deleted and will have to be restarted when access is restored.

Any Intra Company Transfer Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) with a status of ‘ready to go’ or ‘work in progress’ will not be available to assign.

You are therefore strongly advised to complete any transactions before 19:00 on Friday 8 April 2022.

If your licence is due to expire between 8 April 2022 and 11 April 2022(inclusive), and you do not make your application before 19:00 on 8 April 2022, your licence will be extended for a temporary period of 4 calendar days. You must apply to renew your licence within this temporary extension period, or it will expire, and you will not be able to sponsor workers.

What will happen to pending applications?

Applicants can continue to file applications under the old routes until 23:59 on Sunday 10 April 2022. However, if you do not submit your application before this deadline, you will need to start a new application under the new Global Business Mobility immigration routes.

Applications for entry clearance or permission to stay on a predecessor route (where one exists) submitted before 9 a.m. on 11 April 2022, but not decided before that date and time, will be decided in accordance with the relevant Immigration Rules for that route in force on 10 April 2022.

Transitional arrangements for Intra-Company sponsors

In the interim, sponsors can continue to carry out administrative tasks in relation to their sponsor licence and sponsoring Intra-Company workers. However, there are transitional arrangements for Intra-Company sponsors in relation to:

  • Sponsor licence applications submitted before 11 April 2022
  • Requests to add routes to your licence submitted before 11 April 2022
  • Existing sponsor licence holders
  • Existing Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) allocations
  • Requests to increase or renew your CoS allocation
  • CoS assigned before 11 April 2022

Employers should note that there are separate transitional arrangements for sponsors on the Service Supplier route – see Annex IAW2 of Sponsor an International Agreement Worker. There are no transitional sponsorship arrangements for the UK Expansion Worker route (as its predecessor route is unsponsored), or for the Secondment Worker route (as this is a new route).

Pending sponsor licence applications

If you applied for a sponsor licence for the Intra-Company routes before 11 April 2022, but your application has not been decided by that date, your application will be considered under the guidance in place on 10 April 2022.

If you stated in your application that you in tend to sponsor workers on either of the Intra-Company routes, you will have either the Senior or Specialist Worker or the Graduate Trainee route added to your licence as applicable, as long as you meet the relevant requirements. You will then receive an appropriate Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) allocation for the route, or routes, on which you are licensed.

If you made a request to add the Intra-Company routes to your existing licence before 11 April 2022, but the request had not been decided before that date, your request will be considered in the same way as sponsor licence applications submitted before 11 April 2022.

Existing sponsor licence holders

If, on 10 April 2022, you hold a valid sponsor licence for the Intra-Company routes, the new Senior or Specialist Worker route will be automatically added to your licence.

The new Graduate Trainee route will also be added to your licence if you have requested an allocation of CoS for the Intra-Company Graduate Trainee route at any time since the route was launched on 1 December 2020, or if you have previously assigned a CoS to a graduate trainee.

You will retain your existing Intra-Company routes sponsor licence so you can continue to report on workers with existing permission on those routes, but you will no longer have an active CoS allocation for those routes.

Your licence will not be updated if, on 10 April 2022, it has been suspended (unless the Home Office subsequently reinstates your licence), revoked or made dormant.

CoS allocations

If you are an existing Intra-Company sponsor licence holder and your licence is updated to include the new Senior or Specialist Worker route as above, your CoS allocation for that route will be the same as your total CoS allocation for the Intra-Company routes on 10 April 2022.

If your licence is updated to also include the Graduate Trainee route, your CoS allocation for that route will be the same as your total CoS allocation for the Intra-Company routes on 10 April 2022, up to a maximum of 20 CoS.

Example: If you had an unused allocation of 30 CoS for the Intra-Company routes and your licence is updated to have both the Senior or Specialist Worker and the Graduate Trainee routes, you will be given an allocation of 30 CoS for the Senior or Specialist Worker route and 20 for the Graduate Trainee route.

CoS assigned before 11 April 2022

If you are an existing sponsor and you assigned a valid CoS to a worker on either of the Intra-Company routes before 9 a.m. on 11 April 2022, but it has not yet been used in an application before that date and time, the worker can use that CoS in an application on the equivalent Global Business Mobility route, provided the CoS has not expired and you are licensed on the relevant route.

Due to the new salary thresholds under the Global Business Mobility routes, workers assigned an Intra-Company Transfer CoS with a salary below £42,400 or assigned an Intra-Company Graduate Trainee CoS with a salary below £23,100 will not be eligible under the new routes. Should you wish to increase the salaries of any workers to enable them to qualify for the new routes, you can add a note to their CoS stating what the new salary will be.

Remember that a CoS expires if it has not been used in an application for entry clearance or permission within three months from the date it was assigned to the worker. If this happens, and you still wish to sponsor the worker, you will need to assign a new CoS to them.

Sponsorship Fees

For sponsor licensing fee purposes, the Senior or Specialist Worker route will be classified as a ‘Worker’ route. This means that organisations applying for this type of licence on or after 11 April 2022 will pay the ‘large’ fee (£1,476) if they do not meet the definition of ‘small or charitable sponsor’. Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) assigned to workers on this route will be charged the higher CoS fee (£199) for the Worker routes, regardless of company size, status or duration of employment.

The remaining four Global Business Mobility routes will be classified as ‘Temporary Worker’ routes for sponsor licensing fee purposes. This means that organisations applying for a licence on one or more of these routes on or after 11 April 2022 will pay the standard fee for a Temporary Worker sponsor licence (£536), regardless of their size or charitable status. CoS assigned to workers on these routes will be charged the standard Temporary Worker CoS fee (£21).

Moving your assignees to the UK?

Smith Stone Walters will continue to provide updates and further guidance on the new Global Business Mobility routes and how the changes may impact employers.

If your business intends to make use of the new Global Business Mobility routes to transfer staff to the UK, SSW can provide up to date legal advice and practical assistance for both employee and applicant. To speak to a qualified immigration advisor, please contact us today.

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