The Skilled Worker Visa, which has replaced the Tier 2 General Visa, provides a visa route for non-UK workers, enabling employers who are looking to fill gaps in their workforce to hire skilled workers from overseas, provided that they meet the necessary requirements. This article seeks to give a brief overview as to what this route is and how to use it.

What is the Skilled Worker Visa?

At the end of 2020, the UK Government introduced the Skilled Worker Visa, by making changes to the Tier 2 (General Worker) route. It allows employers to recruit non-UK resident workers for certain eligible skilled roles, with the requirement that an individual should attain 70 points by meeting specific requirements, such as English language ability, skills, salary level, and having a qualified job offer from a UK sponsor.

We have recently written a few articles regarding the government’s response to the shortage of workers, including the creation of visas (Tier 5 Visa) for seasonal workers in the edible horticultural sector. More recently this has included the introduction of the HGV (fuel) driver visa, which was restricted to EU nationals.

The “New” visa

The government has now announced that the Temporary Seasonal Worker Visa will now replace the Seasonal Worker Visa (Tier 5). The new visa will include two more categories of workers, as well as the traditional horticultural workers. These are poultry workers and HGV food transport drivers, although these visas are only available on a temporary basis, presumably to cover the shortage that is anticipated as we approach the holiday season.

We have had a fair number of enquiries recently about the visas for HGV Fuel Drivers, so thought it may be useful to address some of the questions in the following article.

As you may be aware, the UK has recently suffered some difficulties with the supply of fuel, which has led to shortages and the closure of some petrol stations, with long queues at others. Part of the problem has been that, although the fuel is in the country, there is a shortage of HGV drivers to move the fuel from the relevant depot to the petrol stations. This has been greatly exacerbated by Brexit, as the industry has in the past used EU drivers to fill in any gaps.

Temporary Visas

The government’s response has been to bring in the military to help temporarily and to commit to training new drivers, as well as to offer a temporary visa that makes it easier for foreign lorry drivers to work in the UK. This visa allows successful applicants to work on a temporary basis.

Moving from one’s country of birth can be both exciting and scary, be it for temporary periods such as a student or more permanently, for example as the spouse of a British national applying for settlement. However, it can also be very expensive. This article seeks to highlight the costs and some potential savings of UK immigration, which should be one of the considerations for anyone looking to move or stay here legally.

Intro

So, life has been really good and cupid has found you a match, you have popped the question and she/he has said yes! Or you have been asked and you said yes! Congratulations!

Now you need to not only plan the wedding but also decide where you will hold the wedding; this article is hopefully going to aid you in making that choice if you are a Non-EU citizen living outside of the UK and are engaged to marry a Brit in the UK.