As the humanitarian situation in Ukraine worsens, the UK government has recently (on the 27^th of February 2022) published guidance in response to the call for humanitarian help, by allowing certain Ukrainians to come and stay in the UK.

The Ukrinane Abroad Concession

Unfortunately, this concession only covers a very limited group of people and does not create any new visas that didn’t exist prior to this crisis. It allows Ukranian family members of British nationals to apply for a family migration visa, free of charge, if the British national usually lives in Ukraine.

The government has recently published a very welcome Home Office concession, which will allow certain young people who were born or brought up in the UK without immigration status to be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK after five years of lawful residence, rather than the normal ten years route.

Traditional 10 Year Family and Private Life Route to ILR

Under the current Immigration Rules, an undocumented migrant can apply for leave to remain in the UK on the basis that it would otherwise disproportionately interfere with their Private Life, as protected under Article 8 of the European Conventions on Human Rights. This is provided for under Immigration Rules part 7, with one of the sections (Paragraph 276ADE(1)(v)) specifically catering for people aged 18-24 inclusive, who have spent half of their life living continuously in the UK, to apply for permission to stay, which is normally granted for 30 months. The applicant is required to continually extend this leave until they complete 10 years of lawful residence to qualify for ILR/Settlement – this is what is called the ten-year route to settlement.

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.