A Tier 2 Sponsor licence allows employers to bring in skilled workers who will be employed on a long-term basis. Tier 2 license holders, as well as Tier 2 Sponsor List Companies, can bring applicants in the UK on the following subcategories:

Tier 2 Sponsor Licence Regulatory Procedures and Registration Formalities;

  • If you desire to enter the UK, you will have to set up a UK company and the UK entity will need to register with the Home Office as a Tier 2 Sponsor license holder.
  • The UK entity can be set up as a subsidiary of the USA Company.
  •  The person heading the UK entity must be on your payroll and preferably a UK citizen/have valid UK visa (referred to as Key Personnel)
  • Based on the Immigration Rules the requirements of Point-based sponsor, while considering your license application, UKVI will need to establish four things.
    1. Are you a genuine organisation operating lawfully in the UK?
    2. Are you honest, dependable and reliable? To judge this, they look at your history and background, the Key Personnel named on your application and any people involved in the day-to-day running.
    3. Are you capable of carrying out your sponsor duties? This is judged by looking at your current human resources and recruitment practices to make sure that you will be able to fulfil your sponsor duties.
    4. If you are applying under Tier 2 (General), can you offer genuine employment that meets the Tier 2 (General) skill level and appropriate rates of pay.
  • Tier 2 sponsor license will allow you to bring in workers under:
    1. General – this is for skilled workers who have received a graduate-level job offer from a UK employer.
    2. Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) – this is for multi-national organisations that need to transfer employees to the UK. There are four sub-categories:
      1. Long Term Staff
  • It is essential that the company needs to have monitoring systems in place, this would entail:
    1. monitor your employees’ immigration status
    2. keep copies of relevant documents for each employee, including passport and right to work information
    3. track and record employees’ attendance
    4. keep employee contact details up to date
    5. report to UKVI if there is a problem, e.g. your employee stops coming to work
  • Further, the UKVI may visit your business to make sure you’re trustworthy and capable of carrying out your duties.
  • It is important that you would be required to appoint a Sponsor – to run the Sponsorship Management System. The roles are:
    1. Tier 2 Sponsor Licence authorizing officer – a senior and competent person responsible for the actions of staff and representatives who use the SMS
    2. key contact – your main point of contact with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)
    3. level 1 user – responsible for all day-to-day management of your license using the SMS
  • These roles can be filled by the same person or different people.
  • The applicant is required to ensure that the people named in the above:
    1. do not have an unspent criminal conviction;
    2. have not been fined by UKVI in the past 12 months
    3. have not been reported to UKVI or broken the law

Moreover, the allocated staff must also:

  1. be based in the UK most of the time
  2. not be a contractor or consultant contracted for a specific project
  3. not be subject to a bankruptcy restriction order or undertaking, or a debt relief restriction order or undertaking
  4. Your allocated staff must usually be paid members of staff or officeholders.

You can choose to allocate any of the roles to a UK-based legal representative, apart from the authorizing officer role. Your representative must be qualified to give immigration advice or services.

What should the company net worth be for a Tier 2 sponsorship licence?

- Question asked in a forum
There is no minimum prescribed net worth for a company to be eligible for sponsor license – the Home Office views the application holistically taking various factors into account – the net worth this just one of them.

Intra Company Transfer

If a company that is based in the UK can establish that they have a subsidiary, branch, joint venture or a parent company in any other part of the world – then the company would be able to apply for a license as Tier 2 Intra Company Transferee for that other company only.

The Tier 2 ICT does not have any allocation criteria nor is there any capping on the number of visas that are issued under this category. If a company is bringing employees across to the other company, they are not required to advertise the position/meet the resident labour market test.

  • Long-term Staff

This visa is for transfers of more than 12 months into a role that can’t be filled by a UK recruit. The employee needs to have worked for the employer for at least 12 months. Max stays 5 years 14 days. Applicant to be offered a salary of at least £ 41,000. Staffs who have stayed in the UK for 5 years cannot re-apply to re-enter the UK under an Intra-company Transfer visa until 12 months after leaving the UK.

Submission of Documents for due Application:

If you wish to apply for points-based system sponsorship you would need to submit the following documents (as many as possible):-

  • a certificate of VAT registration
  • Articles of Association.
  • Proof of ownership or lease of your business premises in the UK
  • Evidence that you have the appropriate planning permission to operate your type/class of business at your trading address (where this is a Local Authority requirement).
  • For the UK your latest Audited Annual Accounts with the name of the Accountant clearly shown. The Accountant should be a member of an Accredited Accounting Body (CIMA, CIPFA, ACCA, ACA etc).
  • Proof of registration with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Provide each partner’s Unique Tax Reference Number (UTR) and/or the Partnerships/Businesses Unique Tax Reference Number (UTR). [Proof of registration must be original or certified copies of documentation issued by HMRC only].
  • Latest Corporate/Business Bank Statement (preferably for the latest 12 months period)
  • Letter from your Bank setting out the dealings it has had with you, including the nature and duration of its dealings.
  • Latest Notice to file a Company Tax Return – CT603 & Company Tax Return – CT600 (Both parts must be supplied).
  • Proof of ownership of the company in the USA
  • Profit and loss account, the Balance sheet of the USA company

Please note that this is not the exhaustive list of documents required for your application the Home Office may request for additional documents should be needed to strengthen your application.

Costs

Category of Visa Government Fees Full representation fees* Processing times
Tier 2 Sponsor License registration (Intra Company Transfer) £ 550 £ 4750 4 – 6 weeks
Issue of CoS ~£ 170 £ 150
Tier 2 Entry clearance application – up to 3 years INR 57,500 INR 40,000 3 weeks
  • *Does not include disbursements like Government Visa fee, health surcharge, CoS fees, VAT, Service Tax, Advertising fees, courier charges or any incidental expenses (including translations, apostille, printing, certification fees, any other out of pocket expense on behalf of the client.)
  • Visa fees are subject to change the time of the application.

Timescale to submit your application

  • It takes 5 working days of successful acceptance and approval of the application.

One-Stop Solution:

Our firm operates on an appointment system should you wish to contact our office please arrange an appointment by calling +91 98191 27002 .

“At, The Smartmove2UK the UK Immigration lawyers have helped companies in different industries including Information Technology, Mobile telephony, App development, Gems & Jewelry, Industrial goods manufacturers, Engineering goods, Health & wellness companies to successfully apply for Tier 2 sponsor licence.
The SmartMove2UK is a firm located at Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru that operates on an appointment system. So if you wish to contact the experts, please arrange an appointment by calling +91 98191 27002

If you want more info or updates on the latest change in the Tier 2 Sponsor Licence acquisition procedures, you can contact our immigration expert’s on

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