Who is Eligible for ICT Visa?
If you’re wondering what the ICT visa is and who is eligible, you’re in the right place. We’re Synergy Immigration Solutions, immigration experts who are here to make the complicated process of immigration as easy and go as smoothly as possible.
In this post we discuss the ICT visa, now known as Global Business Mobility, the different routes and the requirements for each route.
What is an ICT visa?
What is an ICT visa? The Intra-Compact-Transfer-Visa (ICT) allows workers whose company has UK branches the opportunity to work in the company’s UK branch. Since 2022 this type of visa is now called Global Business Mobility (GBM). You may see the names of this same visa used interchangeably, but now the most common term for the ICT visa is Global Business Mobility. In this article, we will use both ICT and GMB.
Who is eligible for ICT/GBM visa?
To qualify for this visa, you must:
- be an existing employee of an organisation that’s been approved by the Home Office as a sponsor
- have a certificate of sponsorship from your employer with information about the work you will do in the UK
- do a job that’s on the list of eligible occupations
- be paid at least £42,400 per year
How to apply and what you will need
You must apply online for this visa, but how you apply will depend on whether you’re:
- outside the UK and are coming to the UK
- inside the UK and extending your current visa
- inside the UK and switching from a different visa.
Your partner and children can also apply to join you or stay in the UK as your dependents if they’re eligible.
To apply for any of the forms of visa, the standard information that you will need to apply is the following:
- A valid sponsorship certificate and unique identifier number
- A genuine form of ID
- Details of your job, including job title, salary, contract and your job occupation code
- You may also need to provide confirmation of your study and any results if you are applying for a graduate visa.
- You will need to provide evidence that you have enough money to support yourself during your time in the UK. This is made up of both your existing funds and salary earnings.
What are the different GBM routes?
The ICT visa, now GBM, consists of 5 visa routes. These different visas are as follows:
- Senior or Specialist worker
- Graduate trainee
- UK expansion worker
- Service supplier
- Secondment worker
Senior or Specialist worker
The senior or specialist worker route is one of the five new business immigration routes and it’s for employees transferring to a UK subsidiary or branch of an overseas company. As the name suggests, this route is specifically for senior or specialist employees looking to transfer to the UK subsidiary or branch.
Senior or Specialist worker requirements
Here are a number of Global Business Mobility visa senior or specialist worker application requirements that must be met. The applicant must be aged 18 or over. They must also satisfy:
- a sponsorship requirement
- a skill requirement
- a salary requirement
- a financial requirement, and
- provide a tuberculosis test certificate, if from a listed country.
As a points-based system visa, an applicant must be awarded 60 points, divided equally between the sponsorship, skill and salary requirements.
Graduate trainee
Overseas graduate trainees looking to undertake a graduate training programe at a UK branch or subsidiary of their overseas employer will need to apply for a visa under the new Graduate Trainee visa route.
The Graduate Trainee route is specifically for overseas workers on a structures graduate training programme leading to either a senior management or specialist position who are required to do a work replacement in the UK as part of the programme. The temporary work route has replaced the former Intra-Company Graduate Trainee route.
Graduate trainee requirements
To be eligible for a UK Graduate Trainee visa, the applicant must:
- be aged 18 years old or more at the date of application
- be part of a structured graduate training programme for a managerial or specialist role with an overseas business that has a legitimate work placement in the UK
- be an existing employee of an organisation that’s been approved by the Home Office as a UK sponsor and have been assigned a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from that sponsor
- be doing an eligible job to the appropriate skill level as set out in the Immigration Rules
- be paid the minimum eligible salary required for their job role
- be working for the linked overseas business at the date of application and have worked for that business outside the UK for at least 3 months before they apply
- satisfy a financial requirement, where applicable.
UK Expansion worker
The UK Expansion Worker allows workers to come to Britain to set up the first UK branch or subsidiary of their overseas business. It allows eligible businesses to sponsor senior managers or specialist workers being assigned to the UK for a temporary period to undertake work related to the expansion of the overseas business in the UK.
This has replaced the previous unsponsored sole representative provisions of the Representative of an Overseas Business route, although visa-holders already in the UK on this route can apply for further permission and will not be required to switch. This means that the predecessor route will remain open to those with existing permission on that route.
UK Expansion worker requirements
- Applicants must be at least 18 to qualify
- The applicant must also already be working for a linked overseas business and have worked for that business for a prescribed minimum period.
Service Supplier route
The Service Supplier route allows employees of an overseas service provider (or contractual service suppliers) and self-employed people established outside the UK (or independent professionals) to temporarily come to the UK if the work is under a contract to supply services covered by one of the UK’s international trade agreements.
Under a Service Supplier visa, the visa-holder will be able to come to the UK to provide the relevant services for which the application was made. They’ll not be permitted to take a second job in the UK, but will be able to undertake voluntary work or a course of study, and travel abroad and return to the UK during the validity of their leave.
Service Supplier visa requirements
An individual will be eligible for a UK Service Supplier visa if they have a contract to provide services to a UK company, either as an employee for an overseas company or as a self-employed professional based overseas, and that contract is covered by a valid international trade agreement. More specifically, to be eligible, the applicant must:
- be an employee of an overseas business or a self-employed service provider based overseas and established in the territory of a party to an eligible trade agreement
- be providing a service to a UK business under a contract that’s covered by that agreement
- meet the relevant nationality or residence requirements applicable to that agreement
- be providing a service to a UK business that’s a Home Office approved sponsor
- have a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from a UK sponsor with information about the work that the applicant will be doing in the UK for their sponsor
- be doing an eligible job as set out in the GBM table of eligible occupations and codes
- have worked for their current employer for at least 12 months outside the UK or, if the applicant is a self-employed service provider, have worked for at least 12 months immediately before applying and in the same sector as the service they will provide.
If the applicant doesn’t have an eligible occupation code, they may still be able to apply for a UK Service Supplier visa if they have relevant qualifications and experience.
They’ll normally need either a bachelor’s degree or higher in any subject, or a technical qualification equivalent to a bachelor’s degree. They’ll also need 3 years’ professional experience relevant to the service they provide as an overseas employee and 6 years’ professional experience if self-employed. Secondment worker route
UK Secondment Worker
The UK Secondment Worker visa is for overseas workers who are looking to undertake work assignments in the UK on a temporary basis, where the worker is due to be seconded to the UK as part of either a high value contract or investment by their employer overseas. Unlike some of the other routes under the GMB umbrella, which replace and reform previous routes, this is a brand new route, designed to facilitate trade and boost the UK economy.
UK Secondment Worker requirements
- Applicants must be 18 or over to quality
- If they’re applying for entry clearance under this route, the applicant must also be working at the time for an overseas business that has a contract with their UK sponsor
- The applicant must have worked for that business outside the UK for a period of at least 12 months
- The applicant will not be required to meet an overseas work requirements if they are applying for permission to stay and are applying to continue working for the same sponsor as a Secondment Worker.
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