How Do I Satisfy The ‘Common Ownership And Control’ Element Of The Global Business Mobility Senior Or Specialist Worker Visa?

If you want to send a Senior or Specialist worker to a UK entity, you must make sure that the UK entity and the overseas entity at which they are employed are linked in one of the specific ways required by the Home Office.

The most common structures which satisfy the requirement for the entities to be linked are:

• one entity controls the composition of the other entity’s board
• one entity holds enough shares in the other entity to have more than half of the voting rights in that other entity
• both entities have a common parent entity, and that parent entity (either by itself or through other entities) meets one of the two bullet points above.

The UK and the overseas entities will also be considered linked if they are connected via other entities within a corporate group, and each entity is linked as detailed above.

A business must declare all non-UK entities which may want to send a worker to the UK to the Home Office before a visa application can be submitted to facilitate such a move. The two most prevalent ways to declare this are to either provide audited accounts (or an annual report), which clearly show the link between the two entities, or via an affidavit setting out the same kind of information.

In either case, the list should be kept up-to-date at all times. This means that every time there is a change to the business’ structure (such as a merger, acquisition or divestment), it should update the previously submitted information. The Home Office can take up to 18 weeks to process a request to add a linked overseas entity.

There are a number of other ways to show common ownership and control, such as being linked via a joint venture, by a trademark name, or via an individual who holds a majority of shares in both entities.

How Gherson Can Help

This part of the sponsor duties is not easy to navigate. However, falling foul of these reporting duties can have significant consequences for the UK entity which holds the sponsor licence.

We have extensive experience in supporting businesses to ensure they meet all the areas of sponsor compliance required by the Home Office, including keeping up- to-date with the documentation relating to satisfying the common ownership and control element.

If you require assistance with an UK sponsor licence application, a Senior or Specialist worker visa application, or have questions regarding updating your common ownership documentation with the Home Office, please do not hesitate to contact us for advice, send us an e-mail, or, alternatively, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to stay-up-to-date.

The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication, it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please do not hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.

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