I Want To Expand My Business Into The UK, How Can I Send Staff To The UK To Get The Business Going?

If you want to expand your overseas business into the UK, you may want to set up a UK entity.

Certainly, you will want an individual who already knows and understands your organisation, in addition to already having the market knowledge and specific operation needs of your business, to set up this entity. This will mean that you may well wish to send one or more of your overseas staff to the UK in order to get the business going.

The most appropriate form of visa category may be the Expansion Worker (which recently replaced the Overseas Representative visa). This visa will allow one or more of your overseas employees to come to the UK to set up a UK branch of the business.

It is important that the UK branch has not started trading yet, otherwise, if the company is already trading, the appropriate visa category is the Senior or Specialist Worker visa route, which is another ‘Global Business Mobility’ category.

The requirements of the route are complex, and include criteria for your overseas business, the UK business you are establishing, and for the candidate themselves.

Requirements for the overseas and UK companies

In most cases your overseas business must have been trading for at least three years.

You must have established, or are intending to establish, a company in the UK to operate the same type of business, and your plans to expand in the UK must be credible – you will be expected to establish a UK trading presence within two years. As highlighted above, your UK business must not yet be trading.

Whereas the predecessor ‘Sole Representative’ route was unsponsored, the UK Expansion Worker route requires the worker to have a UK sponsor. Your UK business will be the sponsor, and it must be a branch or wholly-owned subsidiary of the overseas business.

The Home Office will expect the UK entity to establish a UK trading presence within two years.

Requirements for the individual

The individual, or individuals, whom you want to employ in the UK must  have been working for you (the overseas business) outside the UK for a cumulative period of at least 12 months before the date of application – unless they will be earning at least £73,900.

The roles they are being sponsored for must be on the list of eligible occupations and must also meet the minimum salary requirement.

You can only sponsor the number of workers you genuinely need to establish the UK entity, up to a maximum of 5 workers at any one time.

How Gherson Can Help

The Expansion Worker visa route has significantly changed from its predecessor, the ‘Overseas Representative’ visa. At Gherson we have extensive experience in dealing with the Home Office when changes to the UK visa landscape are introduced. If you require assistance with the Expansion Worker sponsor licence or visa, or have questions regarding any other UK Visa category, 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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