Immigration for Business
Tier 5 - For Sponsored Temporary Workers
Tier 5 is for those organisations who wish to take on Temporary workers. The term temporary worker encompasses the following subcategories of people:-
i) Creative and Sporting Workers;
To get a licence for creative workers and their entourage, you must be operating, or intend to operate, in the creative industries. For example, as a national body, event organiser, producer, venue, agent or other similar organisation. Where applicable, you must follow the codes of practice when taking into account the needs of the resident labour market in that field. For further information on this category please contact Ms Dhruti Thakrar on 0208 9537072.
To get a licence as a sponsor of sports people, you must be a sporting body, sports club, events organiser or other organiser operating, or intending to operate in the sporting sector.
An agent cannot be a sponsor under this category.
In order to sponsor a migrant in this category the migrant must be:
- A sportsperson who is internationally established at the highest level in your sport; and/or
- Sportsperson whose employment will make a significant contribution to the development and operation of your particular sport in this country; and/or
- A coach who must be suitably qualified for the job.
Though migrants in this category do not need a governing body endorsement to get permission to enter or stay, you must make sure that they follow the criteria set for the category, before issuing a certificate of sponsorship.
If a sport does not have a governing body recognised by the home country sports councils, the Border Agency will ask the sports councils and other relevant sporting bodies, for example, the Central Council of Physical Recreation, which is the national alliance of governing and legal representative bodies of sport and recreation, whether there is an appropriate body.
ii) Charity Workers & Religious Workers;
In order to sponsor a religious worker an organisation must first obtain a licence to sponsor the migrant under the tier 5 - religious worker category of the points-based system.
To get a licence under this category, you must be a genuine (bona fide) religious institution, which:
- is a registered, excepted or exempt United Kingdom charity according to the relevant charity legislation in force in its part of the United Kingdom
- or is an ecclesiastical corporation (either corporation sole or body corporate) established for charitable purposes. In Northern Ireland the organisation must have obtained charitable status for tax purposes from HM Revenue and Customs.
- Charities who are not registered according to the relevant charity legislation must explain the reason for non-registration when they apply; and include any religious belief or similar philosophical belief in something transcendental, metaphysical or ultimate;
- exclude any philosophical or political belief concerned with man, unless that belief is similar to religious belief;
- and does not exclude from its community on the basis of gender, nationality or ethnicity;
- and receives financial and material support for its core religious ministry from its congregation or community on a voluntary basis only, without promise or coercion;
- and does not breach, or encourage others to breach, any United Kingdom legislation;
- and does not operate against the public interest, or in a way that has a detrimental effect on personal or family life as these are commonly understood in the United Kingdom.
For further information under this category please contact Ms Dhruti Thakrar of Vincent Buffoni and Co.
Employers and illegal workers
The Border Agency introduced a civil penalty system for employers on 29 February 2008. This is allowed under section 15 of the Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.
Employers found to be using illegal migrant workers will be served with a notification of potential liability (NOPL) by immigration staff carrying out enforcement and compliance visits. The Illegal Working Civil Penalty Unit will then consider evidence provided by the visiting officer or team and decide whether to issue the employer with a notification of liability (NOL) and a civil penalty of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker.
If the Border Agency issues a notice of liability and imposes a civil penalty against an employer found to be using illegal migrant workers, the employer must, within 28 days:
- pay the civil penalty in full; or
- submit a request to the Illegal Working Appeals and Finance Section to pay the civil penalty in a series of monthly instalments; or
- submit an objection against the service of the civil penalty to the UK Border Agency; or
- lodge an appeal against the service of the civil penalty to the County Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or the Sheriff's Court (Scotland).
The penalty system operates on a sliding scale of amounts, based on the type of eligibility checks employers have made on their workers, the number of occasions on which a warning has been issued or civil penalty imposed, and the extent to which the employer has co-operated with us.
The new penalty scheme sits alongside a tough new criminal offence of knowingly employing an illegal migrant worker (section 21 of the 2006 Act). This will be used in the more serious cases where rogue employers knowingly and deliberately use illegal migrant workers, often for personal financial gain.
This will carry a maximum two year custodial sentence and/or an unlimited fine.
In addition the Border Agency publishes the details of employers who have been found to be liable for the payment of a civil penalty for employing illegal migrant workers.
Please see link for guidance on illegal working Home Office
For Individuals
If you are looking for information and guidance on UK Immigration for Individuals please follow the link.
Get in Touch
Contact us to see how we can help you.
Tier System
Tier 1 - Entrepreneur / Investors
Tier 2 - For Sponsored Skilled Workers
It should be noted that as legal representatives we cannot present Tier 4 applications ourselves as the applicant needs to be present at the Border Agency to provide their biometrics.
