UK Scale Up Visa (A Guide For Irish Businesses In UK)

Due to the UK government’s changes to post-Brexit immigration rules, they designed the UK Scale-Up visa. This visa programme became open for application in August 2022.

The UK Scale Up visa route is designed for Irish companies that have expanded in the UK to bring skilled workers from around the globe. Individuals who may qualify for the recognised UK Scale Up visa must meet the skill levels needed for the job in the company.

The Scale Up visa holders are enabled to enter the UK as sponsored workers. They have to put in at least 6 months of work for the sponsoring employer. The worker and their family are free to relocate permanently to the UK without needing to work there after five years.

There are both eligibility requirements for companies to recruit foreign workers, and for individuals to qualify for the Scale-Up visa. Under the Scale-Up visa rules, an employee is allowed to leave their sponsored role after 6 months and change to an unsponsored role.

One of the most important requirements of the UK Scale-Up visa is that employees must first have a job offer from a UK employer along with corresponding Certificates of Sponsorship. Besides that, the company that offers such jobs must have prospects for rapid growth and must be in its scale-up phase.

Page Contents

• What To Know About The Scale-Up Visa As an Irish Company That Has Expanded In The UK?
• Eligible Jobs for Scale-Up Visa
• Company Requirements & Eligibility To Hire Individuals On The Scale-Up Worker Visa
• Employee Eligibility & Requirements
• Skilled Worker Visa vs. Scale-Up Worker Visa
• How To Hire Individuals On The Scale-Up Visa: Step By Step
• How IAS Can Help Your Business
• Frequently Asked Questions

The jobs UK employers offer to foreign workers must be eligible. Foreign workers will not be eligible for a Scale-Up visa if the jobs they are offered are not accepted.

Therefore, foreign workers must check the list of eligible occupations, to know if they are qualified for the Scale-Up visa. To check the eligible job they intend to take, their employers will provide them with a 4-digit occupation code for the roles.

For the Scale-Up visa scheme to be applicable, jobs offered by business sponsors must meet certain standards. The job role employees are offered must be real.

Scale Up visa applicants may have their application rejected if there are any grounds for the Home Office to suspect that the employment they have been promised is not real, is fraudulent, or was made specifically to help them obtain a Scale-Up visa.

Additionally, the Home Office needs to be assured that the employee won’t sign a contract, take on a position, or provide regular services for a third party who isn’t the sponsor listed on the sponsorship certificate. The Scale-Up visa jobs employees are taking must also satisfy the minimum skill level criterion for the Scale-Up visa, which is at least RQF level 6 or above.

If the position an employee has been given is on the UK government’s website’s list of suitable jobs for the Scale-Up route, they will automatically meet the required skill level for the Scale-Up visa. Information like occupation codes, job kinds, and related job titles are also included in this list.

Keep in mind that for the position for which an employee is being sponsored, a company must choose the right occupation code. If the Home Office determines that a company has chosen an improper or inaccurate occupation classification, they may reject the employee’s visa application.

The Home Office will review the employee’s application for a visa based on several factors, such as whether:

• The company needs the job that the employee is applying for.
• The employee has the necessary training, experience, and credentials.
• The company has a history of known immigration violations.

To apply for a Scale-Up visa, the prospective employees must meet certain eligibility criteria. The employees must:

• Be 18 years old or above on the date they apply for the visa.
• Have a legitimate, highly skilled sponsored employment offer at the necessary salary level from an approved UK Scale-Up company. The position requires RQF 6 or higher level skills (graduate level).
• Earn at least a guaranteed basic gross pay of £33,000 yearly until April 11, 2023, or earn £34,600 from April 12, 2023. The employees could also earn the going rate for the stated occupation code.
• Show that they can read, write, speak, and listen in English at least at CEFR level B1, which is recognised as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The applicant must show that they meet the Immigration Rules’ Appendix English Language’s requirements for English language proficiency.
• Receive a total of 70 points, which includes 50 points for sponsorship, a work offer at a skill and income level that is appropriate, and 10 points each for meeting the financial and English language standards.
• Show funds of at least £1,270 or have their UK sponsor certify that they will maintain and accommodate their recruit until the end of the first month of their employment unless they are applying for permission to stay and have been in the UK lawfully for 1 year or longer on the application date.
• Not have committed crimes misbehaved, or violated immigration laws, except for periods of overstaying. The Scale-Up visa application will not be granted if employees have committed crimes. Certain nationals will also need to register with the police.

Depending on employees’ long-term goals, the salary they have been promised, and whether the UK sponsoring company is seeing rapid expansion, employees may want to apply for the UK Scale-Up worker or the UK Skilled Worker visa.

The major difference between the UK Scale-Up Worker visa and the Skilled Worker visa is that, following 6 months, holders of the Scale-Up visa are free to change jobs, and employers, or pursue self-employment without obtaining Home Office approval. Whereas, holders of Skilled Worker visas who wish to switch jobs or employers must first request to have their visas changed.

The Skilled Worker visa and Scale-Up Worker visas also have the following differences:

• The Skilled Worker and ScaleUp visas have different lists of qualifying jobs and going rates.
• The application fee for a Scale-Up visa is £822, significantly less than the £719 to £1,500 (depending on individual situations) application charge for a Skilled Worker visa.
• The Skilled Worker visa typically has up to a 5-year validity period. Whereas the Scale-Up visa has a 2-year validity period.
• The Skilled Worker visa’s minimum annual salary of about £26,200 is less than that of the Scale-Up visa of about £34,600.
• The Scale-Up visa issuing Certificates of Sponsorship to employees must have had growth on an average of about 20% yearly in either turnover or employment. The Scale-Up company must also have had a minimum of 10 employees at the beginning of the 3 years. Whereas the Skilled Worker visa sponsor companies are not expected to meet these requirements.

In practical terms, employees will almost likely have to file for a Skilled Worker visa until additional Scale-Up companies are included in the list of eligible sponsors, even though the new UK Scale-Up visa gives greater freedom for potential migrant workers who wish to work in the UK.

The decision on which kind of visa to apply for will primarily depend on whether potential applicants fulfil the more stringent criteria of the Scale-Up visa and if they want the freedom of switching occupations and employers after 6 months.

Irish employers in the UK are required to follow certain steps to hire individuals on the Scale-Up visa. First, employers are expected to obtain a Scale-Up sponsor licence.

If they don’t already have a licence, they must apply for it online, pay its corresponding application fees (which could be up to £1,476) and provide all needed documents. But if the employer already has a UK sponsor licence, they may request to add the Scale-Up route to it.

For sponsor licence purposes, the Scale-Up route is categorised as a “Temporary Worker” route. This implies that to obtain a sponsor licence or to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to employees via this route, the employer will have to pay the standard Temporary Worker fee. However, employers will be required to pay an extra fee if they are applying under the endorsing body pathway.

It typically takes about 8 weeks for the UKVI to process a company’s sponsor licence application. However, employers may pay an extra £500 to get a decision on their application within 10 working days.

After obtaining the sponsor licence, the approved scale up business may now issue Certificates of Sponsorship to eligible foreign workers to come and work for them in the UK. Thereafter, the employees will apply for a Scale-Up visa at the UK embassy in their home country within 3 months of receiving the CoS from a qualifying scale up business.