Work Permits

• Business and Commercial
• Sports and Entertainments
• Training and Work Experience
• Student Internship
• General Agreement on Trade in Services

For full details of permits and criteria please refer to UK Border Agency

The majority of applications fall under the Business and Commercial category.

Either the job must require the following qualifications:

• A UK equivalent degree level qualification; or
• A Higher National Diploma (HND) level qualification which is relevant to the post on offer; or
• An HND level qualification, which is not relevant to the post on offer plus one year of relevant full time work experience at National/Scottish Vocational Qualification (N/SVQ) level 3 or above

Or the job must require the following:

• 3 years full time experience of using specialist skills acquired through doing the type of job for which the permit is sought. This should be at N/SVQ level 3 or above

You will need to show why you cannot fill the post with a 'resident worker'. In most cases this will include details of your recruitment methods and credible reasons why you did not employ a suitably qualified or experienced 'resident worker' or one who, with extra training, could do the job.

The recruitment methods you use, including advertising, should be appropriate to the job and represent a genuine attempt to employ a suitably qualified or experienced person.

You should make a work permit application for a named person to do a specific job for the employer, normally on a full-time basis. The person cannot transfer a work permit to a different job or to work for a different employer without prior permission from the Home Office.

There must be a genuine vacancy. The post must not have been created for the purpose of recruiting a particular person.

Employers must also demonstrate, through providing details of the overseas worker's employment history and roles and responsibilities that the individual has a minimum of three years experience working in a similar job at the equivalent of S/NVQ level 3.

A work permit is only issued where it is apparent that the employer has clear responsibility for determining the duties and functions of the post.

You can make a work permit application if you are an employer based in the UK and you need to employ a person to work here. If the person you want to employ is out of the UK you should apply when you have found the person that you want to employ but no more than six months before you want to bring them into the country.

The application for the work permit must be followed by permission for the individual to stay and work in the UK. If the work permit holder is out of the UK they must apply for entry clearance or a visa from their country of residence.

Where the person is already in the UK, an application for further leave to remain is necessary.

If you want to apply for an extension to a work permit, or the person is otherwise already in the UK, you should apply before the person's permission to stay in this country runs out. Please apply at least one month but no more than three months before this date.

If you want to extend a work permit you should fill in the WP1X form and state why and for how much longer you need to employ the person.

The person can continue working with you whilst the work permit extension application is being considered, provided it was received before the existing work permit permission, and the individual's leave to remain in this country had not expired.