General Work Visa
You are allowed to apply for a General Work visa (Tier 2) if you come from outside the European Economic Area or Switzerland and are offered a skilled job in the UK. It is important to be employed by a licensed UK sponsor to apply to live in the UK. The sponsor assigns a certificate of sponsorship, after checking that you can do the job. The information on how much you will be paid and other work-related details might also be needed during the visa application process.
The earliest you can apply for a General Work visa is three months before you are due to start work in the UK. A decision on your visa will be made within three weeks when you apply from outside the UK. Many visa application centers offer priority services like faster visa decisions for extra money.
The price of a General Work visa (Tier 2) depends on its type and where you come from. The majority of applicants must pay £610 for up to a 3-year visa and £1,220 for a longer stay. Applicants who plan to work on a skilled job where there is a shortage of workers in the UK must pay £464 for up to a 3-year visa and £928 for a visa that allows them to stay in the UK for more than 3 years. People from Turkey and Macedonia can pay slightly less money for a General Work visa application. The healthcare surcharge is a part of your visa application, and you can calculate its size before you apply. Those who want to extend or switch their visa while staying in the UK need to pay £19.20 to have their biometric information taken.
Your General Work visa (Tier 2) allows you to stay in the UK for a maximum of five years and 14 days, or the time given on your certificate of sponsorship plus one month, whichever is shorter. You are allowed to start your stay up to 14 days before the start date on your certificate of sponsorship. It is permitted to apply to extend a General Work visa for up to another 5 years, as long as your total stay in the UK is not more than six years.
According to the rules of the UK General Work visa, its holders are allowed to work for their sponsor in the job described in the certificate of sponsorship and, in certain circumstances, do a second job; do voluntary work and study as long as it does not interfere with the job a visa holder is sponsored for. It is also allowed to travel abroad and return to the UK and bring family members to the UK. A General Work visa does not allow its holders to own more than 10% of their sponsor’s shares (unless they earn more than £159,600 a year); receive public funds or apply for a second job until they have started working for their licensed sponsor.
To apply for a General Work visa you must: have a valid certificate of sponsorship for your job in the UK; prove you are being paid an appropriate salary for your job; prove your English skills and have enough money to support yourself when you arrive in the UK. As an applicant, you will be also asked to show your travel history over the last 5 years, results of the tuberculosis test (if you come from a listed country) and provide a criminal record certificate from any country you have lived in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years if you will be working with vulnerable people in the UK. To be able to switch from a Tier 4 visa, you need to have an eligible qualification.
A certificate of sponsorship needed for a General Work visa holds the applicant`s personal details and information about the job offered. It is not a paper document, but an electronic record. For a visa application, your sponsor will give you a certificate of the sponsorship reference number to add to the visa documents. You can only use it once and not later than three months after getting it.
The appropriate salary must be at least £30,000 per year or higher. Though, you can be paid less if you will work as a medical radiographer, nurse, a pre-registration nurse or midwife, paramedic, or secondary school teacher in some subjects. To get a General Work visa you must have £945 in your bank account for 90 days before you apply or you have to show that your sponsor is fully approved and can cover your costs for a month if you need it. Your sponsor must confirm this on the certificate of sponsorship as well.
To show the necessary level of English skills, you can pass an approved English language test with at least CEFR level B1 in reading, writing, speaking and listening or demonstrate an academic qualification that was taught in English and is recognized by UK NARIC as being equivalent to a UK bachelor’s and master’s degree or Ph.D. In some circumstances, a higher level of English skills is needed, so the official UK government webpage lists other ways to prove this.
When you apply for a General Work visa, you will need to provide your certificate of a sponsorship reference number, prove your knowledge of English and show you have enough personal savings (unless your certificate of sponsorship shows your sponsor can support you if you need). Also, you will need a valid passport or travel document with a blank page for your visa, expired passports or travel documents if you need to show your travel history, tuberculosis test results (if needed) and a criminal record certificate if you are working with vulnerable people. For the documents that are not written in English or Welsh, you will also need to provide a certified translation.
A criminal record certificate is needed if you plan to work in education (as a teacher, education adviser, school inspector), healthcare (as a nurse, doctor, manager, pharmacist, dentist, ophthalmic optician), therapy (as a psychologist, speech and language therapist), social services (as a social worker, manager, probation officer) and other.
The application process for a General Work visa (Tier 2) starts online, then you must visit a visa application center, your fingerprints and photograph must be taken as part of your application. Your biometric residence permit must be collected within 10 days of when you said you would arrive in the UK.
You may be able to apply to extend your stay in the UK under a Tier 2 General Work visa if you have the same job as when you got your previous permission to enter or stay in the UK, you are still working for the employer who assigned your certificate of sponsorship and you are still earning an appropriate salary. To be allowed to extend your visa you must be in the UK.
You can apply to switch to a General Work visa (Tier 2) from Tier 1 visa, Tier 2 (Sportsperson) visa, Tier 2 (Minister of religion) visa, Tier 2 (Intracompany Transfer) visa, Tier 4 visa (if you have an eligible qualification), Start-up visa and Innovator visa. You can also switch to a General Work visa if you are a dependent partner of someone with a Tier 4 visa or a representative of an overseas business. Family members can come with a General Work visa holder. Though, they must have a visa if they are from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland.
According to the requirements of a General Work visa, you can take a second job if you are working up to 20 hours a week in the same profession as your main job and at the same level. It is also possible if you work in a profession on the shortage occupation list or you do unpaid voluntary work.
Regards,
SmartImmigrant
