Senior or Specialist Worker Visa
The Senior or Specialist Worker visa is the main route within the UK's Global Business Mobility (GBM) framework — the modern successor to the old Intra-Company Transfer visa — allowing multinational businesses to transfer senior managers and specialists into a UK entity that's linked to their overseas employer through common ownership or control. It's built for structured group transfers rather than open-market recruitment, and it comes with a defining limitation worth understanding from day one: it's a temporary route by design and does not itself lead to settlement, however long someone stays on it. Our lawyers work with HR and mobility teams to get the sponsor linkage, salary evidence and role justification right, and to plan the switch to a settlement-qualifying route where that's the long-term intention.
Who This Visa Is For
You may qualify for this visa category if you are:
Senior managers or specialists being assigned from an overseas group entity to a linked UK business
UK entities that already hold a Global Business Mobility – Senior or Specialist Worker sponsor licence
Multinational groups establishing or expanding a UK presence, needing to bring experienced overseas staff to fill genuinely senior or specialist roles
Employees who have worked for the linked overseas business for at least 12 months
Employer Compliance Obligations
Sponsoring this route comes with ongoing responsibilities, not just a one-off application:
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Robust HR record-keeping, with any changes to a sponsored worker's role or salary reported to the Home Office within the required timeframe
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Salary compliance must now be maintained per pay period, not just assessed at the point of application, following rule changes effective 8 April 2026
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An Immigration Skills Charge is payable by the employer — currently £1,320 per year for larger sponsors
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Readiness for Home Office compliance audits, particularly around demonstrating genuine business need and accurate corporate linkage documentation
Underpayment or artificial salary structuring is a recognised compliance risk area and a common trigger for sponsor licence audits — this is worth building into internal HR processes from the start, not treated as a one-off application task.
Eligibility Requirements
To qualify, both the sponsoring UK entity and the worker must meet specific criteria:
The UK sponsor must:
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Hold a valid Global Business Mobility – Senior or Specialist Worker sponsor licence
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Be linked to the overseas entity through common ownership or control (for example, a parent-subsidiary relationship), evidenced through corporate documents such as shareholder agreements and organisational charts
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Be able to evidence the genuine business need for the role, including reporting lines and commercial justification
The worker must:
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Have worked for the linked overseas business for at least 12 consecutive months before the application — unless they meet the high earner salary threshold (currently £73,900+), in which case this requirement is waived
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Hold a role at RQF Level 6 (degree-equivalent) or above, as set out in Appendix Skilled Occupations
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Be paid at least £52,500 per year, or the higher occupation-specific "going rate" under the GBM salary tables, whichever is greater
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Hold a valid Certificate of Sponsorship confirming the role, salary and linkage details
No English language test or Resident Labour Market test is required for this route — a notable practical difference from the Skilled Worker visa.
Length of Stay
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How long you can remain in the UK depends on salary:
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Below £73,900 per year: up to 5 years in any 6-year period, calculated cumulatively across both the GBM and legacy ICT routes
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£73,900 per year or more: up to 9 years in any 10-year period, as a "high earner"
How We Help — Our Process
Free Initial Consultation
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Sponsor Compliance Review
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Certificate of Sponsorship & Application
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Submission & Follow-Up
Long-Term Planning
A Genuinely Temporary Route
This is the point that catches out the most employees and HR teams: no Global Business Mobility route leads to settlement, regardless of how long someone remains on it or how many times their permission is extended. Time spent on this visa does not count towards the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain. If long-term settlement in the UK is part of the plan for a transferred employee, this needs to be built into workforce planning from the outset — typically by switching to the Skilled Worker route, which does carry a path to ILR, once that becomes the objective.
Key Facts
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Application fee: currently from £819 (outside the UK, permission of up to 3 years) up to £1,865 (in-country applications for more than 3 years) — fees are reviewed periodically, most recently from 8 April 2026
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Dependants: partners and children can generally accompany the main applicant
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eVisa only: as with all UK immigration grants since February 2026, permission is recorded solely as an eVisa via a UKVI account, with no physical document issued
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Annual cap: none currently in place on this route