UK Work Permit guide for Employees
Introduction
The first thing you need to know is that you, as an employee (or potential employee) can not apply for a UK work permit. A UK work permit application must be made by the UK firm which wants to employ you. There has been much discussion in the UK about introducing a points based independent immigration system for skilled staff, similar to that offered by Canada and Australia. Unfortunately, that has not yet occurred, and while we do have a pilot scheme for exceptionally talented individuals it is of very limited use.
If you do not yet have an employer lined up, don’t worry:
- You may be entitled to another sort of visa which will allow you to work in the UK without having to get a work permit – For details of such visas consult our general guide to UK immigration.
- If you are an IT professional with a degree or and 3+ years of experience there are many companies in the UK who may be keen to recruit you and will be happy to obtain the necessary work permit for you – For details of international IT jobs Click Here
- If you go job-hunting like any other would-be employee, just check in this guide to see if you are eligible for a work permit. If you are, you can tell potential employers that you will get workpermit.com to arrange the permit, and that you should be available to start work within 1-2 months of receiving a job offer.
- If you are a national of a European Community (EC) Association Agreement country (Bulgaria or Romania) you may come to the UK to set up in business and are exempt from the usual investment requirements. Thus may it viable for you to come to set up an IT consulting / contracting company and to work in a freelance capacity. However, applications to enter the UK in this capacity will often take several months to process, and are only viable for those who combine technical skills with business experience. Go to our guide to freelance work in the UK for EC Association Agreement nationals.
Once you do get a work permit, it is not a general permission to work in the UK. It is specific to the employer who applied for it. If you have a UK work permit and want to change jobs, you will first need another permit which will need to be obtained by your new prospective employer.
You may come across employers who say "we don’t deal with candidates who need work permits – go and arrange your own work permit and then come back to us". Such employers are asking you to do the impossible, but don’t worry – if you contact workpermit.com we will be happy to contact them and clarify the position.
If you have questions about the work permit process, please Click Here to return to this guide’s index.
If you have an employer and are in a hurry and just want to go ahead with an assessment / application, please Click Here for details of what to do.