applications

So You Want to Live and Work in the UK: Transitioning from a Tier 5 Visa to a Tier 2 (General) Visa

/ Stephanie / 5 Comments

Disclaimer: This blog is not meant to provide immigration advice; I am merely sharing my personal anecdotal experience to shed light on what you might encounter in the process.

NB: Since publishing this blog, it seems like the Tier 2 General restricted visas cap has been hit multiple times since December 2017 meaning that only salaries > £50k – £60k or select shortage positions are now being approved, and many people are being turned away. You can read more about this on Fragomen’s website or in this Guardian article.

I was fortunate enough to be in a position where my employer was willing to sponsor me to stay in the UK following the termination of my Tier 5 (Youth Mobility) visa. Overall, my visa was slated to expire in September 2016, but I broached the sponsorship topic with my manager in December 2015, as you should prepare for a generous lead time to go through multiple steps, especially if your employer is not already a Licensed Sponsor (which my employer was not). Check that the business that you’re asking to be a sponsor is eligible to be a sponsor and that your job is eligible for sponsorship. Alternatively, your business could already be listed on the register of sponsors. It’s worth noting here that if you do get sponsorship before your tier 5 visa expires, then your tier 5 visa gets annulled; you can’t keep both visas at the same time, but you also don’t need to cancel anything yourself as the annulment will happen automatically.

Depending on how quickly your legal / admin team move at your company, you could get approval to be a Licensed Sponsor in a short time frame. All in, my HR department sorted all of the paperwork and payments (it costs up to £1,476 to just get the Licensed Sponsor status for a Tier 2 General type visa) and received approval in about a month and a half. During this time, they also put out an advertisement for my role in two places and were required by law to interview anyone who was qualified for the job and show proof of reasons that other candidates were not suitable for the job (residential labour market test). The guidance for these adverts and the HR / legal processes that the sponsoring organisation must adhere to can be found here. If your company isn’t currently a Licensed Sponsor, it’s worth reading through this guide yourself so that you will be able to assist your company in the process. My company also had an external law firm’s help in this process, and I do not know the fees associated with this process.

Once the residential labour market was complete and my company had received Licensed Sponsor status, the next step was to apply for my Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). The HR department applied for this, and depending on the timing of when you submit the application for a CoS, you should receive a CoS, at the latest, one month later, as there is a limited monthly quota for restricted certificates. Following the successful receipt of a CoS, I followed the instructions on the government website for applying for a Tier 2 General, namely submitting the requisite documents, inputting the CoS number my employer received (which is valid for 3 months from the date of issue), and paying a. the healthcare surcharge, which was about £900, and the fee for the visa itself which ranges from £400 to £1200 depending on whether you’re applying for a 3 year visa vs. a 5 year visa, and if your occupation is a shortage occupation.

Once you’ve followed all the instructions and the paperwork is submitted, you’ll then be invited to book an appointment with the immigration office from which you are applying (outside of the UK – in my case, I went home to Toronto to apply from the Toronto UK immigration office) to take your biometrics and process your documents. Keep in mind, switching from Tier 5 (Youth Mobility) to Tier 2 General requires that you apply from outside the UK. If you’re extending your visa or switching from other visas, you may not have to apply from outside, but specifically switching from the Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa requires you to physically leave the UK. So, I booked my appointment with the Toronto UK immigration office a few weeks in advance, and booked a one-way flight to arrive the day before my appointment. You need to ensure that you submit the application and have it approved before your CoS expires, so keep the 3-month CoS validity in mind when timing your appointment.

Going into the UK immigration office to submit my documents was a pretty standard experience. Make sure you have all of your documents as listed on the Gov UK guidance, and print out any automated e-mails that were sent to you, including one confirming your payment of the healthcare surcharge, as you’ll need this to submit your application. If you are in a rush, it is advisable to pay extra for the express processing of your application which puts your application at the front of the line. I did not, and I submitted my application during a time when peak student visa applications were taking place, so I waited a while. You can also check the visa processing time website to gauge how long your application might take. My processing times for both my visas from the Toronto, Canada office are listed below for reference:

Tier 2 (General)

Date of Biometrics Appointment: 09/06/2016

Date Application Received: 10/06/2016

Date Visa Granted: 21/06/2016

Date Passport Available: 22/06/2016

Tier 5 (Youth Mobility)

Date of Biometrics Appointment: 09/07/2014

Date Application Received: 10/07/2014

Date Visa Granted: 21/07/2014

Date Passport Retrieved: 22/08/2014*

*They did not notify my when my passport arrived, so I ended up having to go to the office to check if my passport had come back (and it had). Passports usually come back quite quickly after the visa is issued, so if you haven’t received notice after a week, I’d just walk in during passport pickup time to check.

 A note of advice – work out what you’re responsible for paying in this process and what your employer will take on upfront; this will save you from surprises down the line. The total cost of this visa, including the round trip flight was about £4,000. My employer paid for all things visa related, and I paid for the flight, which seemed like a fair bargain.

How was your Tier 5 to Tier 2 experience?

Advertisement

So You Want to Live and Work in the UK: Finding Work on Tier 5

/ Stephanie / 7 Comments

For the previous posts in this series, please see So You Want to Live and Work in the UK: The Visa and So You Want to Live and Work in the UK: Circular Finances.

If you’re not a student, one of the fundamental problems as you’re considering your move to London is finding work. When I was mulling over this problem, I saw a few different paths forward. Essentially, you may be able to apply for an Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer Visa with your current company, apply for work from abroad and secure sponsorship through the Tier 2 General Visa, or look for work locally once you’re here on the Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa. Each of these options has its own benefits and downsides; I am going to focus on finding work on the Tier 5 visa in this post.

If you’ve successfully been approved for the Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa, you’ll be able to look for work / start working as soon as your visa is valid. My visa was activated on 3 September 2014, so I landed here that day and immediately started my job hunt. However, I’d recommend that you also do some preparation work beforehand to make this process as easy as possible as it certainly expedited my job search to maximise the amount of time on my visa.

  1. Prepare your CV

    Part of the localisation process is getting into the lingo, spelling, and terminology. Prior to my arrival in the UK, I researched and spoke with people who had been through the process to ensure that my curriculum vitae (CV) – or resume as it is known in North America – was in a locally accepted format. I ensured that my spelling was converted from North American English to UK English (e.g. specialized to specialised), highlighted my language skills (being bilingual / multilingual is an advantage here), and used my family / friend’s local mailing address on the CV to give the illusion that I was already locally settled. I also put “Authorised to Work in the United Kingdom” near my namesake, as right to work will be a common question that comes up as you look for work. I also changed my LinkedIn link from ca to uk.
  2. Research Jobs and Agencies

    A couple of things to note on the local job market, at least in London: the market moves quickly and it is a recruiter-driven market. On the first point, vacancies come in and are filled in a matter of days, which I found quite different from the lethargic pace of the job market back in Toronto when I was interviewing for some managerial roles. As such, it’s not worth applying to jobs weeks in advance of your move to the UK as the vacancy will be filled before you get there, unless your application was facilitated through your network. On the second point, my advice is to focus in and research the types of roles for which you’re seeking on the popular job search sites (reed.co.uk, fish4jobs.co.uk, indeed, monster, The Guardian) and then document which agencies tend to have the types of roles that you’re seeking (the logo/contact information for the agency will become apparent in the job posting). Identifying the agencies of interest to you early on will make your recruitment targeting much easier.A note on salaries: It was difficult for me to gauge my market value initially, as I wasn’t entirely sure how my worth converted over from the North American market to the UK. Ultimately, I’m nominally earning the same as I would expect to earn in Canada, but my buying power is significantly weakened here due to the cost of living – this seems to be generally the right range that you should expect, but could vary based on industry / niche due to supply and demand. I would recommend speaking with your recruiters to get a sense of what level you’d come in at given your experience (they’re incentivised to get you working in your highest possible bracket given that their agency fees are likely tied to your compensation). You might also be able to speak with people in the industry / university alumni working locally – I asked an ex-colleague at my level working locally to see what kinds of roles and offers he’d been getting from headhunters enticing him to leave. Finally, you can always give the local Glassdoor a try.
  3. Call the Agencies

    The week I landed, I got a local UK number on a pay-as-you-go plan, and I started calling the agencies on my target list. I stated my 30-second headline upfront to describe a) my background / experience and b) what I was looking for in terms of roles (sometimes referencing previous job vacancies they had filled), and asked if they had any vacancies in the areas which I was looking. Usually, following this, they asked me to send my CV to either their personal e-mail or to the generic agency inbox but requested that I put their name in the subject line so that he / she could look out for it. I also asked for their name and number should I need to follow up on my CV, and called recruiters back if I hadn’t heard from them after 24 to 36 hours. I recommend the calling approach over simply blanket e-mailing your CV to agency accounts as calling someone at the agency makes them immediately accountable to you, and this guarantees that your CV will be reviewed.
  4. Ace Your InterviewsWithin two weeks, I had four interviews lined up. Within 3.5 weeks, I had two job offers while interview interest continued to trickle in. I started work exactly one month after I had landed in London. When I said that the job market moves quickly, I meant it. Most of my friends here have had similar experiences, usually settling into their new positions within 4-6 weeks of landing in the country, though there likely is variance depending on your industry and level. Of course, don’t forget to do your due diligence on the target company and to prepare for your interview as you would back at home. I found the behavioural interviews to be quite similar to North American interviews. Additionally, I would recommend coming up with a tight narrative on why you left your last role, why you moved to the UK for work, and prepare a response for the time horizon that you intend on staying here as appropriate for the role / industry in which you’re seeking employment as these are likely topics of discussion over the course of your interviews.

I’ve attempted to condense my advice into the tips in this post, and I hope that you’ll find this information easily digestible and actionable. Feel free to leave any questions you may have or share your own experiences and tips in the comments below.