Tier 2 Work Visa General UK

[DalRiada]

Hello everyone, I have been reading the forums for a little while and I am hope that if I explain my situation you are able to assist me.

My girlfriend is a Singaporean citizen currently living in Australia. We met each other at University in Australia nearly 10 years ago and have been good friends until we recently went on holiday together and now are in a relationship. She would now like to move to the UK (Scotland).

I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on visas. Our current plan is for her to visit the UK and stay with me while looking to apply for jobs that may be willing to sponsor her. We are aware she will need to leave the country to apply for her work visa once she has a sponsorship. She has a masters degree in translation and interpreting but would like to work in Marketing if possible.

I am a UK citizen earning £19,000+ a year, and have been for a number of years.

[2farapart]

Originally Posted by DalRiada

Hello everyone, I have been reading the forums for a little while and I am hope that if I explain my situation you are able to assist me.

My girlfriend is a Singaporean citizen currently living in Australia. We met each other at University in Australia nearly 10 years ago and have been good friends until we recently went on holiday together and now are in a relationship. She would now like to move to the UK (Scotland).

I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on visas. Our current plan is for her to visit the UK and stay with me while looking to apply for jobs that may be willing to sponsor her. We are aware she will need to leave the country to apply for her work visa once she has a sponsorship. She has a masters degree in translation and interpreting but would like to work in Marketing if possible.

I am a UK citizen earning £19,000+ a year, and have been for a number of years.

If you have serious plans for your future together, an easier route might well be settlement. It could be difficult to obtain a work visa without sponsorship and expertise in one of the 'shortage occupations' though she does have impressive (and more importantly useful) qualifications that would sit within a diverse range of organisations and businesses, so it's not a "no chance" option either.

However, you already earn enough to act as her sponsor if you are serious about your relationship, and on this basis she could apply to enter the UK as your fiancée (a 6-month visa allowing you to marry, after which she would apply for Further Leave To Remain for a further 5-year probationary period). Note: she would not be able to switch from a Visitor visa and would have to apply from her home country. Alternatively, you could marry overseas before this, and she could avoid the initial fiancée visa and apply directly for the 5-year probationary spouse visa afterwards (again, from overseas).

[DalRiada]

Hello 2farapart,

Thank you for your reply, it is much appreciated! Yes the relationship is serious and we do hope to be married one day, I guess we wanted to avoid being rushed into marriage because of visa difficulties. It is still something to consider though.

I guess I was searching for advice on the Tier 2 General Work visas before thinking about fiancee visas. Are there any hints in how to maximise chances of finding an employer willing to sponsor? Has anyone else had expereince with this route of getting a visa?

[krossetti]

Originally Posted by DalRiada

Hello 2farapart,

Thank you for your reply, it is much appreciated! Yes the relationship is serious and we do hope to be married one day, I guess we wanted to avoid being rushed into marriage because of visa difficulties. It is still something to consider though.

I guess I was searching for advice on the Tier 2 General Work visas before thinking about fiancee visas. Are there any hints in how to maximise chances of finding an employer willing to sponsor? Has anyone else had expereince with this route of getting a visa?

Hi there,

I have actually been sponsored on a Tier 2 visa...and from my experience it’s not easy. I am a teacher and finding a teaching job itself was relatively easy for me (I have a Masters and several years of experience) but I searched for months (I should mention that even though I am special needs teacher, which is a shortage occupation) before finding a school that was willing to hire me AND do the sponsorship, and this was with already being in the UK (my tier 5 visa was due to run out). The reality for me (at least in teaching) is that there are TONS of oversees teachers with either youth mobility visas or ancestry visas...for after 2-5 years, they hire another one. Sad, but true.

One thing I would advise doing is looking on JobCentre Plus. If a job isn’t on the shortage occupations list (found on the UKBA website) then you can still be sponsored if your employer has done a ‘resident labour market test.’ In order to do this test, the job has to be advertised on JobCentre Plus. So, if your girlfriend can do one of the shortage occupations, I would advise to apply for jobs related to those. Chances are, if it’s in high demand and there are not a lot of applicants from the UK they would be more open to hiring an oversees worker. If not, look in JobCentre Plus and start contacting as many employers as she can who are advertising positions that might be suited.

I applied for probably 50 or 60 positions and was often told ‘we’re interested but we can’t sponsor you.’ I eventually went with a teaching agency who knew what schools were willing to do sponsorship and got me an interview at one of those. That way, I was being judged on my own merit for the position and not immediately dismissed as being a ‘hassle.’ So, this might be another route to consider, if there is an agency or umbrella company that finds permanent work for what your girlfriend wants to do. It’s in their best interest to find her a job (they get a hefty finder’s fee) and it cuts down on the huge amount of work she’ll have to do otherwise.

Basically, the company/school/employer has to have a sponsorship licence and these are not cheap, or easy to obtain. IF they already have one when she applies then she is much more likely to find success (the only instances I have heard of an employer gaining a licence to specifically employ someone was then that person had already been working there for a few years on another kind of visa). Even still, there are quite a bit of hoops for the sponsor to jump through as well to make sure it all goes through.


Another thing to stress to a potential employer is that she plans on staying indefinitely--I was told a lot of places are reluctant to hire from oversees sometimes because of the fear that they will up and return to their home country. If she stresses though that she wants to settle in the UK permanently they might see sponsorship as a huge benefit (effectively it ‘locks her in’ to that position for 3 years, unless she can find a new sponsor).

I am assuming you’ve looked at all the other visa routes? For instance, if she is under 30 when she applies (even if it’s only by a few months) I believe she qualifies for a youth mobility visa, which would last for 2 years. If you both lived together during that time in the UK with evidence to prove it (utility bills, lease, etc.) then after the two years you could apply for a partner visa....might be another option if it applies?

Anyway, hopefully that helps! Good luck!

[DalRiada]

Krossetti, thank you very much for taking the time to write this very helpful response. My girlfriend also asked me to pass on her thanks!

As a Singaporian citizen I don't think she can apply for a Youth Mobility Visa, as my understanding is that it is only for certain countries.

[Joppa]

Originally Posted by DalRiada

Krossetti, thank you very much for taking the time to write this very helpful response. My girlfriend also asked me to pass on her thanks!

As a Singaporian citizen I don't think she can apply for a Youth Mobility Visa, as my understanding is that it is only for certain countries.

Australia, NZ, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Monaco.
Those on ancestry visa can apply for settlement (ILR) after 5 years.

[Lil_M]

Hi DalRiada,

I'm currently going through the process of the Tier 2 work visa route, and am still waiting for my company to get there Sponsor License. It might be tedious to go through, but the list of companies that could potentially sponsor a worker from overseas can be found here:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...sterofsponsors

From my own overseas job experience, I would suggest to others to try to find companies on the list of Registerd Sponsors that your girlfriend could work for, and see if any of them might be interested.

In my case, I've gotten the interest from my potential sponsoring company, no problem. It's the UK branch of the company I currently work for, so I've got the expertise and they want to hire me. But now we're still in the insanely long process of waiting for their Sponsor License to be approved (which is merely step 1 of 3... *sigh*...)

Good luck!

[Joppa]

Originally Posted by Lil_M

Hi DalRiada,

I'm currently going through the process of the Tier 2 work visa route, and am still waiting for my company to get there Sponsor License. It might be tedious to go through, but the list of companies that could potentially sponsor a worker from overseas can be found here:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...sterofsponsors

From my own overseas job experience, I would suggest to others to try to find companies on the list of Registerd Sponsors that your girlfriend could work for, and see if any of them might be interested.

In my case, I've gotten the interest from my potential sponsoring company, no problem. It's the UK branch of the company I currently work for, so I've got the expertise and they want to hire me. But now we're still in the insanely long process of waiting for their Sponsor License to be approved (which is merely step 1 of 3).

UKBA takes a great deal of care over approving sponsor's licence, and it can be a long drawn-out process. It involves a personal visit to their premises and going through their books, to see they are what they claim to be, a genuine company with a good record of staff employment and retention. They want to spot a potential scam whereby an employer is just a front for facilitating work visas and illegal immigration. While I'm not claiming your prospective employer is in any way dubious, it's a process that cannot be hurried or skimped.

[Lil_M]

Originally Posted by Joppa

UKBA takes a great deal of care over approving sponsor's licence, and it can be a long drawn-out process. It involves a personal visit to their premises and going through their books, to see they are what they claim to be, a genuine company with a good record of staff employment and retention. They want to spot a potential scam whereby an employer is just a front for facilitating work visas and illegal immigration. While I'm not claiming your prospective employer is in any way dubious, it's a process that cannot be hurried or skimped.

Thanks for the details. That's kind of what I figured... And I've been trying to be patient and understanding. It's just frustrating when we were originally told around the time of application (mid April) that it would be a 6-10 week process and it's already been double that time...

[DalRiada]

As a follow up to the points above.

My girlfriend is coming to the UK to look for work sponsorship as I explained above, then to leave the UK to apply for her visa. Before that I plan on visiting her for a holiday for a couple of weeks then we will come here together.

My question is, will she get a hard time at the airport because she is coming through with her boyfriend (me, who is a UK citizen)? Is there any way of handling it so it minimises any hassles she might have and we show them we are trying to be honest and do things the right way?