Introduction
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Introduction
In the UK it is the potential employer, and not the candidate, that must apply for a work permit. If you wish to employ someone near the top of their profession it may be possible for the employee to apply for the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme.
As a UK recruitment agency you are not able to apply for work permits for staff who will be working at your clients’ sites. When dealing with non-European staff you have essentially 2 options
- Get your client to make the work permit application. This is the easiest option and need not involve much effort by your client (in most cases workpermit.com can get almost all the data from you and from the candidate, so that your client need only talk to us for 10 minutes and then sign a completed application that we e-mail to them).
- If your client’s requirement can be turned from internal works into a defined outsourced project comprising of identified work parcels / responsibilities that are then handled to a recognised solutions provider, then that solutions provider can employ the candidate. If you have a software house / solutions arm in your corporate group, then this should not be difficult for you. If you do not, it will come down to finding a third party software house. Should that be required, we can assist you and suggest www.lestersybersolve.com. Not all work is suitable for outsourcing in this way, workpermit.com is happy to advise on the details in any situation you may wish to bring to our attention.
- Find another type of work visa that will allow the candidate to come to the UK. While there are many options, few will be of practical use to you (we assume that you will eschew such dubious practices as marriage brokering!). However, if the candidate is a national of one of the European Community (EC) Association Agreement countries (Bulgaria or Romania), then they may be able to get a visa to come to the UK to set up in business and be exempt from the usual investment requirements. Thus it may be viable for them to come to set up an IT consulting / contracting company and to work for your client in a freelance capacity. You should be aware that 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 .
If you have questions about the work permit process, please Click Here to return to this guide’s index.
If you are in a hurry and just want to go ahead with an assessment / application, please Click Here for details of what to do.