Applying for a Scale-up Visa

What is the Scale-up route?

UKVI has confirmed that the Scale-up route is “…for talented individuals recruited by a UK Scale-up Sponsor, who have the skills needed to enable the Scale-up business to continue growing.”

The Scale-up visa offers both a sponsored application route and an unsponsored application route. The sponsored route requires an organisation to secure a Scale-Up sponsor licence before being able to sponsor any Scale-up migrants. However, this category of the Immigration Rules is different to other sponsored worker routes because sponsorship is temporary.

The unsponsored application route is only available to applicants who have previously been granted permission as a Scale-up worker.

Who can qualify for a Scale-up visa?

An individual who is offered a high-skilled job with a qualifying Scale-up business will be able to apply for a Scale-up visa, although to succeed, certain criteria must be met.

The visa application can either be pursued from outside of the UK or from within the UK, if the worker holds permission to remain enabling them to switch into another immigration category. For their first application, the worker will need to score 70 points for:

• Sponsorship; job at an appropriate skill level; appropriate salary – 50 points
• English language – 10 points
• Financial – 10 points

The Scale-up worker will need to hold a valid Certificate of Sponsorship, which will be issued to them by the qualifying Scale-up business. This must confirm that the worker is expected to work for the sponsor for at least the next 6 months.

The job must also be eligible for sponsorship under the Scale-up route; jobs suitable for sponsorship are outlined in Appendix Skilled Occupations. Note that not all roles are suitable for sponsorship under the Scale-up route; various director roles are, as are various scientist and legal roles, but many roles, including management and technician roles, are not suitable for sponsorship. Latitude Law can help organisations to match a proposed role to the roles suitable for sponsorship under the Immigration Rules.

The Scale-up worker must be paid an appropriate salary, which must be at least £34,600 per year, unless the going rate for the role is higher, in which case the going rate for the proposed role must be paid.

Scale-up workers must provide specified evidence that they can communicate in English to at least Level B1 CEFR, and must also comply with a financial requirement, unless this is certified by their sponsor.

If successful, the worker will receive permission to stay in the UK for 2 years. Their permission to remain will contain a requirement that they work for their sponsor in the role specified on the Certificate of Sponsorship for at least 6 months.

Who will likely benefit from this route?

The Scale-up route will only benefit organisations who can prove annualised growth of at least 20% for the 3-year period before applying for a sponsor licence (based on either employment or turnover), and who had a minimum of 10 employees at the start of the relevant 3-year period. If this definition is met (and it only needs to be met at the date of the sponsor licence application), the route may be useful for high-growth businesses looking to recruit overseas talent.

Assessing high growth seems straightforward when assessing staff numbers; for turnover, government guidance confirms this will be based on VAT returns.  This may be an inappropriate measure, as some businesses turn over a significant amount of non-VATable business.  Latitude Law is a case in point, with a high number of our clients being based outside the UK.

Importantly, organisations will only be responsible for their Scale-up workers for the first 6 months of the worker’s residence in the UK. Sponsorship duties for the worker – which include retaining specified documents, information, and reporting certain information about the worker/the role to UKVI – will therefore only last for 6 months.

The obvious downside is that the worker could leave the organisation after 6 months and this wouldn’t affect their visa. Contrast this with the Skilled Worker, Global Business Mobility Senior or Specialist Worker routes, which require continuous sponsorship throughout the worker’s presence in the UK.

In addition to organisations (regardless of size) benefiting from the lower sponsor licence application fee of £536, organisations also won’t need to pay the immigration skills charge when assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship. The ISC is calculated at either £364 or £1000 per year of sponsorship (depending on the size of the sponsoring organisation), so can make sponsorship expensive.

Only time will tell if the introduction of this route will “entice the world’s top talent” to the UK, which is what the government are hoping. Our initial view is that the Scale-up visa will form a very small piece of the economic visa jigsaw the government seems intent on creating, with take-up likely to be low.

Why choose Latitude Law?

Latitude Law has extensive knowledge in all aspects of immigration, human rights, and nationality law. Our experienced solicitors have assisted clients with some of the most complex issues that can arise from visa applications, extensions and switching into other categories.

We have the largest immigration team in the North West and work tirelessly to ensure all of the necessary steps are completed to the highest standard. We are recognised as a Tier 1 immigration law firm by the Legal 500.