The Brexit transition period comes to an end on the 31 December 2020.
From 1 January 2021, the free movement policy will end and the UK will introduce a points-based immigration system. Therefore, new rules will apply to UK companies from a hiring perspective.
What are these rules? How can you continue to hire EU citizens? That's what we'll see right now!
Summary:
Your company is based in the UK and you currently employ EU citizens? No worries, the new system will not apply to EU citizens living in the UK by 31 December 2020.
To stay in the UK, they are eligible, along with their family members, to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme and have until 30 June 2021 to do so.
More concretely, this means no major transformations. However, remember to communicate about it to your non-British employees before the deadline.
Major transformations will impact companies that want to hire EU citizens.
From 2021, in order to hire EU citizens, companies will need to apply for a "UK visa sponsorship for employers" also called sponsor licence.
A sponsor licence is the mean by which you'll be able to employ people from outside the UK.
This licence will allow you to be considered as a Home Office licensed sponsor and hire people from everywhere in the world. Without it, you just can't hire foreigners.
💡 Good to know: until now, the sponsor licence was useful for companies recruiting people from outside EU. With Brexit, it's extended to all foreigners including EU citizens (but excluding Irish people).
💡 If you have been recruiting people from outside the EU in the last past months, you probably already have a sponsorship licence. In this case, you'll automatically be granted a new skilled worker licence including EU citizens, and receive an appropriate allocation of certificates of sponsorship.
💡 You will also have to give an estimated number of the foreign workers that you will need to have as many certificates of sponsorship as new foreign recruits.Indeed, you must assign a certificate of sponsorship to each foreign worker you hire (each certificate has its own number which a worker can use to apply for a visa).
👉 Once your application has been submitted, you should expect an average of eight weeks processing time to receive your licence. It can be longer, so be mindful of any strategic deadline.
Congrats, you're now able to hire people from outside the UK! Your licence will be valid for 4 years.
⚠️ Even if you sponsor someone coming to the UK to work, they will need to apply for permission to be sure that they meet the criteria requested by the UK administration.
In concrete terms, being licensed doesn't mean you can hire anyone.
Why? Because the new points-based immigration system will treat EU and non-EU citizens equally and transform the way in which all migrants come to the UK to work.
→ Anyone coming to the UK to work will need to apply for a work visa.
During their visa application, your new recruits will have to prove different things:
💡 The earliest you can apply for a visa is 3 months before you’re due to start work in the UK.
⚠️ You should get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks when you apply from outside the UK.
So think about it during your recruitment process to avoid nasty surprises!
If you want to transfer one of your employees from a subsidiary located in a foreign country (including the EU) to a branch in the UK, you'll need to apply for the Intra-company Transfer (ICT).
The ICT is actually a type of sponsor licence specifically designed to facilitate temporary moves into the UK.
It will require applicants to be in roles skilled to RQF 6 (graduate level equivalent), and subject to a different minimum salary threshold from the main skilled worker route (that we detailed in the second part). Find all the info **here.**
talent.io is a selective, reversed recruitment platform for tech profiles. We are the simplest way for tech candidates to find a job they love and for tech companies to build a great tech team. We select the best tech profiles in Europe.
Since our launch 6 years ago, we qualified more than 100,000 tech candidates looking for a new job on talent.io, all across Europe. Sourcing tech talents from the EU gives you access to more available candidates and increases your chances to hire the best ones.
Our Client Executives team in London can support you with all the administrative steps in order for you to continue/start hiring tech talents across Europe.
It's now time to think about your needs for the future. If you're thinking about hiring EU citizens from January 2021 onwards, you should apply for a sponsorship licence now.
If you plan to transfer employees from the EU to your UK branch, you'll need a Tier 2 - Intra company Transfer (ICT) licence.
Need more details? Visit the UK government website:**https://www.gov.uk/uk-visa-sponsorship-employers**
