What HR Teams Need to Know About the UK Expansion Worker Visa?
Setting up a new UK branch for your company shouldn’t be difficult in 2025 with the UK expansion worker visa that serves the diligent role of a UK visa for overseas business expansion.
To make the process seamless for your team, we provided an HR guide to UK visas; especially the UK expansion worker visa requirements and everything else you need to know in this article.
The UK Expansion Worker Visa For HRs
The UK immigration provides several UK visa options for businesses in the UK and the UK expansion worker visa certainly ranks high on the list of UK visas for business expansion. It is the perfect option for an HR team trying to transfer foreign skilled professionals like senior executives or specialists already working for the company into a new UK branch of their company. However, the keyword for this UK expansion visa category is “new”. Your company must not have had an existing branch in the UK because it was solely made for businesses who want to start up. Transferring foreign workers must also have a current record of working with the business prior to the move.
Please note that employees on the UK expansion worker visa are only allowed a maximum stay of 2 years in the UK but they are permitted to work, study, travel and bring in dependents all within their stay.
5 Eligibility Criteria for the UK Expansion Worker Visa
Here are 5 major eligibility criteria HR teams transferring a foreign professional on the UK expansion worker visa need to consider:
- Intended employee must be 18 years or older
- Your business must have met the criteria for UK sponsorship so it can provide the employee with a certificate of sponsorship
- Employee must have worked in a foreign branch of your company for a minimum 12-months duration or;
- Employee must be a Japanese citizen already working for a Japanese business setting up in the Uk
- Employee must be an Australian citizen already working for an Australian business setting up in the UK
- Employee must earn an annual salary higher than £73,900
4) Employee must receive a minimum annual salary of £48,500
5) Job role must meet the recommendations on the eligible occupation list
What Is The Total Cost Of Application For A UK Expansion Worker Visa?
When applying for a UK expansion worker visa, it’s ideal to want to know the entire amount it would cost from start to finish. But here’s one thing we’ll tell you for free – application involves a lot of money and you might need to brace up your finances for that!
There are a lot of things to pay for during the entire process and we’ve helped you compile the list so you can arrive at a total estimate:
- An amount of £298 for the online application fee
- Minimum self-support funds of £1,270
- £25 per Certificate of Sponsorship
- Annual immigration health charge of £1035. Multiply this by the number of years you’ll be staying for
- £500 – £1000 for a priority processing that speeds up the process and allows you to get a report in 24 hours – 5 working days
- Certified translations cost if needed.
- Dependents (£285 for adults and £315 for a child)
Step-by-Step Guide to Sponsoring a UK Expansion Worker Visa
Dear HR managers, consider this your HR guide to UK visas for business expansion! You’ll foremost need a sponsor license to be able to issue a certificate of sponsorship to foreign staff. In this section, we provided a detailed support with the step-by-step guide for UK expansion worker visa sponsorship:
- Begin online application for a UK expansion worker visa sponsor licence using the Home Office official website.
- Show proof of evidence that you are;
i) Duly registered as a UK business
ii) Willing to set up a UK branch for the company within the next two years or less
iii) An existing business for a minimum period of 3 years, with presence in other countries. Consider using a bank statement of your company’s account to validate this.
iv) A genuine business or company and not trying to hire under fraudulent activities.
v) Well-equipped with the right skill set in your team to make sure your business continues to meet compliance duties
- Vet the employment contract to make sure it meets the standard salary and skill criteria for the UK expansion worker visa.
After completing your sponsor license application and your business has been issued one by the Home Office, you can now provide the transferring senior specialist with a valid CoS(Certificate of Sponsorship)
How Long Will It Take Your Employee To Successfully Transfer On A UK Expansion Visa?
Your company employee can expect feedback from the Home Office on their application status within 3 – 8 weeks depending on if they are applying from overseas or in the UK. Foreign specialists applying from outside the UK can expect a faster process time of 3 weeks compared to their counterparts who applied in the UK -that typically takes 8 weeks to complete.
The most important thing you should ensure as the HR team is that the application is sent out 3 months prior to the resumption date listed on the certificate of sponsorship. This allows you to have ample time to prepare incase of a delay caused by visa appointments scheduling or documents reviewed by the Home office.
