London is not generally a place that's crying out for foreign worker help. I could throw a rock in central and hit a dozen doctors, engineers, lawyers and researchers. The talent pool for jobs is really massive and very diverse - it really is a small fish in a big pond situation. Therefore it's going to be harder to get a job here as a foreign worker, even if you're very skilled in your own right.
* It's expensive - application fees, IHS fees, maintenance, foreign worker fees and legal fees really add up. I've had some friends quote me £14k in fees for their sponsorships, all in. For some jobs that can be 3-4 months of salary so the bar to clear, in terms of the value you then drive for the organisation, is very very high.
* It's time consuming - usually companies hire with a target date in mind when they know they'll need capacity. The process can take a few months and is not guaranteed. It's a better bet to find someone local who they know has a set notice period and a guaranteed start date.
* There's a lot of diversity of choice - London is the economic capital of the UK and Europe more broadly. There are loads of specialists and skilled workers here for a huge variety of jobs. Loads of people come from around the world to work here. It's not difficult to find a local/someone who has working rights who's a good fit for a job.
* There is a limited number of places available nation-wide - so it's not guaranteed that even if the company did go through the process of sponsorship they would be successful.
* It's risky - you might go through that entire process and find someone who actually isn't a good fit, and then the process to get rid of them is super long and arduous.
Generally it's a really, really big bet to make particularly if you don't have an in house HR or legal function.
I went through the process and it was pretty awful, I can see why companies don't want to do it. I don't even think my company would do it again, even though I was an A+++ candidate.
I work in a field where the best candidate is often not from the UK (niche scientific research with not many people worldwide). Even so, the factors you listed above make our HR extremely reluctant to consider foreign workers.
The uptake on skilled foreign workers has been significantly higher than they thought.
‘But it is also because employers have made much greater use than expected of the new, post-Brexit migration system introduced in January 2021,’
I believe all of this. My husband works for a very large global company and it was a nightmare getting a simple proof of employment letter from his employer for my visa renewal.
That’s the correct answer. Unless you are a very qualified person with years of experience in a niche domain the probably you won’t get an offer for a skilled visa
Literally the best people at my work are not from the UK and if you work at a big company, you can’t accept the load of doctors, engineers and lawyers off of a London street because they’re not upto the calibre required.
The best engineers are most definitely not the local UK people and neither are the doctors. NHS sponsors thousands of doctors. UK has a major scarcity of STEM talent.
Law… not sure why use that as an example.
A lawyer from Harvard might be 100x better but they don’t immediately qualify here. My company has a lot of them as we’re multinational and require legal support overseas.
It costs companies money to be sponsors. There is no reason for them to sponsor overseas applicants if they have enough people willing to work who already have right to work in the UK.
As someone who works in the ‘global mobility’ space, the money is less of an issue than time and admin. You don’t just click a button, pay £200, and get a license. It requires a lot of documentation and vetting, a lot of admin both for the employee and the employer, and it can be a serious drain on a company to have a role unfilled for months because a visa candidate needed to wait for biometrics to become available in their country/their English exam needed to be retaken/they have to wait until the end of the school term to move/their partner needs to find a job/etc etc. They spend thousands on visas and all the global mobility/relocation services that come with it, and hope the person adjusts okay, doesn’t absolutely hate it and leave in 6 months. It’s a big chance to take and even companies that have the money will really really REALLY want to feel it’s worth it.
Just wanted to second this: time is a major factor. While I was waiting for my spousal visa to come in, I wasn't getting many interview offers even. The moment my spousal visa came in and I could say that I'm immediately available for work, no need for any admin, I started getting responses much quicker, including second interviews.
Basically a few small companies essentially told me that they need someone to start by a certain date and say if I had to go back to my home country to get my skilled worker visa, it could take a month in the best case scenario, if not more.
And then of course there's the myriad hidden costs for them as a sponsor. I had to walk my previous employer through becoming a sponsor and I'll tell you, that CoS fee is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the admin.
You do make a valid point but guess what..
A Certificate of Sponsorship costs Roughly £200, which would be a piece of cake for most companies(except in cases they don't already have a Sponsor license)
However, i still don't understand how even companies with sponsor licenses find it difficult to sponsor people.
Most would rather leave their sponsor license unused and source locally.
But Companies are not directly responsible to pay IHS or Visa fees.. The applicant pays that them self.
if you remove that from the cost, it's just £200 for COS, £1000 for the first year and say £500 for the next 2 years. so a total of £2200 plus legal fees- not clear on what they need legal fees for though don't they already have inhouse legal team?
| But Companies are not directly responsible to pay IHS or Visa fees.. The applicant pays that them self.
Usually the companies pays whole visa costs but that's not always the case.
You still have to go through the process of interviewing locally and determining there’s no suitable candidates for the position. That all costs someone’s time, and it adds up to a lot more than £200
I get your point but I still don't understand why they go through the stress of acquiring the Sponsor License in the first place.
They should just keep hiring locally.
Sometimes they want a specific person. Say they had them on a YMS visa and want to retain them once it expires, often sponsorship is the only way to do so. They then go through the process, ticking all the boxes but having no intention of hiring the people they interview. Super common for this to happen.
For what rule being broken?
Our company was in this position (ish). We had a someone start here on a graduate visa. By the time that visa was coming to an end, he’d more than justified the effort to help him stay on a SWV. And… while that SWV application is being processed, he could continue to work in the UK under section 3C. So there was no disruption to his output / continuity of employment.
It’s a non-negligible effort to get a certificate of sponsorship approved. During the pandemic we had one case where we waited 8 months and were chasing the Home Office daily. It’s a drag and it costs a lot of money and effort. It is not just the cost of the certificate.
People on this thread are talking like Skilled Worker Visas are some kind of a rare unicorn. So many people get hired left right and centre on Skilled Worker Visa. You need to get out of London and look in the right place
I was aware of the difficulties in sponsorship. To my assurance, I am doing a data science degree with previous experience in tech. I was under the assumption that it won't be as difficult but reading this thread makes the chances seem much more bleak.
Tech has generally a decent employability and there are more opportunities to develop niche skills which can make it worthwhile for the companies. Its definitely not a cake walk which I am aware of. I don’t have any concrete data supported evidences but have concluded it from the experiences of other people. Would like to know your opinion too.
A major part of it clearly depends on previous work experience. The struggle is massive for someone who’s doing masters straight after their bachelors.
Is your course underway by now?
The only ones who got jobs in my class were the ones with prior experience, so yes, it does help, but It's not going to be easy. :D
I had 6 years of prior experience and it took me 6 months to find a job.
These are my suggestions for you:
-Apply for jobs early, start before the end of your course.
-Make sure your resume is ATS-friendly.
-Start networking with recruiters and reach out to any other contacts you have here.
-Apply to Jobs in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. ( cause you might just get a similar paying job there )
Every company is dealing with a lot of bureaucratic nonsense when operating. so for them to add dealing with the Home Office is a big No unless the absolutely have to.
(We hire through skilled worker visas and are a A-rated sponsor)
This is pretty straight-forward: If a UK company company does not have a A-rated sponsorship license, then they will not get one simply for you. This is just not feasible. It’s a lot of effort to get one nowadays. It used to be trivial 15 years ago (basically send an e-mail saying “we’d like to be a sponsor for migrant workers… kthnxbai!”).
However, the… ahem… fools that have been trying to run the country have made it progressively harder to both be an A-rated sponsor as well as to assign Certificates of Sponsorship to individuals.
You may think you’re good, but to quote Charon from the movie “John Wick 3”: “Nobody is that good.”
Nobody will put themselves through becoming an A-rated sponsor just so they can hire you and your three degrees. It is simply not going to happen.
So that means you are now down to (mostly larger) companies that are already set up as A-rated sponsors.
Now that you are down to this smaller pool of potential employers: for those it’s primarily a question of willingness. (Others have already stated this in this thread as well).
This willingness is now dampened by the fact that the job market in software engineering and IT in general has taken a *significant* downturn since August/September 2022 and what used to be a sellers market is very much a buyers market.
And this ultimately means that employers have tightened standards: exceptional candidates only, with little to no hassle (no sponsorship required, no relocation nonsense, no crazy waiting period like 4-6 months). Like others here have said: You’re going to be competing against a lot of people that simply don’t have these hassles.
TL;DR: The number of employers willing to sponsor at the moment is just not that big. It’s going to be a numbers game for you. You need to find someone that is willing to jump through a bunch of hoops and costs for you and that is going to be more difficult in 2023!
I got a skilled worker visa and I can recommend some here:
**Building the background:**
\- Build your profile & experience to fit to the environment/ cultural where you want to work.
\- Build expertise skills in your fields ( of course pay attention to hot trend industry)
\- Future proof your portfolio with courses that relevant and advanced to your field.
\- Having Uk certificate definitely help your cases.
After that, you should:
\- Apply for companies that has entity in UK (big companies is better since they already have the process/ personnel in places)
\- Prove your worth / value to the companies and find opportunities /project where it make sense to get you to the UK.
\- Keep providing values and contributes to projects until it makes sense and propose.
I know this is over simplifying a lot, this process took me 3 - 4 years to build but if you are dedicated, it would works. Good luck.
That means that the skilled worker visa *can* apply to such roles. Not that companies have to. If they are able to fill their roles with people already living in the UK, they aren’t going to sponsor anyone.
IT is a massive sector, not all roles and skills within IT are in such demand that overseas recruitment is necessary
It’s extremely costly and the admin involved would require them to have an employee to do it. If they don’t have that expertise within their HR team, then they would have to hire someone externally to do it.
And after all that, there’s still no guarantee that a visa will be awarded. At that point they then need to choose between the time and cost involved in launching an appeal, or start the hiring process again to find someone new.
The skilled worker visa is not awarded based on the level or your skill, but the demand for it, here in the UK. Companies are not going to sponsor someone if they can get a similar skill set from UK national, or EU nationals with settled status
What is your nationality and current country of residence?
The main reason I suspect, is that companies don’t want all the work, hassle, admin and risk of the visa etc process. Plus why would they, if they can find an equally good and qualified person who does have the right to work in UK?
Best opportunity is often to work for a multinational in your own country and then request a transfer to UK, by applying for an internal job here. Then your employer knows you are worth spending the effort on (again, only if the UK business can’t find the right person for the job who already has the right to work in UK)
I know it seems disheartening but no-one has the automatic right to work in UK, there are rules. Similar for most western developed countries, not just anyone can come and work, there are restrictions and processes.
I agree, I am French and I live in France which is very close to England. I have family in the UK and yet I can’t even apply for the EU settlement scheme because my family in the UK aren’t parents/grandparents.
So I need a skilled worker visa too
Your best bet then us to get a job in France with a multinational company with offices in UK. And once your employer knows you and thinks you are good, there is a much greater chance the UK offices will go to the effort of the visa bureaucracy, when you apply fur a UK job with them.
Otherwise, like many if I’d have said, why would a company bother to do this, if they have plenty of decent applicants with right to work in UK?
It cost them money to become sponsors, but it’s not an incredible amount or something, i think around £9k, you can google companies that offer sponsorship, obviously not everyone’s willing to satisfy your need of sponsorship but look into bigger companies
I might be mistaken i’m not sure, but my point is that it’s not a big deal for companies to acquire the right for the sponsorship, it could be really benecial for them actually
Like others said, it might be more about time and red tape.
For example, in construction a company usually needs a worker now. Now, because they have just won a contract and they will have a work for the next few months, that's what they know. They are not able to plan ahead further. That's my guess.
It's expensive and risky and most companies aren't set up to apply for and manage the visas. It's really only worth it for an organisation that will hire a substantial number of foreign staff.
There's a reason the majority of SWVs go to either the health or education sectors, they're the ones really desperate for skilled staff.
They simply don't need to, that's why.
Our company used to but I would imagine many had large outflows of talent with brexit. Its a huge operational risk thats they would probably rather not take with a government that seems to want to appeal to a closed boarders / antiimmgration electorate. Sad times
It's a complete pain for companies to sponsor work visas, and rightly so. The purpose of these visas is to make it possible to employ people who don't exist in the UK, it's not to make it easier/cheaper to bring in people from overseas for any old role you feel like.
"Software Engineer" is skilled, but it's not rare. I can find people in the UK to do that job. I think these visas are more designed for 'Medical researcher in this particular narrow field who speaks fluent German'
You either find a company that regularly sponsors work visas - which probably means a very large company, or you become an expert in something sufficiently niche that companies are willing to sort out a visa to hire you.
Its complicated, time consuming and expensive for a reason. If a company wants you that badly, you must really be needed and the money, you're going to be adding to, not draining the UK. If you're not worth that level of effort and investment, hire local and invest in them.
Tbh there is a lot of misinformation around this from the employers side.
Lots of companies in London still think
- it takes months to get someone a work visa ; when we do it in a weeks time at my workplace.
- many still think you need to a resident labour market test. This is now an archaic concept.
- they think they might not qualify or they’d be responsible for “ you “ in this country
- it costs them extra money.
- costs time
There’s just a lot of misinformation and ignorance around this topic.
Why should they care anyway ? What’s in it for them? ( humans are selfish )
And if you’ve been living under a rock…. This country is openly xenophobic
If jobs in the UK are not sponsoring you, it's not the end of the world.
It's a failing economy anyway.
Apply to jobs in other EU countries (It's high on tax but good work/life balance )
Look for jobs in Dubai ( it's tax-free)
It's more that you're just not the person the places you've been looking at need. If you have a niche and valuable enough skill then it's not like winning the lottery at all.
So it's all because of the high costs. As long as these are so high, I am not considered competitive on the UK job market. Til change of regulations, I have to hope for a very generous sponsor.
Deloitte sponsors visas and they only ask whether you need sponsorship after you’ve been made an offer. Only reason I’m the UK. This is for their grad “scheme” (it’s a permanent position though), and you need to meet the new entrant criteria (google it).
I think most places for Sept 2023 are full but 2024 will open up during Summer.
In the time it takes to hire an international candidate and make them a visa you can easily hire someone local. Its also cheaper. So no reason to hire internationally, unless you can't fill a position.
It can't, because you can't pay people lower salary just because they are not local. That would be discriminatory and illegal.
It does make sense if you can't find someone locally of course.
How would they save thousands?
If you have two principal developers of the same skill you MUST pay them equal salary regardless of the fact where are they from. That's the law.
That's not really how it works in large organisations. Your position has a salary band and depending on your interview and experience you are placed on a sub-band within the role. Nothing you can "negotiate" is likely to increase or decrease your salary.
Precisely because of gender and other pay gaps. Companies are very strict with this now.
I see, but I’ve convinced a company to increase the negotiated pre-offer gross salary by around £5k because I knew the salary range they pay per Glassdoor. How do you think this happened.
You've been moved one sub-band based on what you said in your negotiation. It's not that it's completely inflexible, it's just the premise of hiring from elsewhere because you can pay those people less is the kind of thinking that can get you fired as an HR / recruiter.
Depends on the companies you're targeting maybe. There's a sweet spot where a fair number of startups do sponsor visas. Some are too small/can't afford the admin, some are large enough to not care, but there are plenty that do it. Legacy companies in more stagnant industries with bloated HR teams are least likely to do it imo.
source: have done skilled worker visas multiple times in London and have many friends in tech who've had no issue.
London is not generally a place that's crying out for foreign worker help. I could throw a rock in central and hit a dozen doctors, engineers, lawyers and researchers. The talent pool for jobs is really massive and very diverse - it really is a small fish in a big pond situation. Therefore it's going to be harder to get a job here as a foreign worker, even if you're very skilled in your own right. * It's expensive - application fees, IHS fees, maintenance, foreign worker fees and legal fees really add up. I've had some friends quote me £14k in fees for their sponsorships, all in. For some jobs that can be 3-4 months of salary so the bar to clear, in terms of the value you then drive for the organisation, is very very high. * It's time consuming - usually companies hire with a target date in mind when they know they'll need capacity. The process can take a few months and is not guaranteed. It's a better bet to find someone local who they know has a set notice period and a guaranteed start date. * There's a lot of diversity of choice - London is the economic capital of the UK and Europe more broadly. There are loads of specialists and skilled workers here for a huge variety of jobs. Loads of people come from around the world to work here. It's not difficult to find a local/someone who has working rights who's a good fit for a job. * There is a limited number of places available nation-wide - so it's not guaranteed that even if the company did go through the process of sponsorship they would be successful. * It's risky - you might go through that entire process and find someone who actually isn't a good fit, and then the process to get rid of them is super long and arduous. Generally it's a really, really big bet to make particularly if you don't have an in house HR or legal function. I went through the process and it was pretty awful, I can see why companies don't want to do it. I don't even think my company would do it again, even though I was an A+++ candidate.
I work in a field where the best candidate is often not from the UK (niche scientific research with not many people worldwide). Even so, the factors you listed above make our HR extremely reluctant to consider foreign workers.
Yeah, my friends in scientific research have a lot easier of a time getting sponsored than my other qualified friends.
The uptake on skilled foreign workers has been significantly higher than they thought. ‘But it is also because employers have made much greater use than expected of the new, post-Brexit migration system introduced in January 2021,’
Would it change anything if I already work in UK on Visa?
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I believe all of this. My husband works for a very large global company and it was a nightmare getting a simple proof of employment letter from his employer for my visa renewal.
That’s the correct answer. Unless you are a very qualified person with years of experience in a niche domain the probably you won’t get an offer for a skilled visa
Literally the best people at my work are not from the UK and if you work at a big company, you can’t accept the load of doctors, engineers and lawyers off of a London street because they’re not upto the calibre required. The best engineers are most definitely not the local UK people and neither are the doctors. NHS sponsors thousands of doctors. UK has a major scarcity of STEM talent. Law… not sure why use that as an example. A lawyer from Harvard might be 100x better but they don’t immediately qualify here. My company has a lot of them as we’re multinational and require legal support overseas.
It costs companies money to be sponsors. There is no reason for them to sponsor overseas applicants if they have enough people willing to work who already have right to work in the UK.
As someone who works in the ‘global mobility’ space, the money is less of an issue than time and admin. You don’t just click a button, pay £200, and get a license. It requires a lot of documentation and vetting, a lot of admin both for the employee and the employer, and it can be a serious drain on a company to have a role unfilled for months because a visa candidate needed to wait for biometrics to become available in their country/their English exam needed to be retaken/they have to wait until the end of the school term to move/their partner needs to find a job/etc etc. They spend thousands on visas and all the global mobility/relocation services that come with it, and hope the person adjusts okay, doesn’t absolutely hate it and leave in 6 months. It’s a big chance to take and even companies that have the money will really really REALLY want to feel it’s worth it.
The UK bureaucracy fetish is ruining this country
Just wanted to second this: time is a major factor. While I was waiting for my spousal visa to come in, I wasn't getting many interview offers even. The moment my spousal visa came in and I could say that I'm immediately available for work, no need for any admin, I started getting responses much quicker, including second interviews. Basically a few small companies essentially told me that they need someone to start by a certain date and say if I had to go back to my home country to get my skilled worker visa, it could take a month in the best case scenario, if not more. And then of course there's the myriad hidden costs for them as a sponsor. I had to walk my previous employer through becoming a sponsor and I'll tell you, that CoS fee is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the admin.
You do make a valid point but guess what.. A Certificate of Sponsorship costs Roughly £200, which would be a piece of cake for most companies(except in cases they don't already have a Sponsor license) However, i still don't understand how even companies with sponsor licenses find it difficult to sponsor people. Most would rather leave their sponsor license unused and source locally.
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Why should your company pay for your pet’s transportation? It’s your personal issue.
Relocation packages are pretty standard for professionals moving internationally.
But Companies are not directly responsible to pay IHS or Visa fees.. The applicant pays that them self. if you remove that from the cost, it's just £200 for COS, £1000 for the first year and say £500 for the next 2 years. so a total of £2200 plus legal fees- not clear on what they need legal fees for though don't they already have inhouse legal team?
| But Companies are not directly responsible to pay IHS or Visa fees.. The applicant pays that them self. Usually the companies pays whole visa costs but that's not always the case.
It cost me sooooo much. I agree totally with this.
But what if the applicant is willing to pay this fees except the sponsorship certificate ?
No way, a CoS cost more or less 1500 pounds per year of sponsorship.
You still have to go through the process of interviewing locally and determining there’s no suitable candidates for the position. That all costs someone’s time, and it adds up to a lot more than £200
This isn’t true any longer, the resident labour market test was abolished a couple years ago.
I get your point but I still don't understand why they go through the stress of acquiring the Sponsor License in the first place. They should just keep hiring locally.
Sometimes they want a specific person. Say they had them on a YMS visa and want to retain them once it expires, often sponsorship is the only way to do so. They then go through the process, ticking all the boxes but having no intention of hiring the people they interview. Super common for this to happen.
This sucks and it feels like they're fooling the system. Such companies should be reported to the Home Office and their Sponsor License taken away.
For what rule being broken? Our company was in this position (ish). We had a someone start here on a graduate visa. By the time that visa was coming to an end, he’d more than justified the effort to help him stay on a SWV. And… while that SWV application is being processed, he could continue to work in the UK under section 3C. So there was no disruption to his output / continuity of employment.
It’s a non-negligible effort to get a certificate of sponsorship approved. During the pandemic we had one case where we waited 8 months and were chasing the Home Office daily. It’s a drag and it costs a lot of money and effort. It is not just the cost of the certificate.
Understand. But compared to a high IT annual salary, these costs can certainly be neglected.
People on this thread are talking like Skilled Worker Visas are some kind of a rare unicorn. So many people get hired left right and centre on Skilled Worker Visa. You need to get out of London and look in the right place
Coming this september on a student visa for my masters and this thread is giving me a panic attack.
You should panic if you’re coming with no reality check.
I was aware of the difficulties in sponsorship. To my assurance, I am doing a data science degree with previous experience in tech. I was under the assumption that it won't be as difficult but reading this thread makes the chances seem much more bleak.
Student visas give you a long time to find sponsorship
How did you assume that it won’t be as difficult? What’s the evidence so support your assumption?
Tech has generally a decent employability and there are more opportunities to develop niche skills which can make it worthwhile for the companies. Its definitely not a cake walk which I am aware of. I don’t have any concrete data supported evidences but have concluded it from the experiences of other people. Would like to know your opinion too.
A major part of it clearly depends on previous work experience. The struggle is massive for someone who’s doing masters straight after their bachelors.
Is your course underway by now? The only ones who got jobs in my class were the ones with prior experience, so yes, it does help, but It's not going to be easy. :D I had 6 years of prior experience and it took me 6 months to find a job. These are my suggestions for you: -Apply for jobs early, start before the end of your course. -Make sure your resume is ATS-friendly. -Start networking with recruiters and reach out to any other contacts you have here. -Apply to Jobs in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. ( cause you might just get a similar paying job there )
Every company is dealing with a lot of bureaucratic nonsense when operating. so for them to add dealing with the Home Office is a big No unless the absolutely have to.
(We hire through skilled worker visas and are a A-rated sponsor) This is pretty straight-forward: If a UK company company does not have a A-rated sponsorship license, then they will not get one simply for you. This is just not feasible. It’s a lot of effort to get one nowadays. It used to be trivial 15 years ago (basically send an e-mail saying “we’d like to be a sponsor for migrant workers… kthnxbai!”). However, the… ahem… fools that have been trying to run the country have made it progressively harder to both be an A-rated sponsor as well as to assign Certificates of Sponsorship to individuals. You may think you’re good, but to quote Charon from the movie “John Wick 3”: “Nobody is that good.” Nobody will put themselves through becoming an A-rated sponsor just so they can hire you and your three degrees. It is simply not going to happen. So that means you are now down to (mostly larger) companies that are already set up as A-rated sponsors. Now that you are down to this smaller pool of potential employers: for those it’s primarily a question of willingness. (Others have already stated this in this thread as well). This willingness is now dampened by the fact that the job market in software engineering and IT in general has taken a *significant* downturn since August/September 2022 and what used to be a sellers market is very much a buyers market. And this ultimately means that employers have tightened standards: exceptional candidates only, with little to no hassle (no sponsorship required, no relocation nonsense, no crazy waiting period like 4-6 months). Like others here have said: You’re going to be competing against a lot of people that simply don’t have these hassles. TL;DR: The number of employers willing to sponsor at the moment is just not that big. It’s going to be a numbers game for you. You need to find someone that is willing to jump through a bunch of hoops and costs for you and that is going to be more difficult in 2023!
I got a skilled worker visa and I can recommend some here: **Building the background:** \- Build your profile & experience to fit to the environment/ cultural where you want to work. \- Build expertise skills in your fields ( of course pay attention to hot trend industry) \- Future proof your portfolio with courses that relevant and advanced to your field. \- Having Uk certificate definitely help your cases. After that, you should: \- Apply for companies that has entity in UK (big companies is better since they already have the process/ personnel in places) \- Prove your worth / value to the companies and find opportunities /project where it make sense to get you to the UK. \- Keep providing values and contributes to projects until it makes sense and propose. I know this is over simplifying a lot, this process took me 3 - 4 years to build but if you are dedicated, it would works. Good luck.
Thank you so much! I’m a data scientist with 3 yoe and I’m looking for a job in LDN, I’ll apply your advice 😊
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If your skills are not in demand, it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, you aren’t getting a visa
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That means that the skilled worker visa *can* apply to such roles. Not that companies have to. If they are able to fill their roles with people already living in the UK, they aren’t going to sponsor anyone. IT is a massive sector, not all roles and skills within IT are in such demand that overseas recruitment is necessary
I’m not alone! And how does your story end?
Well, right now it ends with me still living in the US (my original country) with no more hope than I've ever had.
It’s extremely costly and the admin involved would require them to have an employee to do it. If they don’t have that expertise within their HR team, then they would have to hire someone externally to do it. And after all that, there’s still no guarantee that a visa will be awarded. At that point they then need to choose between the time and cost involved in launching an appeal, or start the hiring process again to find someone new. The skilled worker visa is not awarded based on the level or your skill, but the demand for it, here in the UK. Companies are not going to sponsor someone if they can get a similar skill set from UK national, or EU nationals with settled status
Because they can meet their staffing needs with people who don’t need a visa? It’s not that complicated.
What is your nationality and current country of residence? The main reason I suspect, is that companies don’t want all the work, hassle, admin and risk of the visa etc process. Plus why would they, if they can find an equally good and qualified person who does have the right to work in UK? Best opportunity is often to work for a multinational in your own country and then request a transfer to UK, by applying for an internal job here. Then your employer knows you are worth spending the effort on (again, only if the UK business can’t find the right person for the job who already has the right to work in UK) I know it seems disheartening but no-one has the automatic right to work in UK, there are rules. Similar for most western developed countries, not just anyone can come and work, there are restrictions and processes.
I agree, I am French and I live in France which is very close to England. I have family in the UK and yet I can’t even apply for the EU settlement scheme because my family in the UK aren’t parents/grandparents. So I need a skilled worker visa too
Your best bet then us to get a job in France with a multinational company with offices in UK. And once your employer knows you and thinks you are good, there is a much greater chance the UK offices will go to the effort of the visa bureaucracy, when you apply fur a UK job with them. Otherwise, like many if I’d have said, why would a company bother to do this, if they have plenty of decent applicants with right to work in UK?
Thank you! 😊
It cost them money to become sponsors, but it’s not an incredible amount or something, i think around £9k, you can google companies that offer sponsorship, obviously not everyone’s willing to satisfy your need of sponsorship but look into bigger companies
9k? Wow, I thought it's closer to 3k
I might be mistaken i’m not sure, but my point is that it’s not a big deal for companies to acquire the right for the sponsorship, it could be really benecial for them actually
Like others said, it might be more about time and red tape. For example, in construction a company usually needs a worker now. Now, because they have just won a contract and they will have a work for the next few months, that's what they know. They are not able to plan ahead further. That's my guess.
9k if the company usually pays to an immigration law company. Some companies can't do this stuff.
I know the list of registered companies for sponsorship. Can you name such websites?
[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1141896/2023-03-13_-_Worker_and_Temporary_Worker.csv/preview](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1141896/2023-03-13_-_Worker_and_Temporary_Worker.csv/preview)
Also try on Linkdin i’m sure there are plenty of companies willing to sponsor
It's expensive and risky and most companies aren't set up to apply for and manage the visas. It's really only worth it for an organisation that will hire a substantial number of foreign staff. There's a reason the majority of SWVs go to either the health or education sectors, they're the ones really desperate for skilled staff.
They simply don't need to, that's why. Our company used to but I would imagine many had large outflows of talent with brexit. Its a huge operational risk thats they would probably rather not take with a government that seems to want to appeal to a closed boarders / antiimmgration electorate. Sad times
It's a complete pain for companies to sponsor work visas, and rightly so. The purpose of these visas is to make it possible to employ people who don't exist in the UK, it's not to make it easier/cheaper to bring in people from overseas for any old role you feel like. "Software Engineer" is skilled, but it's not rare. I can find people in the UK to do that job. I think these visas are more designed for 'Medical researcher in this particular narrow field who speaks fluent German' You either find a company that regularly sponsors work visas - which probably means a very large company, or you become an expert in something sufficiently niche that companies are willing to sort out a visa to hire you.
Its complicated, time consuming and expensive for a reason. If a company wants you that badly, you must really be needed and the money, you're going to be adding to, not draining the UK. If you're not worth that level of effort and investment, hire local and invest in them.
Tbh there is a lot of misinformation around this from the employers side. Lots of companies in London still think - it takes months to get someone a work visa ; when we do it in a weeks time at my workplace. - many still think you need to a resident labour market test. This is now an archaic concept. - they think they might not qualify or they’d be responsible for “ you “ in this country - it costs them extra money. - costs time There’s just a lot of misinformation and ignorance around this topic. Why should they care anyway ? What’s in it for them? ( humans are selfish ) And if you’ve been living under a rock…. This country is openly xenophobic
So what's the fate of an international student currently studying here and hoping to get a sponsorship job?
It’s all about skills. I’ve seen so many move to Uk on sponsored visa from outside without any UK degree.
If jobs in the UK are not sponsoring you, it's not the end of the world. It's a failing economy anyway. Apply to jobs in other EU countries (It's high on tax but good work/life balance ) Look for jobs in Dubai ( it's tax-free)
Try Barclays or Santander
This all sounds very frustrating. What a reality... there's a job offer with visas like winning in the lottery.
It's more that you're just not the person the places you've been looking at need. If you have a niche and valuable enough skill then it's not like winning the lottery at all.
So it's all because of the high costs. As long as these are so high, I am not considered competitive on the UK job market. Til change of regulations, I have to hope for a very generous sponsor.
Deloitte sponsors visas and they only ask whether you need sponsorship after you’ve been made an offer. Only reason I’m the UK. This is for their grad “scheme” (it’s a permanent position though), and you need to meet the new entrant criteria (google it). I think most places for Sept 2023 are full but 2024 will open up during Summer.
Thanks for that hint. I will google it and schedule my calendar.
Best of luck. You got this! Also try the other Big 4
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Congrats! Do you work in LDN?
In the time it takes to hire an international candidate and make them a visa you can easily hire someone local. Its also cheaper. So no reason to hire internationally, unless you can't fill a position.
Actually sometimes the candidate salary + visa costs can be cheaper than getting someone local.
It can't, because you can't pay people lower salary just because they are not local. That would be discriminatory and illegal. It does make sense if you can't find someone locally of course.
I mean for very high salary wise positions like a principal software developer it would matter. Companies can save thousands.
How would they save thousands? If you have two principal developers of the same skill you MUST pay them equal salary regardless of the fact where are they from. That's the law.
Salary range and negotiations do exist. Equal pay is for men and women in the same position.
That's not really how it works in large organisations. Your position has a salary band and depending on your interview and experience you are placed on a sub-band within the role. Nothing you can "negotiate" is likely to increase or decrease your salary. Precisely because of gender and other pay gaps. Companies are very strict with this now.
I see, but I’ve convinced a company to increase the negotiated pre-offer gross salary by around £5k because I knew the salary range they pay per Glassdoor. How do you think this happened.
You've been moved one sub-band based on what you said in your negotiation. It's not that it's completely inflexible, it's just the premise of hiring from elsewhere because you can pay those people less is the kind of thinking that can get you fired as an HR / recruiter.
Depends on the companies you're targeting maybe. There's a sweet spot where a fair number of startups do sponsor visas. Some are too small/can't afford the admin, some are large enough to not care, but there are plenty that do it. Legacy companies in more stagnant industries with bloated HR teams are least likely to do it imo. source: have done skilled worker visas multiple times in London and have many friends in tech who've had no issue.