High Potential Individual Route and Scale Up Visa
The Home Office recently released two new visa routes - the High Potential Individual Route and the Scale Up Visa.
High Potential Individual Visa
As of 30 May 2022, the High Potential Individual Route will be available to recent graduates of top global universities who wish to work or look for work in the UK. The High Potential Individual route is not a sponsored route. Applicants do not need job offers from a sponsor approved by the Home Office. The High Potential Individual Route is not available to graduates graduated in the UK. However, there are other immigration routes for graduates graduated in the UK.
Requirements for a High Potential Individual Visa
- Age requirement – you are 18 years or above;
- Educational requirement – you have been awarded an overseas degree level academic qualification from an institution on the Global Universities List, which is published by the Home Office.
- Language requirement – English language ability on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in all 4 components (reading, writing, speaking and listening) to at least level B1 (equivalent to IELTS 4.0), OR you are a national of a majority English-speaking country, OR have been awarded a degree taught in English, OR you have obtained a GCSE/A Level or Socttish Highers in English whilst at school in the UK.
- Financial requirement -- You have enough funds to support yourself without relying on public funds.
- TB Test requirement – If you are from a country where TB is common, you must be screened for active TB in the lung.
Duration of a High Potential Individual Visa
Before applying for a High Potential Individual Visa you should also check that you have not previously been granted permission under the Student Doctorate Extension Scheme as a Graduate or as a High Potential Individual. If so, your application will be refused.
If your application for a High Potential Visa is approved, the period of permission you will be granted will depend on the qualification that you relied on to meet the Global Universities List overseas degree requirement:
- PHD or other doctoral level qualification – 3 years
- All other degree qualifications – 2 years
The High Potential Individual Visa Route does not lead directly to settlement in the UK.
The Scale Up Visa
The Scale Up visa is open to all sectors as long as the businesses sponsoring the application meets the growth criteria. The Scale Up Visa Route will open on 22 August 2022.
What are the criteria of The Scale UP business?
The business needs to demonstrate that they have had a yearly growth of at least 20% for the previous 3 years in terms of turnover or staffing. They need to have a minimum of 10 employees at the start of the business. The business must be listed as A-rated on the Home Office’s register of licenced sponsor. The Sponsor must be authorised by the Home Office to sponsor the job in the question under the Scale Up route.
What is the criteria for Scale Up Visa applicant?
- The applicant must be 18 or over on the date of the application
- High levels of skills or education
- A high-skilled job offer from a qualifying Scale Up business
- A minimum annual salary of £33,000
- Sufficient English Language proficiency.
- TB Test requirement, if you are from a country where TB is common, you must be screened for active TB in the lung.
Your Certificate of Sponsorship must have been issued no more than 3 months before the date of your Scale-up Visa application. You can switch to an employer who are not classified as a Scale Up business within the UK after you have been employed in the job that you are being sponsored for an initial period of 6 months. After this initial period of 6 months, your immigration status will no longer be tied to your original sponsoring employer. You will also be permitted to study however you will not be permitted to access public funds.
The Scale Up Visa is a route to settlement in the UK. A dependent partner and dependent children can apply on this route.
After 5 years you, your dependent partner and children will be eligible to apply for settlement in the UK and also potentially British citizenship.
If you have any further questions about the personal immigration routes or business immigration routes or any other visa related queries, please contact our immigration team. We speak many languages including Mandarin and Cantonese, Gujarati, Russian, French, Korean and Spanish. With access to our solicitors at two locations, one in City and one in Mayfair.
Private Life Route – How To Obtain A Visa To Legalise Your Residence In The UK
When living in the United Kingdom lawfully and continuously for ten years, it is possible to apply for indefinite leave to remain (settlement) by combining different visa categories, even if they individually do not lead to settlement, such as Student or Graduate visas. This is, of course, subject to meeting the requirements of the Immigration Rules under the Long Residence visa route. However, what happens if the residence in the UK has been lawful and unlawful? Is there a way to regularise status in the United Kingdom and potentially settle in the future?
The Private Life visa category was originally introduced in the Statement of Changes in June 2012 and came into force on 9 July 2012. Under this immigration route, those, who have been living in the UK continuously for 20 years, regardless of whether the residence was lawful or unlawful (or combination of both), could be eligible to apply for a visa to regularise their status.
We have successfully assisted clients in regularising their precarious status after having resided in the UK continuously for 20 years. From our experience in dealing with such applications, the Home Office expects an applicant to provide a variety of documents that could demonstrate their physical presence in the country, such as travel history as evidenced by entry stamps in the applicant’s passports, bank statements and employment records.
To strengthen a Private Life application, we, as immigration practitioners, advise to provide additional documentary evidence to demonstrate the applicant’s established private life in the UK, such as personal statement, support letters from friends, local social groups and communities which the applicant has been a part of, and photographs.
Once the applicant has been granted their first permission to remain in the UK on the Private Life route, they will be placed on a 10-year route to settlement, provided that they meet the visa conditions and have maintained their continuous residence throughout their qualifying period.
This visa route offers a pathway for those with a precarious status to regularise their stay in the UK and could be a solution to those who have been subject to the hostile environment policy of the Home Office as a result of their precarious status within the UK.
If you require assistance in relation to a Private Life route visa, or would just like to learn more about this visa route, please feel free to contact us to arrange a consultation.
How do I evict a tenant to regain possession of my property?
If there are tenants in your property and you need to evict because of rent arrears, nuisance or for personal reasons to move back in to the Property or to sell it. Chan Neill Solicitors are able to assist to regain possession of your property from preparing the relevant notice, and if necessary, issue possession proceedings, provide representation at court and instructing bailiffs.
The Procedure of the Eviction Process
Firstly, we will need to know what type of tenancy that you have with your tenant. In most cases, the tenancy is as assured shorthold tenancies. We would check whether the tenant is on a fixed term tenancy or periodic (rolling month to month)
There is a three stage process to evicting tenants:
- Notice
- Issue court proceedings to obtain an order for possession
- Bailiffs
1) Which Notice: Section 21 or Section 8 notice?
Subject to the type of tenancy that you have with your tenant and the reason you want to evict your tenant will depend upon which notice would be most suitable for your personal circumstances.
Whilst these notices are independent of each other and served for separate reasons, they provide the same result- we recover your property back.
Section 21 notice
Section 21 is a no fault basis whereby you are not compelled to provide reasons for eviction. A Section 21 notice is usually served when the tenancy is coming to the end of the fixed term or if the fixed term has expired (periodic tenancy).
There are a number of requirements that you must comply with first before a valid Section 21 notice can be served on the tenants, these are:
- An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
- How to Rent Booklet, this guide must be given to a tenant at the start of any new tenancy
- A Gas Safety Certificate
If a deposit was taken, then this must be protected within the requirement period. Failing to protect the deposit on time (within 30 days of receipt) will invalid the Section 21 notice.
A Section 21 cannot be served because the tenant has raised any housing disrepair issue.
The notice period for a Section 21 is 2 months.
Section 8 notice
A Section 8 notice is used where the tenant has breached the terms of the tenancy. The notice must state the grounds that you are seeking possession of the property. Landlords usually use the Section 8 procedure where a tenant is in rental arrears.
The notice period for Section 8 can be between 2 weeks to two months, depending on the terms of the tenancy / grounds.
2) Issuing Proceedings to obtain Possession order
In the event that the Tenant does not vacate the property after receipt of the notice, the next stage is to issue possession proceedings.
We can prepare the possession claim form on your behalf and issue it at the Court. Depending on which grounds you are seeking possession, we can then determine whether we can apply for possession via the accelerated route or the standard route for you.
3) BAILIFFS
If we are successful in obtaining an Order for Possession and the tenants still refuses to vacate the property, we can seek recovery of the property for you with the help of bailiffs.
Should you wish to discuss any of the matters talked about above or if you wish to look to instruct us, please contact us. Our team speak English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian etc. Our offices are in Mayfair and the city should you wish to see us in person.