News on the Scale Up Visa

Difference between the scale up visa and the skilled worker visa

Earlier this year the UK Government announced the new Scale Up Visa as part of its big to attract more highly skilled labour into the labour market in the UK. This idea is to entice highly skilled labour from abroad to enter the UK and enter the job market here. This new visa differs from the already established skilled worker visa in some ways. The Skilled Worker visa was introduced alongside the governments point based system.

The Key Differences

Although there are more similarities than differences, I will outline the more important differences.

1. The Scale Up Visa allows visa holders to leave their sponsored role after 6 months and switch to an unsponsored role. You cannot do this on a skilled worker visa.
2. A scale-up company or business is one that, in the 3 years before gaining approval for a sponsor licence from the Home Office, had: grown by 20% in each year in either employment or total sales (turnover); at least 10 employees at the outset of the 3-year period. These criteria need to be filled in order to apply for a sponsor licence. The skilled worker visa does not require any such special criteria for its sponsors.
3. The salary threshold for the scale up visa is £33,000 compared to that of the skilled worker visa for £25,600.
4. There is no immigration skills surcharge for the scale up visa, making it slightly cheaper than the skilled worker visa.

For More Information

In order to understand whether your organization should apply as scale up company or not, please contact Leena Chouhan.