Birketts’ Sacha Wooldridge advises on the UK’s first ever successful ‘Expansion Worker’ visa application
Birketts is pleased to have advised Parisian luxury goods retailer Bobbies, to secure the UK’s first ever issued ‘Expansion Worker’ immigration sponsorship licence and visa.
Following Brexit and the end of freedom of movement, an increasing number of international workers now need visa permission to work in the UK. For businesses seeking to expand into the UK market, where they don’t have an existing corporate presence, the commonly used sponsored ‘Skilled Worker visa’ route is not a viable option.
Previous alternative immigration routes which were commonly used, for example the ‘Investor’ or ‘Sole Representative of an Overseas Business’ routes, were closed earlier this year and replaced with the ‘Expansion Worker’ visa route launched by the Home Office.
The ‘Expansion Worker’ visa route is a two-step process requiring:
- An application for recognition, by the Home Office, of the overseas company – ensuring that it is an established, trading and operating business and therefore enabling an application for a corporate sponsor licence; and
- Upon successful issuance of the corporate licence, an individual application for a senior employee from overseas to be posted to the UK to establish the UK business.
Birketts worked with the Home Office to secure this status for the client within seven weeks, (against a Home Office SLA of circa 14 weeks), enabling them to establish their UK business and start trading by July. This was despite suspensions in Home Office priority services.
Bobbies was founded in Paris in 2010, with stores in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and London. They provide shoes and leather goods ethically made using the highest quality materials, by skilled crafts people with whom they have built longstanding relationships.
Théo Le Jallé – Bobbies Director of retail sales and Antoine Bolze, Co-Founder commented ‘’Birketts has been an amazing advisor in the immigration process for our UK Country Manager. With very short notice, they managed to find the right solution to send our French employee to the UK, which was a game changer for us. Their anticipation of the new regulations was decisive in the process.’’
Sacha Wooldridge, Head of Immigration at Birketts commented: “I am delighted to have supported Bobbies in navigating the new immigration rules, enabling them to secure the Home Office’s first ever issued Expansion Worker visa in the UK.”
If you are an international business looking to develop your business and expand into the UK market, please contact Sacha Wooldridge and Mark Pinder in the Birketts international team.
