Freedom of movement between Europe and the UK officially ended with Brexit, and businesses that previously hired workers from the EU have been hit by staff shortages. But you can still hire people from anywhere in the world using the new immigration system. Here’s how:

Become a UK employment sponsor

Your first step is to get a sponsorship licence allowing you to employ EU citizens. There are exceptions: Irish citizens, those with indefinite leave to remain, and those with settled or pre-settled status who arrived before December 31st 2020 are exempt.

Start by checking that your business is eligible (you should be fine if it has no unspent criminal convictions and hasn’t had a sponsor licence revoked in the past year) and making sure you have an HR system in place to track all employees’ immigration status and documents and report any problems to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).

Now choose whether you want to apply for a ‘Temporary Worker’ licence for temps, a “Worker” licence for long-term or permanent workers, or both. You can apply at https://www.gov.uk/apply-sponsor-licence. There’s a fee of between £536 and £1,476 depending on your company size, turnover and the number of people you want to sponsor, and the process normally takes 8 weeks. Once you receive your licence, you can start sponsoring people.

The Points-Based Immigration System

For skilled workers, before you apply for a sponsorship licence, you’ll need to determine their level of skill (including English language skills) and salary. Again, Irish workers are exempt. but all other workers from outside the UK have to have a skill level of at least RQF3 (equivalent to A level) and a salary of at least £25,600 or the ‘going rate’ for the role (whichever is higher).

However, you can sponsor people on salaries as low as £20,480 under the points system if there’s a shortage of workers with their skills in the UK, if they have a relevant PhD-level qualification, if they’re a new graduate, or for some health or education roles.

You can sponsor employees who already work for your company abroad to come to the UK via the Intra-Company Transfer route, which also comes with skill and salary thresholds, or the Intra-Company Graduate Trainee route if they’re on a graduate training programme.

There are a few circumstances in which you can skip the sponsorship step: people with outstanding professional achievements to their credit may be able to enter on an ‘unsponsored visa’, and young people aged 18-30 may be able to enter via the Youth Mobility Scheme.

For more information, check out https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-points-based-immigration-system-employer-information or contact us for expert guidance through the whole process.