What is the Scale-up route?

According to the Home Office, the Scale-up route is for talented individuals to work for a UK Scale-up Sponsor, who have the skills needed to enable the Scale-up business to continue growing. The individual must have a high-skilled job offer at the required salary level from a qualifying Scale-up business.

Who can sponsor someone under a Scale-up Visa?

To sponsor someone under a Scale-up Visa, the company must be a scale-up business, and the company must have a sponsor licence for the scale-up route.

What is a Scale-up Business?

A Scale-up Business is a company that:

• had at least 10 employees at the beginning of the 3 year period
• and, grown by 20% on average each year in either employment or total sales (turnover) in the last 3 years

If your company qualifies as a scale-up business, then you can apply for a sponsor licence under the scale-up route, WorkPermitCloud Limited can assist with this, please contact us.

If your company does not meet the requirements to be considered a scale-up business, you can still apply for a sponsor licence through one of the other routes, such as the skilled worker routes, to hire talents from overseas.

How to apply for  a Scale-up Sponsor Licence?

You can apply for a Scale-up Sponsor Licence by completing the sponsor licence application form online, paying the relevant application fee, and submitting any required supporting evidence or information.

If you already hold a valid sponsor licence to sponsor workers, you can apply to add the Scale-up route to your existing licence on SMS.

Requirements for scale-up Sponsor licence application

Organisation applying to be licenced under scale-up route need to:

1. be eligible as a scale-up business
2. apply by completing the online application form
3. submitting the supporting documents (if you’re required)
4. pay a Sponsor licence application fee
5. appoint an authorising officer
6. be able to provide genuine employment that meet the scale-up routes standards for skill level and salary requirement

What documents do you need for a Scale-up route sponsor licence?

To apply for a sponsor licence under the scale-up route, normally you do not need to submit any  document at all unless you are either:

• applying at the same time to be licensed on other routes (such as skilled worker route)
• required to be registered with, or inspected or monitored by, a regulatory body to operate lawfully in the UK 

However, some information will be needed for Scale-up route Sponsor licence application, such as:

1. your Companies House reference number, or your Unique Taxpayer reference number
2. your VAT registration number 
3. your PAYE reference numbers  

How much does it cost to sponsor someone unde Scale-up Visa?

If you are applying for a sponsor licence under the Scale-up route, your licence will be categorised  as a notemporary Workers licence. On this route, you will pay the standard Temporary Worker fee for a sponsor licence or the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) fee.

For temporary worker licence, the sponsor licence application fee is £536, and the CoS fee is only £21. In addition, you do not need to pay for the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC), as it is exempt for the scale-up route. For further details please visit the Home Office site here.