Senior or Specialist Worker Visa (Global Business Mobility)

What Is the Senior or Specialist Worker Visa?

The Senior or Specialist Worker Visa is the primary Global Business Mobility (GBM) route for multinational companies transferring experienced senior managers and highly specialised employees to their UK operations. It enables organisations with an established UK business presence to bring key individuals from overseas branches, subsidiaries, or parent companies to work in the UK on a temporary assignment basis.

This visa replaced the former Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) visa in April 2022 when the GBM framework was introduced. Workers who held ICT leave at that time may extend under the new Senior or Specialist Worker rules. The route is the most widely used of the five GBM pathways and is the standard route for established multinational organisations undertaking intra-group employee transfers to the UK.

Who Is This Visa For?

This route is designed for employees of overseas businesses who are being transferred to a UK entity linked to their employer by common ownership or control, such as a subsidiary, branch, parent company, or joint venture partner. The transferring worker must hold a genuinely senior or specialist role: either a senior manager responsible for directing the work of others, or an employee with advanced, specialist knowledge that is not readily available in the UK labour market.

It is not appropriate for routine workforce recruitment or for roles that could be filled through standard domestic hiring. The Home Office applies close scrutiny to applications where job descriptions appear inflated or where the claimed specialism is not adequately evidenced.

If your overseas business is setting up a UK branch for the first time, the correct route is the UK Expansion Worker Visa. If you are an employee on a structured graduate training programme, the Graduate Trainee Visa is the appropriate route.

How Long Can You Stay?

There is no maximum duration for individual visa grants under this route. The length of leave granted is determined by the Certificate of Sponsorship plus 14 days. However, cumulative stay limits apply:

• Standard earners: A maximum of five years in any six-year period across all Global Business Mobility routes and predecessor Intra-Company Transfer categories combined.
• High earners: Workers earning above the higher salary threshold are permitted to stay for up to nine years in any ten-year period.

The visa can be extended from within the UK, provided the worker continues to meet the eligibility requirements and the sponsor remains compliant. Unlike some other routes, there is no cooling-off period preventing re-entry after leaving the UK on this route.

Settlement and Long-Term Residence

The Senior or Specialist Worker Visa does not provide a direct pathway to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Time spent on this route, or on the predecessor ICT categories, does not count towards the five-year qualifying period needed for settlement under the Skilled Worker route.

Workers who wish to settle in the UK long-term will generally need to leave the GBM route and apply for a Skilled Worker Visa from an appropriate UK employer, serving the standard qualifying period from that point. Given recent proposals to extend the general ILR qualifying period, workers considering this transition should seek early advice to plan their pathway effectively.

What Can You Do on This Visa?

Senior or Specialist Worker visa holders may:

• Work for their sponsor in the specific job role described on the Certificate of Sponsorship.
• Take on supplementary employment of up to 20 hours per week in the same occupation code and at the same level as their sponsored role, or in a role on the shortage occupation list, provided their main sponsored role continues.
• Study alongside their sponsored role.
• Undertake voluntary work.
• Travel freely in and out of the UK during the visa validity period.
• Bring eligible dependent family members, including a spouse or civil partner and children under 18, to the UK, subject to relevant financial and relationship requirements.

Access to public funds is not permitted. The worker must remain employed in the sponsored role at all times during the visa period.

Learn more about the Senior or Specialist Worker Visa on GOV.UK.