Switching to Tier 1 (General)

Since 30 June 2008 any application for leave to enter or remain in the UK by a highly skilled migrant who does not have a job offer has had to be made not under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (the “HSMP”) , but instead under its replacement – Tier (1) General of the Points Based System.  

Applications for Tier 1 (General) migrant status can be made by people outside the UK who wish to apply for leave to enter.  But they can also be made by people who are already in the UK in a range of other immigration categories, including people with leave to remain under the HSMP holders of work permits, and Businesspersons.  

In full, the list of people who  are allowed to switch under the immigration rules into the Tier 1 (General) category is comprised of those whose current leave is in one of the following categories:

Highly Skilled Migrants

Tier 1 (General) Migrants (in other words Tier 1 General Migrants who are seeking to extend their leave to remain in the same category)

Innovators

Participants in the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme (this scheme was deleted at the end of June of 2008).

Participants in the International Graduates Scheme (the “IGS”) or its predecessor, the Science and Engineering Graduates Scheme, which was subsumed into the IGS.  

Postgraduate Doctors or Dentists

Students

Student Nurses

Students re-sitting an examination

Students Writing-Up a Thesis

Work Permit Holders

Businesspersons

Self-employed Lawyers

Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Migrants,

Tier 1 (Investor) Migrants

Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) Migrants, and

Writers, Composers and Artists.

Applicants who have or who were last granted leave as a Student or a Postgraduate Doctor or Dentist and who either are (or were at the time of their last grant of leave) being sponsored by a government or an international scholarship agency must have the written consent of that government or agency before submitting any application to switch.  

All applicants have to satisfy the points requirement for the Tier 1 (General) Category – and their applications must not fall to be refused due to any of the immigration rules’ general grounds for refusal.  

Anyone seeking advice on switching into Tier 1 (General) should contact the following members of Gherson’s immigration department:

Nichola Carter: [email protected]

Lisa Amos: [email protected]

Leslie Rosberg Sarma: [email protected]

or by telephone: 020 7724 4488