If you are currently sponsored in the Skilled Worker visa route, your visa is dependent on your continuing employment with the same role and employer. When this employment ends, it can be a stressful and uncertain experience. This article explains what happens next.
Your employer is required to report that they have stopped sponsoring you as a worker to UKVI within 10 days of termination. This report will be made through their Sponsor Management System (‘SMS’).
You will then receive a letter, usually over email, confirming that your leave has been ‘curtailed’. The letter will explain that you have 60 days to make arrangements to leave the UK, or make an application to remain in the UK. Visas are only curtailed immediately in exceptional circumstances.
If you wish to remain in the UK, you will need to either find another role with a sponsor and make a new Skilled Worker visa application, or apply under another route. For example:
- Global Talent – this route is for individuals of exceptional talent or promise working in the fields of science, engineering, humanities, medicine, digital technology or arts and culture
- Innovator Founder – this route is for those looking to establish an innovative, viable and scalable business in the UK
- Scale Up – this is a new sponsored route for highly skilled jobs with Scale Up sponsors
- Family visa – this route is for individuals with British or settled family (partners and/or children) in the UK
- Student visa – this route is for international students to study an eligible course with a licenced student sponsor
If you find a new employer but they do not have a sponsor licence, they may be prepared to apply for one to employ you.
If you are nearing the end of your curtailment period, you may need to consider leaving the UK and making an application to re-enter the UK once you find a suitable role or are able to apply under another route. Since 2012, there is no longer a requirement to remain outside the UK for 12 months before you can return to the UK as a Skilled Worker (previously known as the ‘cooling off period’).
It is important to consider how your next steps may affect your eligibility for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK. For example, if switching into another route you should check whether you can combine your time spent in the UK on the Skilled Worker route towards Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Finally, it is important to take action before your permission to be in the UK ends. Remaining in the UK beyond your visa or curtailment period (‘overstaying’) will mean you are at risk of being removed from the UK and could affect your ability to apply for a visa in the future.
For expert advice and assistance with your next steps, contact us using our online form.