Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Workers definition

What does Workers mean? In practice, workers are individuals who personally perform work or services for another and are not genuinely in business on their own account; the term covers employees and non‑employees such as agency, casual and platform workers. In Great Britain, “worker” is a statutory category of employment status (ERA 1996 s.230(3); Working Time Regulations 1998) comprising employees and “limb (b)” workers. Case law (Autoclenz; Uber v Aslam) looks to the reality of the relationship and personal service, excluding those serving clients or customers of their own business. Worker status usually brings core protections (National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, whistleblowing, unlawful deduction of wages,...

UK Global Business Mobility: Sponsoring Senior or Specialist Workers and Graduate Trainees—eligibility, salary thresholds and going rates, SOC 2020, previous employment, CoS, sponsor duties and updates

Published by a LexisNexis Immigration expert

Practice notes

Forthcoming developments:

In December 2025, the Migration Advisory Committee released its review of salary requirements for work visas, advising that the general and occupation‑specific salary thresholds in the Senior or Specialist route should be pegged to the median earnings of eligible occupations. For the Graduate Trainee route, the Committee proposes a single salary threshold of £33,400, aligned with the Skilled Worker new entrant rate, and calls for the removal of occupation‑specific rates. See: LNB News 17/12/2025 33.

Senior or Specialist Worker and Graduate Trainee are Global Business Mobility routes that, from 11 April 2022, replaced the Intra‑Company Transfer and Intra‑Company Graduate Trainee routes respectively. The Senior or Specialist Worker route permits organisations with overseas linked entities to move established employees to their UK offices to perform skilled roles. For sponsorship fee purposes, it is treated as a Worker route, and partners in business structures such as Limited Liability partnerships (LLPs) are considered employees. The route is contained in the Immigration Rules, Appendix Global Business Mobility—Senior or Specialist Worker. References to Senior or Specialist Worker also include those with permission under the predecessor Intra‑company and Tier 2 (Intra‑Company Transfer)/Long‑term staff routes...

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Kate Gamester

Vialto Partners

Kate is an immigration lawyer with many years’ experience advising corporates and private clients on all aspects of UK immigration law. Kate is a highly experienced UK immigration lawyer specialising in advising businesses and private clients on a broad range of applications covered by the UK immigration rules. Kate also has considerable experience in helping start-up companies with sole representative and sponsor licence applications. Throughout the course of her career Kate has advised a number of household name companies across sectors including financial services, retail and media. Kate is also experienced in successfully challenging civil penalty notices and sponsor licence suspensions....

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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