Employer FAQs

No, not all employers are required to hold a Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence in order to use the Intern Visa scheme.

The cost of registering as an employer under the Intern Visa scheme is £750 + VAT which includes the cost of the first Certificate of Sponsorship that we issue on the employer’s behalf. Thereafter, each Certificate of Sponsorship issued is charged at £750 +VAT. More details.

The employer registration checklist provides a summary of the information that an employer will need in order to register.

Yes – a registered Immigration Advisor can complete the employer registration application form on behalf of their clients. However, we would require the employer themselves to accept the Terms & Conditions and attend the pre-approval meeting.

A Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) is a 'virtual document' assigned by a licensed Sponsor to a migrant who wishes to work for them in the UK. The migrant must quote the Certificate of Sponsorship reference number when applying for permission to enter or remain in the UK under Skilled Worker or Tier 5 of the points-based system.

A supernumerary role is a role which is not part of an employer’s manpower complement, or headcount and where the work that a supernumerary worker is doing is additional to the employer's normal staffing requirements. In other words, if the worker was not there, the role would not need to be filled by anyone else.

A good ‘test’ to judge whether your role is ‘supernumerary’ is to ask: “If the intern could not do the role for any reason, would you need to recruit someone to do the work that the intern is doing” If the answer is “No”, then the role can be deemed to be “supernumerary”.

Current UK National Minimum Wage Rates are published here.

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) level 3 is a qualification that shows competence that involves the application of knowledge in a broad range of varied work activities performed in a wide variety of contexts, most of which are complex and non-routine. There is considerable responsibility and autonomy and control or guidance of others is often required.

ENIC is the organization in the UK that is responsible for comparing international qualifications to the UK Qualification Framework.

If you are in doubt regarding whether a qualification is comparable to a UK bachelor’s degree, then you can contact NARIC directly to request an official assessment and “Statement of Comparability”.

Interns must be at least 18 years old. There is no upper age limit.

Registered employers who have been approved to join the scheme will be able to request a Certificate of Sponsorship by returning a completed CoS Request Form template with required supporting documentation (to be confirmed in employer registration meeting) to the scheme administrators by email.

Employers who are not yet registered and approved to join the Intern Visa scheme should first apply to register.

We can sponsor internships for any period up to a maximum of 12 months.

An intern will be able to remain in the UK provided that they hold a valid visa. The visa ‘valid from’ and ‘expiry’ dates are clearly printed on the visa when it is issued.

The maximum period of time that an individual can remain in the UK on a Tier 5 (Temporary Worker: Government Authorised Exchange) visa is 12 months.

If your intern has a Tier 5 visa for less than 12 months, then they may be able to apply for a visa extension, provided that all eligibility criteria are met. Please contact us directly to discuss this further.

A Tier 5 (Temporary Worker: Government Authorised Exchange) visa cannot be extended beyond 12 months.

More details regarding how to make an application to extend a Tier 5 (Temporary Worker: Government Authorised Exchange) visa, are available on the UK Border Agency website.

An intern will be issued with a Certificate of Sponsorship which requests a ‘multiple entry’ visa. If they are successfully awarded ‘UK Visa Entry Clearance’, this would allow them to enter and exit the UK, for the period that the visa is valid subject to approval by immigration officers at the UK Border.

Further guidelines regarding freedom to travel abroad are available from the UK Border Agency website.

Before the intern travels abroad, they should contact the embassy of the country they want to visit, to check whether a person with their immigration status will be allowed to enter that country.

We are not able to sponsor dependants under the Intern Visa scheme. The intern will be responsible for making any applications to bring their dependants themselves.

For information about bringing dependants to the UK please refer to the guidelines on the UK Border Agency website.