Once in the UK under a Skilled Worker visa, the focus will be setting up your life in this new country. This entails collecting your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP), applying for a National Insurance number, opening a bank account, and registering with a GP to avail of the services of the NHS. Understanding your rights and responsibilities comes next, such as what you will have to do if you want to update your visa due to a change in job or employer. A clearer picture could be given as follows:
Immediate Steps
The moment when the Home Office sends you a letter notifying you that your Skilled Worker visa was granted is thrilling, the news you have been waiting to hear. If you applied for a UK Skilled Worker visa outside of the UK, now is the safe time to book your travels and start making all necessary arrangements.
However, there are a few things to do once you arrive in the UK to complete the remaining UKVI requirements.
1. Collect your BRP
If you applied for and received a Skilled Worker visa from outside the country, upon arrival in the UK, you will be required to collect your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP). A BRP is a document given to foreign nationals who have been afforded a visa or immigration permission to study, live, or work in the UK. Your BRP will be important as evidence of your status of immigration in the UK.
Usually, you will need to collect it before the vignette sticker (the sticker in your travel document or passport) expires or within 10 days of your arrival in the United Kingdom, whichever is later. The Biometric Residence Permit can be collected either from a named Post Office branch or from an Alternative Collection Location.
2. Open a bank account in the UK
Opening a bank account in the UK in the early days after receiving your BRP will be amongst your foremost errands. Many employers stipulate that their employees must have a UK building society or bank account into which they pay their salary. Usually, you will also need a UK bank account to put a mobile phone contract in your name, which will also be needed to pay household bills directly or, alternatively, be a requirement to confirm your address.
To open a UK bank account, you generally need to provide proof of your UK address and verify your identity with documents including your BRP and passport. However, sometimes you can open an account with a bank in the UK before you actually arrive here. Some of the banks do indeed have such an international bank account that can be opened abroad before you travel. But if choosing to follow this route, it could take some time compared to opening one in the UK.
3. Get a National Insurance number
If you plan to work in the UK, then it is pertinent to apply for a National Insurance (NI) number. But you can apply only once you have arrived in the UK. You can start working on a skilled worker visa in the UK without an NI number if you can demonstrate that you have the right to work in the United Kingdom. If you have a BRP, you might already have an NI number- it will be printed on the BRP’s back.
Sometimes, your employer can assist you with obtaining a temporary NI number.
4. Registering with a GP
Most people applying for a Skilled Worker visa need to pay the IHS as a mandatory element of the application procedure. The IHS may be described as a fee paid by migrants to qualify for free NHS healthcare during their stay. Generally speaking, for a visa granting a stay of more than 6 months such as the skilled worker visa it is mandatory to pay the health surcharge unless covered under an exemption category.
From arrival in the UK, migrants are allowed to access NHS services. It is better to be registered with a GP near where you intend to reside.
Understanding Your Skilled Worker Visa
Your Rights and Responsibilities:
Familiarize yourself with the working hours and what activities are permitted. Understand how to update your visa if your job or employer changes as this information is relevant to you in the course of your stay in the UK on a skilled worker visa.
Additional Work and Working Hours:
Typically, you can work in an eligible job, but if you are considering doing some additional work, then the law holds that you might have to get your visa updated if the second job involves more than 20 hours of work weekly, according to the website of the UK government. Make sure that your job meets the salary requirement for a Skilled Worker Visa.
Bringing Dependents:
You can bring along your partner and children to the UK as your dependents if they meet the eligibility criteria.
Path to Settlement:
Provided the other eligibility criteria are met, Skilled Worker visas provide a path to indefinite leave to remain after you have lived in the United Kingdom for 5 years.
Before applying for ILR, otherwise known as Indefinite Leave to Remain, there will be an additional step of applying for visa extension under the skilled worker visa route, usually sometime after the initial grant of leave, in relation to all leave to remain as Skilled Workers. Under the Skilled Worker visa, there is no limit on the number of times you can apply for an extension, as long as all of the requirements applying to the route are met. However, once you become eligible to apply for ILR, this entitles you to be in the UK and work indefinitely in the UK without the need to apply for any further extensions of stay.
Conclusion
Set up your accommodation and ensure that you keep meeting the requirements of the skilled worker visa UK. You can hire an immigration solicitor to plan for the life ahead in the UK.
