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UNITED KINGDOM: MAC Publishes Recommendations on Intra-Company Transfer Route
October 20, 2021
On 13 October 2021, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published the conclusions of its study of the Intra-Company Transfer route (now known as the “Intra-company Route”).
In its findings, the MAC made the following key recommendations to the Home Office regarding the Intra-company Route:
- it should provide a route to Settlement, and count towards Settlement if the worker switches from it;
- to prevent its abuse, apply increased scrutiny of applicant allowances, and introduce a requirement for sponsors to detail a complete breakdown of applicant allowances;
- for the salary requirement to rise roughly by 2% and be updated annually;
- for the Graduate subcategory, change the salary requirement to match the Skilled Worker Graduate route – down to £20,480 or the ‘going rate’ minus a 30% discount, whichever is higher;
- to trial a change to the Representative of an Overseas Business route – namely, making the route two years without the possibility of extension (as opposed to the current three years with the possibility of a two year extension);
- to conduct a ‘team subsidiary visa’ trial, which would allow up to five applicants to enter the UK, providing that at least one of the team met the requirements for the current Representative of Overseas Business route and all others in the team to meet the Skilled Worker requirements;
- to expand the Visitor rules or introduce a short-term Intra-company route to allow for specialist technical work over a few days or weeks; and
- to test a 12-month secondment visa where a contract between a UK company and an overseas company exists, is valued in excess of £50 million, and the overseas company has been operating for at least 12 months.
It is expected that the Home Office shall take the MAC’s findings and recommendations into consideration when redesigning prevailing immigration systems. Newland Chase will be keeping a close eye on any such developments with a view to exploring the opportunities arising from these changes with our clients.
If you have any questions about the above, please do reach out to your dedicated Newland Chase consultant or contact our offices for further assistance.
For general advice and information on immigration and business travel to the United Kingdom, please contact us
This immigration update is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal or scenario-specific advice. Furthermore, it is important to note that immigration announcements are subject to sudden and unexpected changes. Readers are encouraged to reach out to Newland Case for any case- or company-specific assessments.
