UNITED KINGDOM: Global Business Mobility Routes – Evidential Requirements for Licence Applications

April 11, 2022


Further to the March Statement of Changes introducing new Global Business Mobility (GBM) routes to the UK from 11 April, we provide below an overview of the new evidential requirements for UK organisations seeking to apply for new or revised licences in these categories.

As with most significant changes to the UK Immigration Rules, it can be expected there will be ‘teething issues’ in how the new requirements will be administered in practice, with some ambiguity in the language used to describe the evidence required of applying organisations.

GBM: Senior or Specialist Worker

  • organisations applying for a licence under this route are required to provide evidence of how each overseas entity being added to the licence is connected to the applying organisation in the UK by common ownership or control, consistent with the same evidence required for the now closed ‘Intra-company Route’

GBM: Graduate Trainee

  • organisations applying for a licence under this route are required to provide evidence of how each overseas entity being added to the licence is connected to the applying organisation in the UK by common ownership or control, consistent with the same evidence required for the now closed ‘Intra-company Route’, as well as evidence of the UK office’s graduate training programme

GBM: UK Expansion Worker

  • organisations applying for a licence under this route are not mandatorily required to submit evidence of a current, corporate bank account with a bank registered by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority in the UK
  • in addition to any mandatory documentation that must be submitted by all organisations applying for licences in any category, applying organisations are required to provide the following (unless an exemption applies):
    1. Proof of UK ‘footprint’
    2. Evidence of overseas trading presence
    3. Evidence of planned expansion to the UK

GBM: Secondment Worker

  • organisations applying for a licence under this route must provide evidence of holding a contract with an overseas business for goods or investment worth at least £10 million per year, and no less than £50 million in total

GBM: Service Supplier

  • an organisation applying for a licence under this route must provide evidence to show that it has been awarded a services contract for a period of 12 months or less, through open tendering (or another procedure) which guarantees the genuine character of the contract under an eligible international trade agreement, as described in Annex GBM1 of Sponsor a Global Business Mobility Worker

Individuals and organisations impacted by this development are encouraged to contact a Newland Chase immigration specialist for a full list of documentary evidence required and/or case-specific advice. For general advice and information on immigration and business travel to the UK, 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 Chase for any case- or company-specific assessments.