Intra-company transfers 

Applicants already working for a company in another country and transferring to a post in the United Kingdom may qualify in one of the following intra-company transfer sub-categories. 


Established Staff
They will need to have worked for the sponsoring organisation for at least twelve months and when they are in the UK they must receive a salary (including specific permitted allowances) appropriate for that job in the UK. The job must be at national vocation qualification level 3 (NVQ3) or above. Established staff may be granted a Certificate of Sponsorship for three years initially, and thereafter a further three years. The category does not lead to indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

Graduate Trainee
The purpose of this sub-category is to allow multinational companies to transfer recent graduate recruits to the UK branch for training. The recruits must be being sent as a part of a structured graduate training programme, with clearly defined progression towards a managerial or specialist role.  

They will need to have worked for the sponsoring organisation for at least three months and when they are in the UK they must receive a salary (including specific permitted allowances) appropriate for that job in the UK. To reflect the level of the training programme, the UK Border Agency has produced a list of 75 graduate occupations that migrants can be sponsored for in the Tier 2 (ICT) sub-category for graduate trainees. Graduate Trainees are granted permission to work for the sponsoring organization in the UK for up to 12 months. 

This sub-category is not intended for all graduate recruits, only those on accelerated promotion or career development schemes. The UK Border Agency has therefore limited the sub-category to a maximum of five places, per sponsor, per year.  

Skills Transfer 
The purpose of this sub-category is to enable those who have been newly recruited overseas by a multinational company to transfer temporarily to the UK to acquire or impart skills and knowledge relevant to their new role. They will not need previous company experience before coming to the UK.  

The key principle underpinning this sub-category is that the skills transfer should be incidental to the applicant’s employment overseas and that while they may be transferring temporarily to the United Kingdom, their job or role must not.  

Applicants will need to be recently employed by the organisation overseas and the purpose of the transfer to the UK branch of the multi-national company must be to acquire or impart knowledge relevant to their new role. The appointment must be additional to the sponsor’s UK staffing requirements and the skills transfer should be incidental to the applicant’s employment overseas. The UK Border Agency has produced a list of 75 graduate occupations that migrants can be sponsored for in the Tier 2 (ICT) sub-category for skills transfer. Applicants are granted permission to work for the sponsoring organisation in the UK for up to six months.