As a Non-EEA citizen without the work permit, I faced the most desperate situation during the job searching in my life (without one of): nearly 150 applies, and more than 90% of them never reply because I don’t have the work visa. So, what is the work visa? And how difficult is it for a non-EEA foreigner to get a job in UK without the work visa?
Hope this (and following) post can help the people who are also struggling and dreaming to work in UK because of any motivation, interest and fever.
The first and foremost advice: inform your employer at least 3 months in advance to process your sponsorship number.
How difficult it is to get a work visa?
Work visa, or Tier 2 (General) Visa is a work permit for the people who come from Non-EEA country and already hold an offer from the employer with sponsor license.
Here is an obvious contradiction like chicken & eggs problem. If you want to find a job in UK, most of the employers require the work permit. But if you don’t have the work, then you can’t get the work visa. What’s worse, many companies which are on the Register of licensed sponsors don’t want to provide the sponsorship to junior positions because of:
- Expensive sponsor fees
- Tedious formalities
- High salary requirements
The best way to describe the difficulty is to let the data tell the real story. Based on the Immigration Statistics which published by UKVI, there are 29,092 companies (Data on Dec 17, 2017, the number is changing frequently) can provide sponsorship, which is only 0.51% of total business population. Before the Brexit the number is slowly increasing, but after the Brexit the trend turn around and start decreasing. The following graph shows the trend of the number of sponsors.
Fees
Both applicants and employers are required to pay the fees to the home office. For employers, firstly, they need to pay £1,476 (£536 for small or charitable sponsors) to get a license. Secondly, they need to pay £199 for each Certificate of Sponsorship(CoS),, which is a number used by applicants to apply/switch work visa. The expensive fees increase the operational cost of companies obviously.
For applicants, they need to pay a tidy sum of money as well. Here is a general comparison of fees. Although there is a discount for shortage occupations, most of them require at least 5 years work experience.
Formalities
To hire a people who need work permit, the employers must advert the occupation at 2 different platform(LinkedIn, Monster or any job markets) for at least 28 days and prove they can not find a suitable worker who have the work permit, or, from UK and EEA countries.
I was trapped by this rule, and now I have to wait for another 28 days and apply for my Visa in China. As far as I know, most of the applicants who cannot switch from Tier 4 to Tier 2 are trapped by this rule as well. That’s why I strongly recommend preparing at least 3 months in advance at the beginning.
Utilize the Tier 4 Visa
Not too many people know that Tier 4 student visa can be used to do the full-time job during the vacation. Use the student statues letter to prove you are in the vacation then you can work for your employer before you get the Tier 2 visa. Make your money first!
Avoid the Peak Time
The Tier 2 vacancy is limited by the Home Office and employers can apply new vacancies each month. So try to avoid the peak time can help you proceed the application more efficient. The following graph shows the application number for each season. In conclusion, avoid the Q3 if possible.
Salary Requirements
The basic requirement of salary of Tier 2 is £30,000 per annual. But it can be lower to £23,000 if the employee is a graduate trainee or £24,800 if it is a short-term occupation.
Such a high salary requirement result in fewer position for graduates. Companies prefer to hire experienced worker at this salary level. Moreover, this salary level is unfriendly to the student who studies arts.
‘Dirty Tricks’
In the next part, I’d like to show the situation of Tier 2 applicants by industry. But before that, I must appeal a dirty trick related to the lowest salary requirements which used by several horrible companies.
Company A adverts a position with salary range £30,000 ~ £40,000 on 2 different platforms and announces that they can provide the sponsorship. As a foreigner who is keen to stay in UK, you think you should try your best to get this valuable and rare chance. Suppose you are good and finally you passed all interviews and felt happy, but they told you if you just graduated from the University, then they can only offer you at most £25,000 (or even worse, exactly £23,000 or £24,800) per annual.
These companies utilize the policy (and might utilize your mind of ‘eager to stay in UK’ too) to hire foreign graduates with an unreasonably low salary. Some of them even ask the employee to sign unequal treaties including but not limited to:
- Resignation liquidated damages
- Blank contract
- Pages of requirements without any benefit
- Pay all application fees (including employer’s part) by yourself
I’m lucky enough to escape from such a terrible employer before. But some of my friends are still suffering those troubles with unlimited regrets. Therefore, my only advice is, if you found your employer exactly belongs to this kind, reject your offer immediately to avoid a possible awful work experience is your best choice. The chance is rare indeed, but still higher than getting an SSR in FGO.
Believe in yourself.
Industry Analysis
If you are prepared to come and try to stay here, which industry is the best choice? The following graph shows the total number of new applicants of all industries in the last 7 years.
The most popular industry is Information and Communication, which is more than twice as the second one Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities. Briefly speaking, learn anything related to computer science/math might be the best choice, especially try to follow the tide of data science and machine learning.
The shortage occupations shows the same idea with this graph too. Most of the positions in the list are related to information and communication positions. This shortage occupations can be a complete guidance to understand and predict the trend of UK job market.
Noticed that the Top 6 industries (Education, Manufacturing,Human Health and Social Work Activities,Financial and Insurance Activities,Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities,Information and Communication)have much more applicants than the other industries. So the next part will analyze these 6 industry in detail.
Top 6 industries
The following graph shows the trend of top 6 industries. The Information and Communication boomed from 17,528 to around 23,309 per year since 2012, which has a huge impart on the total number of the sponsor. Scientific and Technical Activities and Financial and Insurance Activities are following the same trend of total sponsor numbers.
It is interesting that Human Health and Social Work Activities jumped 49.39% from 2015’s 3,539 to 2016’s 5,287, which against the performance of total sponsor number. The statistics show that the spend on public provision of adult social services in England has its first increase since 2011, which might create a package of positions for foreign workers. If anyone knows more detail, please tell me ;)
Advice
A bright career target and a well-prepared timetable can help you a lot if you decided to get a job in UK when you don’t have the work permit. Yes, it’s hard, but it still has the solution.
Career Target
Based on the industry analysis, you should focus on Top 6 industries because there are more occupancies. Then choose exactly ONE position and try to find the job description as many as you can. Then summarize the key skills and qualities from them, and try to achieve all of them. This can help you defeat most of the competitors in the same position.
Remember, compare to those guys who don’t need the work permit, we need to have a better performance than them thus each chance is precious for us. So focus on one point with all your power is the most efficient way.
Depends on my and other people’s experience, more than 90% companies never read your CV if you don’t have the work permit. Therefore, you should prepare to apply more than at least 150 times. I did a small survey of around 30+ Chinese, and the average number of application is nearly 200. Again, you should have an awareness of even more tough situation.
Timetable
It depends on the width and depth of your skill tree and the width of the culture gap. If you are skillful and know a lot about UK then just leave 2-3 months for job searching is enough.
As a end of this post, my story can be a best and funny example of getting over the gap. When I got my first final interview I dressed sth like I go marching to Anfield, then there is no doubt I was rejected, and the first line of the feedback is ‘wrong dress code.’ Because there is no ‘dress code’ culture in most of the companies in China, especially those new companies with a school of geeks.