One thing about the UK should be said first, because everything else rests on it: in the UK there is no route to getting papers. There is no Arraigo as in Spain, no periodic amnesty as in Italy, no rule that lets you quietly spend a few years and then join the queue. For the person who arrived without a visa, or whose visa expired and who stayed on, the door ahead is in practice closed.
This is not pleasant to write, but hiding it does more harm. The UK has been the first choice for people from the subcontinent — the language is shared, the community is there, the ties are old. It is because of this familiarity that people assume some space or other will open up. Today’s UK runs on a points system, and its rules are getting tighter each year, not looser.
So below we look at the routes that genuinely exist, and then at the situation that exists but has no solution.
Skilled Worker visa — a job with sponsorship
This is the UK’s main work visa, and it rests on one simple condition: a licensed company in the UK must give you a job and sponsor you. The document for this sponsorship is called a Certificate of Sponsorship, in short CoS. The licence is issued by the Home Office and the list of companies is public — that is, you can check for yourself whether a company can sponsor at all.
Three conditions go with it: the job must be at an approved skill level, the salary must be above the set limit, and you must provide proof of English (IELTS or a similar approved test). The general salary threshold is at present somewhere around £38,700, and there are some concessions for shortage occupations and new graduates. Do not treat this figure as carved in stone — in the UK these thresholds change repeatedly, and it is essential to check the current figure on gov.uk before applying.
Those who sell CoS — this is where most people have been robbed
In the subcontinent a sponsorship document sells for hundreds of thousands of rupees. The advertisement is never that plain; the conversation begins under the name of “arranging a job”, “a setting with a company” or “processing”. The result is always the same — the money is yours, the risk is yours.
Remember that selling sponsorship is a crime in the UK. If you are caught the visa is cancelled and a ban is imposed for the future. And the risk does not depend only on your own intentions — where companies have had their licences revoked, even those workers were ruined who had accepted the job in complete good faith. Your legal status is tied to your employer’s legal status, and this is something to think about before applying, not afterwards.
This trade ran most of all in the care work sector. And now the government has closed the route for recruiting new care workers from overseas altogether. If someone is still selling you a “UK care worker visa” today, he is taking money for something that does not exist.
Student visa — not what it used to be
The study route is still open and is still the cleanest. You need admission at a licensed university or college, the document for which is called a CAS, along with proof of the fee and living costs, and proof of English. During your studies you are allowed to work up to twenty hours a week, and full time during holidays.
After completing the degree, the Graduate Route has allowed a period of work during which people look for a sponsor. The government has been working on proposals to shorten its duration, so it is dangerous to treat it as permanent and build a whole family plan on it.
And one big change that many people among us are still unaware of: most students can no longer bring their family members with them. This permission remains only for certain research-level programmes. Anyone still preparing today on the assumption that his wife and children will go along with him for a master’s is making a life decision on two-year-old information.
Stay away from fake colleges and from agents offering “free admission, visa guaranteed”. Only admission at an institution that holds a licence is of any use, and you can check this yourself. Nobody in the world can guarantee a visa — not an agent, not a university.
Seasonal Worker visa — six months of work in the fields
There is a visa of up to six months for the cultivation of fruit, vegetables and flowers. The most important thing about it is that the application is made only through operators approved by the government, directly, free of charge or for a nominal fee.
Understand that one sentence and a whole fraud explains itself. An agent who asks for hundreds of thousands of rupees for this visa is either selling you something that is available free on the operator’s own website, or offering a fake offer altogether.
The second thing that is often hidden: this visa does not lead towards permanent residence. Return is compulsory after six months. And those who do not return shut the door to the UK for themselves forever in exchange for a few months’ earnings.
Family visa
This route is for the spouse of a British citizen or a settled person. The minimum income threshold for the person sponsoring is now around £29,000, and proposals to raise it further have been under discussion. Along with this, proof of English is required and proof that the relationship is genuine — photographs, messages, travel records, shared responsibilities.
This threshold is painful for many genuine couples and that should be acknowledged. But the answer to that pain is not a sham marriage. This trade exists, it is watched closely, and when it is caught it ruins the lives of both parties — including the sponsor, who often thinks they are safe.
The remaining routes
Besides these there are a few specific doors that are not for everyone, but which eligible people pass by without a glance:
- Health and Care visa: open for doctors, nurses and certain medical staff. Recruitment of care workers from overseas, as written above, has been closed.
- Global Talent: for those whose exceptional ability is proven — research, technology, the arts. Here it is not the claim but the record that is examined.
- Innovator Founder: for those with an approved and workable business plan.
And one thing that is not a route but is taken for one: a visit visa is not for work. Going on a visit and then working, or simply staying on, is the decision after which no way back remains in the UK. Why, that is in the next section.
The UK without papers — the whole truth
This section is the bitterest, and for that reason the most necessary.
There is no general amnesty in the UK, and no arrangement like Spain’s Arraigo. The route that does exist on the basis of long residence — the private life route — is generally on timescales such as twenty years. Stop for a moment and think what that sentence means. A person who arrives at the age of twenty-five becomes able to apply for legal status for the first time at the age of forty-five — and during that time he can neither go home nor attend his parents’ funeral. This is not a plan; it is the sacrifice of a youth.
Understand too what daily life during those twenty years is like. The very purpose of the UK’s “hostile environment” policy is to make living without papers practically impossible. You cannot get legal work. A bank account will not open. When renting a house the landlord is obliged to check documents. Medical bills may come separately. And if you are caught working illegally the employer faces a heavy fine and the worker faces arrest and deportation. That is, the employer who keeps you hidden will be more frightened than you are — and because of that fear he will keep you on the lowest possible wage.
For those crossing the Channel in small boats the laws are getting stricter every year. The asylum system is stuck in a backlog of years, and during that time life passes in hotels and camps in complete uncertainty. And asylum is granted only on genuine grounds — danger to life, persecution on religious or political grounds. Economic hardship, however real, does not constitute grounds for asylum, and a rejected case also narrows your own future routes.
That is why this should be said with complete clarity: in the case of the UK, the “we will see once we get there” way of thinking is a family’s most expensive mistake. The money spent on that journey is often more than a study visa or a legal route to some other country — and what you get in exchange is a life with no fixed end. Either a legal visa, or another country. This advice is bitter, but it is cheaper than false comfort.
The official website — and only one
In the case of the UK there is one convenience. Every visa category, every condition, every fee and every form is in one place: gov.uk. Applications are submitted online from there too.
From this comes a simple rule that can save you from a great deal of loss: information that is not on gov.uk is rumour. However confidently it is told, and however close to you the person telling it may be. And since the UK’s salary and income thresholds change quickly, treat all the figures written above as approximate and check the current figure there.
This article has been written to show you the real picture of the system, and it is not legal advice. The UK’s immigration rules and income thresholds change at an unusual speed, so it is possible that some detail given above is already out of date by the time you read it. Before taking any step, check the current rules on gov.uk, and if your case is complex, speak to an OISC registered immigration adviser or a lawyer.
