What is the Government Authorised Exchange Visa?
The Government Authorised Exchange visa is a temporary work visa. Temporary means up to 12 or 24 months, depending on the scheme through which you are being sponsored. Its overall aim is to share knowledge, experience and best practice. Schemes are endorsed by a UK government department and are generally administered by an overarching sponsor and not an individual employer. Workers are then hosted by an employer who is signed up to the particular scheme.
An applicant generally starts in this route with a visa, applying from outside the UK, and options to switch into this route within the UK are limited. Furthermore, it is not intended to be a route for an employer to ‘try out’ an individual to see if they fit within their workforce.
When is the Government Authorised Exchange Visa useful?
The purpose of the visa is for work experience, internships and training, overseas government language programmes, research programmes and fellowships. Roles need to be ‘supernumerary’ (in addition to normal staffing requirements) and sponsors vary from being country or sector specific (China-UK Mandarin teachers’ scheme; the Bar Council for example) to those with broader remits who can support people coming to work at different companies (such as Bunac’s Intern in Britain scheme, and the GTI Intern Scheme).
Apart from having a recognised Sponsor, some of the requirements include the arrangements complying with the National Minimum Wage and Working Time Regulations, the role meeting the requirements of the particular scheme through which the individual is being sponsored, the role (as already mentioned) being ‘supernumerary’ and it must also appear in Tables 1, 2 or 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations (generally roles skilled at level 3 or above on the Regulated Qualifications Framework).
Dependants (partners and children) are allowed to accompany the main visa applicant on this route for the duration of the visa.
Interestingly, the Government Authorised Exchange scheme has been chosen to be part of the initial roll-out phase of a new sponsorship service, Sponsor UK. Sponsor UK is due to eventually replace the Sponsorship Management System which employers and education providers currently use to sponsor workers and students for UK visas. It may be because the scheme is so inherently linked to government departments that it has been chosen for the trial.
Questions regarding the Government Authorised Exchange Visa
If you have any questions in relation to the Government Authorised Exchange visa, or any other aspect of business immigration, get in touch with our Business Immigration Team and schedule a free initial appointment using the button below: