Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Thursday 11th July 2019

The Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) category facilitates the mobility of key company personnel on a temporary basis only, in line with the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation.

The Government recognises the valuable contribution migrants make to our society and welcome those with the skills and expertise to make our nation better still. Migrant workers fill skill gaps in our labour market and help to boost our economy. We must also ensure that the immigration system supports UK businesses and employers so that they are able to attract highly skilled, talented and hardworking individuals to work or study in the United Kingdom and manage the process properly so that our immigration system serves the national interest.

Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) is a category for existing employees of multinational businesses that need to be transferred to an existing branch in the United Kingdom to fill a specific vacancy that cannot be filled by a settled worker. It is designed to be a temporary route enabling people to come to the United Kingdom for a maximum period of five years.

The Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) category ceased to be a route that led to settlement for main applicants and dependants following changes to the Immigration Rules made in March 2010. These changes reflected recommendations made by the Migration Advisory Committee in its August 2009 report, ‘Analysis of the Points Based System: Tier 2 and Dependants’. People initially applying for Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) on or after 6 April 2010 no longer qualified for settlement and those affected would therefore have been aware when they applied to enter the United Kingdom that they were entering in a category that did not lead to settlement and would need to return to their country of origin at the end of the main applicant’s posting.

It was the Migration Advisory Committee’s view that the purpose of arrangements for the admission under Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) should be to facilitate the temporary mobility of key company personnel, and time spent in the United Kingdom under Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) should not therefore count towards settlement or citizenship. The United Kingdom’s international commitments in relation to the admission of migrants under Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) do not require that such workers should qualify for permanent residence.
The reforms made to the category were designed to align it more closely with the original intention of permitting senior managers and specialists to transfer to the United Kingdom for a temporary period.

The United Kingdom also operates employment migration arrangements – the Tier 2 (General) category - which do lead to settlement. These arrangements are designed to cater for the direct recruitment of non-EEA workers to fill permanent vacancies.

The partners and children of migrants with leave under Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) are considered in line with the main applicant and they therefore also do not qualify for settlement on the basis of being a dependant of a person in the Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) category.

For the dependants of Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) migrants wanting to enrol or continue studying at a university in the United Kingdom once their existing dependant visa expires, it is open to them to apply for a Tier 4 General Student visa. Please see the following website for further details on the eligibility criteria for this: gov.uk/tier-4-general-visa.

We keep our immigration system under constant review to ensure that it serves the national interest.

Home Office.