Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer Visa

Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) Visa

The Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer Visa (Tier 2 ICT) is used by multi-national organisations to send a non-UK employee to the UK branch of their organisation on a temporary basis.

Tier 2 ICT Requirements

The employee must have worked for your organisation for at least 12 months in most cases. The overseas transferring organisation must be linked on your Sponsor Licence and you must have the Intra-Company Transfer category available to you.

There are also other conditions and restrictions, but the key restriction and the reason that this category is rarely recommend is that the  Tier 2 ICT visa cannot lead to Settlement. This means that after a maximum period of 5 years  and 14 days (9 years if on a very high salary) in the UK your employee and their family members must leave the UK and they cannot return for at least 12 months. This can be quite disruptive to the business and to the individuals. 

There are circumstances where the Tier 2 ICT category is appropriate but the potential disadvantages far outweigh the minor advantages (primarily a slightly lower cost in return for not being able to keep the worker in the UK beyond a certain period of time).