United Kingdom: New Statement of Changes Expands Permitted Activities Under Visitor Visas

The expanded activities under the Visitor Visa route include:

• Individuals on Visitor Visas will be able to work directly with clients if the employee is in an intra-corporate setting, the client facing activity is incidental to their employment abroad, and these activities are required for the delivery of a project or service by the UK branch of the visitor’s employer overseas and are not part of a project or service that is being delivered directly to the UK client by the visitor’s employer overseas.
• Visitors will explicitly be permitted to work remotely while in the UK; however, their remote work must not be the primary purpose of their visit.
• Scientists, researchers and academics will be able to conduct research in the UK unless they are academics applying for a 12-month visit visa or if they are applying to extend permission from within the UK.
• Lawyers will be able to conduct additional activities while in the UK, including, but not limited to, providing advice, acting as an expert witness, appearing in arbitrations, litigating, and teaching, among others.
• Speakers on visitor visas will be able to be paid for this activity while in the UK.
• The Permitted Paid Engagement (PPE) Visitor route will be subsumed under the Standard Visitor route, which means individuals who are conducting paid permitted engagements will no longer need a specific visa to do so. However, individuals will still be required to arrange their PPE activity prior to travel to the UK and must undertake the engagement within 30 days of arrival.

Some of these changes – including the express allowance for remote working – are expected to further attract business and tourism to the UK, which will boost revenue for the country.

This alert, for informational purposes only, was prepared by Fragomen and originally published here. If you have any questions, please contact us.