The Home Office has confirmed that the offshore wind workers concession will end on 30 April with no further extension granted. It means workers will need to leave the UK by this date or, if they want to work in the UK, they will need to apply for entry clearance before they start work. We’ll speak to an immigration specialist about what this means for businesses in the sector.
The Concession was first introduced in 2017 on a temporary basis allowing non-UK and Irish workers to join vessels engaged in the construction and maintenance of offshore wind projects in UK territorial waters. It has been extended a number of times but is due to end in 9 days’ time on 30 April and the Home Office guidance is emphatic that it will not be extended again. They say: “This concession is time limited and leave to enter under the terms of the concession will not be granted beyond 30 April 2023. The concession will not be renewed beyond this date.”
So, let’s get a view on what this means. Earlier I spoke to immigration specialist Maria Gravelle. I asked Maria what problem employers would face if they simply did nothing:
Maria Gravelle: “Yes, it's a good point. The problem is that the concession is ending on the 30th of April but so too is the permission under the concession. So, if you have a worker who is currently working offshore of the UK, in UK territorial waters, and the are relying on the concession, they are going to have to leave the UK by the 30th of April and when they return after the 30th of April, they are going to need another type of visa that allows them to do the work that they are currently doing in the UK. So, whether they need sponsorship as a skilled worker, whether they could be eligible for a frontier worker permit, whether their activities in the UK are so infrequent, and so minimal, that they would be covered by the seafarers rules, that is something that the employer is going to have to help the individual assess. If it is the case that that person needs a sponsorship based visa, the employer is going to have to register as a UKVI sponsor and that process in itself takes quite a lot of time and all of that would need to take place before that employee returns to the UK, or returns to UK territorial waters, from 1 May.”
Joe Glavina: You mention alternative routes. Which routes might be viable options in your view, Maria?”
Maria Gravelle: “In the majority of cases, if you have an employee who is going to be working most of the time, if not all of their time, in UK territorial waters they would be looking for sponsorship under the skilled worker route. There are codes under that route that would be suitable for most seafaring-based roles, as well as specific codes for engineers, for chefs, and other crew members that you might find on a large vessel. That is a sponsorship-based visa so it does require the sponsor to have a licence. Alternatively, it might be worth considering if somebody already has a frontier worker permit, if they don't by the stage, it's very unlikely that they would be able to apply for one unless very exceptional circumstances apply, just due to the eligibility of that route. It's also worth checking if you have any employees who have status under the EU settlement scheme. Again, if they don't have that already, the chances of them getting it at this stage are going to be very slim. Beyond that, there are fairly limited routes that would be suitable for somebody who's never worked in the UK before, or who's only recently started working in the UK. Global Business Mobility is always one to consider, but the eligibility criteria are quite difficult to meet for non-senior seafaring roles that aren't many SOC codes that are suitable for those roles that are also eligible for global business mobility. So my view is that in most cases skilled worker is going to be the way forward.”
Joe Glavina: “This extension ends at the end of April so what's your key message to clients out there given that's only a few days away?”
Maria Gravelle: “The key message from our perspective is to forward plan, and certainly don't leave this to the 30th of April. The difficulty is that the confession has been extended so many times before, and certainly the last time it was extended it was extended on its expiry date and there may be many employers in this sector who may think, well, in case it gets extended at the last minute again, I'll just wait until the 30th of April to decide whether or not I need to plan ahead with this. If you are taking that approach, then just please be aware that your workers who currently rely on the concession will not have status from 1st May, and therefore they would need to leave the UK on the 30th of April to avoid breaching immigration law. If you then need to bring them back into the UK quickly and you don't have a sponsor licence, that process is going to take you a number of weeks. So, it might be an idea in that case to even take steps to apply for a licence in case you might need one and then subsequently wait if you’ve got a delay between the 30th of April and when your employees need to return to the UK. Perhaps use that time to help them apply for their visas and use priority services, were available, to turn that around quickly. But yes, really the key message is to plan ahead and figure out what you're going to do if this concession doesn't get extended, which is what the Home Office message is - that it's not going to be extended. So we're basing ourselves on that approach.”
As well as announcing the end of the offshore wind workers concession, the Home Office also announced that with effect from 12 April businesses, and certain individuals, will need to notify the Home Office of arrival and leaving dates for offshore workers. That is an important change which we will be covering next week, wit Maria’s help. Meanwhile, we’ve put a link in the transcript of this programme to the Home Office guidance dealing with the Offshore Wind Workers Concession.
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