Over the last few months, the government has introduced a host of changes to the Immigration Rules relating to visitors to the UK. Specifically, changes have been introduced relating to:
- Remote working
- Lifting the ban on client facing work for intra-corporate employees
- Permitted activities for legal professionals have also been expanded
Previous to these changes, there was an overarching prohibition on all work, whether paid or unpaid, relating to anyone visiting the UK. These changes may be especially relevant to US nationals and additional information on immigration into the UK for US nationals can be found here.
Remote workers
There was previously no mention of remote working in the Immigration Rules, whether as a permitted activity or otherwise. Given the overarching rule of “no work”, this seemed to indicate that visitors were not allowed to work remotely in the UK. However, the new rules have added a new activity to the list of permitted “General Business Activities”, and visitors are now also able to:
Undertake activities relating to their employment overseas remotely from within the UK, providing this is not the primary purpose of their visit.
The Home Office has now confirmed that visitors can undertake remote activities relating to their overseas employment such as responding to emails, answering phone calls, or participating in remote meetings. Note, though that:
- Remote working must not be the primary purpose of the visit – the main reason for the visit must be a different permitted activity, whether this is tourism, visiting friends or family, attending conferences, or signing deals
- The Home Office will check whether a visitor is entering the UK specifically to work remotely from the UK, and will consider the length of the proposed stay, or whether a stay of that length is only financially viable via ongoing work
- The rules prohibit visitors from living in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits; this is true whether or not the visitor is undertaking remote work while in the UK. Where an applicant intends to spend a large proportion of their time in the UK and will be doing some remote work during their visit, the application will be scrutinised to ensure that the individual is genuinely employed overseas and is not seeking to work in the UK. In general, visits of over one month will be scrutinised to check that work is not the “primary” purpose, and activities lasting more than 90 days may lead to questions about the nature of a visitor’s remote work
- Visitors must not receive payment from a UK source for any activities undertaken in the UK (other than some narrowly defined exceptions, such as reasonable travel expenses, and certain ‘permitted paid engagements’). The expectation is that the payment for any remote work undertaken in the UK will not come from a UK source, but rather from the overseas employer for whom the remote work is being undertaken. Visitors can be expected to be able to prove this if and when questioned on entry.
In short, remote working does not amount to the introduction of a “digital nomad”-style visitor visa in the UK.
Intra-corporate activities
Under the previous rules regarding permitted “intra-corporate activities”, an employee of an overseas-based company could, while in the UK as a visitor, undertake particular activities for a “specific internal project with UK employees of the same corporate group” (e.g. advising and consulting, troubleshooting, providing training). However, the old rules explicitly stated that visitors could only undertake these activities “provided no work is carried out directly with clients”.
The new rules have removed this prohibition on working directly with clients, meaning an overseas-based employee can now also undertake the permitted “Intra-corporate activities” directly with clients.
Note, though, that direct client work is only permitted if:
- The employee’s movement is in an intra-corporate setting and any 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.
Changes to permitted activities for legal professionals
Under the previous rules, an overseas lawyer was only able to ‘advise a UK-based client on specific international litigation and/or an international transaction’. The new rules have greatly expanded this category of permitted activities, such that overseas lawyers can now ‘provide legal services’ while in the UK as a visitor. This is a very broadly defined permitted activity, which includes providing advice, acting as an arbitrator or mediator, acting as an expert witness, conferences and teaching, drafting contracts, and litigation.
It’s very important that visitors, and, as necessary, their employers, understand the extent of the rule changes and can provide evidence upon arrival that their activities comply with the visitor requirements, or they risk removal and difficulties when making an entry visa application of any sort in the future. Remember, the default position under both the new and old rules remains that visitors must not intend to work in the UK, unless this work is expressly permitted as per what we have outlined above.
