Overseas criminal record certificates required by Tier 1 applicants

In order to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the policy the Home Office has decided to introduce the Overseas criminal record certificates requirement in phases, starting with Tier 1 (Investor) and (Entrepreneur) applicants, and their dependants who are 18 years old or above. The requirement will apply to all Tier 1 (Investor) and (Entrepreneur) applications submitted outside the UK on or after 1 September 2015. Providing the requirement is implemented successfully, it should be rolled out across all applications by the beginning of 2016.

In many countries processing timeframes can take up to one month or more for overseas applicants (eg Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong and Macau, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Latvia, Poland, Republic of North Korea, Russia, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, USA). Therefore it is crucial that applicants apply for a criminal record certificate bearing in mind the processing time at the relevant overseas authority to avoid significant delay in the submission of their application.

Employers would be advised to prepare for the requirement to be rolled out to Tier 2 categories and as such, Tier 2 sponsors should ensure that any potential migrant to be sponsored early next year has applied for the criminal record certificate in good time to avoid a delay to their start date in the UK.

Please note that under the current Rules the requirement does not apply to extensions or in-country switching applications under Tier 1 (Investor) and (Entrepreneur).