The UK Secondment Worker visa is the Global Business Mobility route for overseas employees seconded to a UK organisation under a high-value contract worth at least £50 million. Two 2026 changes redefined it: the fee rose to £340 on 8 April, and the overseas-employment requirement was halved from 12 months to 6 under HC 1691. No salary threshold, no English test, a 2-year ceiling, and no settlement pathway.
Global Business Mobility
UK Secondment Worker Visa 2026: GBM Sub-Route for High-Value Contracts
What is the Secondment Worker Visa?
The Secondment Worker visa lets an overseas employee work temporarily at a UK organisation to deliver a contract worth at least £50 million between the two businesses. It requires 6 months' prior employment with the overseas employer (halved from 12 months on 8 April 2026), a Certificate of Sponsorship tied to the registered contract, and a job at RQF Level 6. No salary threshold, no English test, maximum 2 years, no settlement pathway.
Four of the five routes in the Global Business Mobility framework move people within a corporate family. This one moves them between strangers: an overseas employer and a UK client connected by nothing except a very large contract. It is also the only genuinely new route in the family — not a rebrand of a Tier 2 category but a 2022 invention, built because secondment-style arrangements had previously been forced through the Intra-Company Transfer rules, which presumed a group relationship that did not exist.
The design target is major project delivery — infrastructure, IT services, energy, engineering — where the winning contractor's specialists need to work on UK soil for the life of the project. Everything unusual about the route follows from that: the contract, not the worker, is the qualifying object.
The £50 Million High-Value Contract Requirement
The overseas employer must hold a contract with the UK sponsor worth at least £50 million — GOV.UK is blunt that anything smaller means looking at a different visa altogether. There is no discretion at the margin: £49 million is not a near-miss, it is a different route.
Registration Before Sponsorship
The contract must also be registered: the UK sponsor lodges each qualifying contract with the Home Office through the Sponsorship Management System before any Certificate of Sponsorship can be assigned against it, and a newly won contract must be reported via a change of circumstances before it can support workers. Every CoS names the specific registered contract the worker will serve.
A Secondment Worker's permission is welded to the registered contract named on their Certificate of Sponsorship. The worker cannot be moved to a different client project — even one under another of the sponsor's registered contracts — without a fresh application. And if the contract ends early or the worker's role on it finishes, the sponsor must report it within 10 working days and the worker's permission is likely to be curtailed, normally with 60 days to switch routes, find a new sponsor or leave. On this route, the visa lives and dies with the deal.
Eligibility Requirements
The 2026 headline is the halving of the overseas-employment rule. Statement of Changes HC 1691 (laid 5 March 2026, in force 8 April 2026) cut the requirement from 12 months to 6 — a deliberate loosening aimed at the route's real users, project businesses that need to deploy shorter-tenured specialists and recently recruited experts onto UK contracts. Notably, the same change did not reach the UK Expansion Worker route, which keeps its 12-month standard — a split worth knowing when choosing between the two.
- The contract: your overseas employer holds a registered contract worth at least £50 million with the UK sponsor.
- Overseas employment: at least 6 months with the overseas employer, outside the UK, immediately before applying — waived on extension with the same sponsor.
- Age: 18 or over at the date of application.
- Certificate of Sponsorship: assigned within 3 months of the application, naming the registered contract.
- Eligible occupation: RQF Level 6 or above under SOC 2020 on the GBM eligible occupations list.
- No salary threshold: uniquely in the sponsored system, the route sets no minimum salary — pay must simply comply with the National Minimum Wage and Working Time Regulations.
- Maintenance: £1,270 held for 28 consecutive days — waived if the sponsor certifies maintenance or you have been in the UK on a valid visa for 12 months or more.
- TB certificate if applying from a listed country; certified translations for non-English documents. No English language test at any stage.
The Payslip Trap on GOV.UK's Own Page
As of August 2026, the Secondment Worker documents section on GOV.UK still tells applicants they may be asked to evidence 12 months of overseas payslips — while the eligibility rule, amended by HC 1691, requires only 6. The rules prevail: 6 months qualifies. But bring every payslip you have, not the minimum — caseworker request forms may still be calibrated to the old rule, and a document request delay costs weeks.
Fees and Costs from 8 April 2026
The route shares the £340 fee tier with the other short-stay GBM routes, and the sponsor's side is among the lightest in the system:
The Full Cost Schedule
| Fee Component | Amount from 8 April 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee (initial or extension) | £340 per person | Up from £319; same for dependants |
| Immigration Health Surcharge | £1,035/year adult · £776/year under-18 | Paid up front — £1,375 all-in for a 12-month adult grant |
| Personal maintenance | £1,270 | Plus £285 partner, £315 first child, £200 each further child; waived if sponsor certifies |
| Priority / super-priority service | +£500 / +£1,000 | Where available at the application location |
| Sponsor: Certificate of Sponsorship | £55 per worker | Against £525 on Worker routes |
| Immigration Skills Charge | £0 | Route is exempt — £1,320/year saved versus Skilled Worker at a large sponsor |
Source: GOV.UK Secondment Worker visa fee pages; Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Order uplift, 8 April 2026.
Set against the £50 million contract that qualifies the worker, £1,375 of Home Office charges is a rounding error — which is rather the point. The wider landscape sits in the UK work visa fees comparison.
How to Apply
Applications run from outside the UK or by in-country switch — not from a visit visa, short-term student visa, Parent of a Child Student visa, seasonal or domestic-worker visa, on immigration bail, or on leave outside the rules. Decisions typically take 3 weeks outside the UK and 8 weeks in-country, with the priority services available at the fees above.
- Step 1: the UK sponsor registers the high-value contract with the Home Office through the Sponsorship Management System, if not already registered.
- Step 2: the sponsor assigns the £55 Certificate of Sponsorship naming the contract, the role and the dates.
- Step 3: the worker applies online on GOV.UK — up to 3 months before the start date — paying £340 plus the IHS.
- Step 4: identity via the UK Immigration: ID Check app or a biometric appointment; evidence upload — passport, CoS reference, overseas payslips and contract, maintenance, TB certificate if applicable.
- Step 5: decision, then the eVisa links to the worker's UKVI account and the secondment begins.
Bringing Your Partner and Children
Partners — spouse, civil partner, or a partner of 2 years' cohabitation — and children under 18 apply as dependants through the standard UK dependant visa process, each paying £340 plus IHS at their rate. Maintenance stacks on the main applicant's £1,270: £285 for a partner, £315 for the first child, £200 for each further child, waived where the sponsor certifies. Dependants can work in most jobs (professional sportsperson roles excepted) and study freely; their permission tracks the main applicant's, including any curtailment if the contract dies early.
Duration, Extension and the 5-in-6 Cap
The initial grant runs for the CoS period plus 14 days, up to 12 months, extendable in-country by a further 12 — a 2-year absolute ceiling with no high-earner carve-out of the kind Senior or Specialist Worker offers. The extension must continue the same secondment with the same sponsor, and usefully, the overseas-employment rule is not re-tested on extension.
The Shared 5-in-6 Cap
Secondment time also feeds the cumulative 5-years-in-any-6 cap shared across the whole GBM family and the old ICT routes — so a specialist who has spent years rotating through Senior or Specialist Worker assignments arrives with less Secondment window available, and vice versa.
Secondment Worker vs the Other GBM Routes
Route selection is where GBM applications fail, because the five routes encode five different business relationships. The one-line test for this route: two unrelated businesses, one £50M+ contract.
The Five GBM Routes Compared
| GBM Route | Business Scenario | Max Stay | Key Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secondment Worker | Delivering a £50M+ contract between two separate businesses | 2 years (12 + 12) | Registered contract; 6 months' overseas employment |
| Senior or Specialist Worker | Transfer within the same corporate group | 5 years in 6 (9 in 10 over £73,900) | £52,500 salary; 12 months' employment |
| Graduate Trainee | UK rotation of a group graduate scheme | 12 months, no extension | £27,300 salary; 3 months' employment |
| UK Expansion Worker | Opening the group's first UK branch (pre-trading) | 2 years | £52,500 salary; 12 months' employment; 5-worker cap |
| Service Supplier | Contracted services under a UK trade agreement | 6 or 12 months by agreement | Trade-agreement coverage; 12 months' experience |
Secondment Worker or Service Supplier?
The closest confusion is with the Service Supplier route — both put an outside contractor's staff into a UK client. The divide is the qualifying instrument: Service Supplier runs on a trade agreement and tops out at 12 months; Secondment Worker runs on a £50 million contract and buys 2 years with no nationality restriction.
What Happens After the Visa Ends?
At the 2-year ceiling the deployment is over, and the realistic onward paths are the family's usual ones:
- Skilled Worker: the settlement-leading switch, available in-country — £41,700 salary, an RQF Level 6 occupation, and CEFR B2 English from 8 January 2026, which this route never tested.
- Senior or Specialist Worker: where the relationship is really a group transfer and £52,500 is met — remembering Secondment time already spent inside the shared 5-in-6 cap.
- A further GBM deployment: from outside the UK, on a new contract, within the cap.
- Independent routes: Global Talent, Innovator Founder, or family routes where circumstances fit.
Settlement: The Clock Starts Elsewhere
On settlement the family rule applies without exception: no Secondment day counts towards the 5-year period for Indefinite Leave to Remain — the clock starts only when a qualifying route is granted. A seconded specialist who wants a UK future should treat the contract years as the audition and line up the Skilled Worker offer, and the English test, before the second year runs out.
The official entry point is the GOV.UK Secondment Worker visa overview; the legal framework sits in Appendix Global Business Mobility: Secondment Worker, with occupation codes in the GBM eligible occupations list and the 6-month change made by Statement of Changes HC 1691 (5 March 2026). Sponsor-side duties run under the sponsor licensing framework. Figures verified 22 August 2026.
Frequently Asked
Questions about the Secondment Worker visa
Yes — Statement of Changes HC 1691 halved the requirement from 12 months to 6, in force 8 April 2026, and the current caseworker guidance confirms it. Note that parts of GOV.UK's documents page still reference 12 months of payslip evidence; the 6-month rule prevails, but bring more evidence than the minimum if you have it.
The route is closed — GOV.UK directs smaller arrangements to other visas. Depending on the facts, the realistic alternatives are the Service Supplier route (where a UK trade agreement covers the service) or Skilled Worker (where the UK business hires the worker directly). There is no discretion on the threshold.
No — uniquely among the sponsored work routes, Secondment Worker has no salary threshold at all. Pay must comply with the National Minimum Wage and Working Time Regulations, and the role must still sit at RQF Level 6 on the eligible occupations list, but there is no £52,500-style floor to clear.
No. The Certificate of Sponsorship names one registered contract, and the permission covers work on that contract only — even where the sponsor holds other registered contracts. A different project means a fresh CoS and a fresh application.
The sponsor reports it within 10 working days and the worker's permission is normally curtailed with around 60 days to switch routes, find a new qualifying arrangement or leave the UK. Dependants' permission is curtailed in parallel. Overstaying the window damages every future UK application.
Yes, in-country, if the Skilled Worker requirements are met: £41,700 salary, an eligible RQF Level 6 role, a Skilled Worker CoS, and CEFR B2 English from 8 January 2026. The 5-year ILR clock starts from the switch date — Secondment time contributes nothing to it.
Yes — partner and children under 18, each paying £340 plus IHS (£1,035 adult, £776 child per year), with maintenance of £285/£315/£200 on top of your £1,270 unless the sponsor certifies. Dependants can work in most jobs and study without restriction.
No — like every GBM route. The framework is corporate mobility, not migration: to settle, switch to a settlement-leading route such as Skilled Worker, and the qualifying clock starts from that grant, not from your arrival as a Secondment Worker.