Global Business Mobility visas: when a business trip becomes a UK work assignment

Written from primary sources · Editor-reviewed · Sources last read 4 October 2026

By the tmcmatch.co.uk editorial team · Published 4 October 2026 · Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · 10 min read

2 primary sources cited on this page. How we check what is on this site

An overseas colleague flying in for a week of meetings is a business visitor. The same colleague staying three months to run a project at the UK office usually is not. The Immigration Rules put the dividing line in Appendix Visitor, and the main alternative for employees of international groups and overseas service providers in Appendix Global Business Mobility: five sponsored, temporary routes. This page quotes both, from the rules as published on GOV.UK and read on 2026-10-04, so a travel or HR team can tell which side of the line a trip falls on before it is booked.

Key points

Five routes: Senior or Specialist Worker, Graduate Trainee, UK Expansion Worker, Service Supplier, Secondment Worker.
All sponsored by a UK business with a licence, and none leads to settlement.
Salary: £52,500 for Senior or Specialist and UK Expansion Workers; £27,300 for Graduate Trainees.
Time limit: generally 5 years in any 6 across the routes.
Visitors can meet, negotiate, inspect and train — but not fill a UK role.

Where a business visit ends

The Standard Visitor rules list what a business visitor may do. The core list is PA 4:

Appendix Visitor: Permitted Activities, PA 4

A Visitor may: (a) attend meetings, conferences, seminars, interviews; and (b) give a one-off or short series of talks and speeches provided these are not organised as commercial events and will not make a profit for the organiser; and (c) negotiate and sign deals and contracts; and (d) attend trade fairs, for promotional work only, provided the Visitor is not directly selling; and (e) carry out site visits and inspections; and (f) gather information for their employment overseas;

Read it on legislation.gov.uk

Three further permissions matter for international companies. PA 5 allows employees to work with clients in an intra-corporate setting where “the employee’s movement is in an intra-corporate setting and any client facing activity is incidental to their employment abroad”. PA 7 allows an employee of an overseas company to “install, dismantle, repair, service or advise on machinery, equipment, computer software or hardware (or train UK based workers to provide these services)” under a sale or lease contract. PA 10.2 allows employees to “receive training from a UK based company or organisation in work practices and techniques which are required for the Visitor’s employment overseas and not available in their home country”.

Eight things an overseas employee might come to the UK to do, and the route that fits, from Appendix Visitor and Appendix Global Business Mobility
Activity	Route	Rule
Meetings, conferences, negotiating and signing contracts	Visitor	PA 4
Site visits and inspections	Visitor	PA 4
Client-facing work for the UK branch, incidental to the job abroad	Visitor, within limits	PA 5
Installing or servicing equipment sold by your overseas employer	Visitor	PA 7
Training in the UK not available at home	Visitor	PA 10.2
Filling a role at the UK branch for months	Senior or Specialist Worker	Appendix GBM
Opening the company’s first UK office	UK Expansion Worker	Appendix GBM
Delivering a services contract to a UK client	Service Supplier	Appendix GBM

The visitor rules also look at the pattern of travel, not just the activity on each trip: the genuine-visitor test asks whether the person will live in the UK through frequent or successive visits. The detail, and the visitor visa and ETA fees, are on UK business visitor visa.

The five Global Business Mobility routes

Appendix Global Business Mobility routes: purpose, general salary requirement and prior overseas employment (rules read 2026-10-04)
Route	For	General salary	Prior work overseas
Senior or Specialist Worker	Intra-company transfer of a senior manager or specialist	£52,500	12 months with the group outside the UK (not for high earners)
Graduate Trainee	Work placement on a graduate training programme	£27,300	3 months continuous, immediately before applying
UK Expansion Worker	Setting up a business’s first UK presence	£52,500	12 months with the business outside the UK (exceptions)
Service Supplier	Delivering a contract for an overseas service provider, or as a self-employed professional	—	12 months with the provider; single assignment usually 6 months
Secondment Worker	Seconded under a high-value contract or investment	—	Contract registered with the Home Office

Senior or Specialist Worker

“The Global Business Mobility – Senior or Specialist Worker route is for overseas workers who are undertaking temporary work assignments in the UK, where the worker is a senior manager or specialist employee and is being assigned to a UK business linked to their employer overseas. This type of assignment is often called an intra-company transfer or ICT.” The applicant “unless they are applying as a high earner must have worked outside the UK for the sponsor group for a cumulative period of at least 12 months.” Salary: “SNR 8.1. The general salary requirement is £52,500 per year, unless SNR 8.3 applies.” — and, like the other salaried routes, the rules count pay for no more than 48 hours a week towards it. Permission runs for the shortest of 5 years after the job starts, 14 days after it ends, or the cumulative limit.

Graduate Trainee

“The Global Business Mobility- Graduate Trainee route is for overseas workers who are undertaking temporary work assignments in the UK, where the worker is on a graduate training course leading to a senior management or specialist position and is required to do a work placement in the UK.” The applicant must “have worked outside the UK for the sponsor group for a continuous period of at least 3 months immediately before the date of application.” and “GTR 8.1. The general salary requirement is £27,300 per year.”

UK Expansion Worker

“The Global Business Mobility – UK Expansion Worker route is for overseas workers who are undertaking temporary work assignments in the UK, where the worker is a senior manager or specialist employee and is being assigned to the UK to undertake work related to a business’s expansion to the UK.” “UKX 8.1. The general salary requirement is £52,500 per year.”

Service Supplier

“The Global Business Mobility – Service Supplier route is for overseas workers who are undertaking temporary work assignments in the UK, where the worker is either a contractual service supplier employed by an overseas service provider or a self-employed independent professional based overseas,” and need to deliver a contract in the UK. The applicant must “have worked as or for the overseas service provider outside the UK for a cumulative period of 12 months.” Each assignment is short: the maximum single assignment is 12 months for those covered by listed trade agreements and otherwise “(iii) in all other cases, 6 months.”

Secondment Worker

“The Global Business Mobility – Secondment Worker route is for overseas workers who are undertaking temporary work assignments in the UK, where the worker is being seconded to the UK as part of a high value contract or investment by their employer overseas.” The UK side is defined by the contract: “SEC 5.4. The sponsor must have a contract with an overseas business, where that contract has been registered with the Home Office, and on which an applicant as a Secondment Worker will work.”

Rules common to all five

Sponsorship: a Certificate of Sponsorship from a licensed UK sponsor, issued no more than 3 months before the application.
Not a route to settlement — each route says so in its opening lines.
Cumulative limit: time on all Global Business Mobility and earlier Intra-Company routes counts together, generally “totalling 5 years in any 6-year period.”; Senior or Specialist Worker high earners can reach 9 years in any 10.
Funds: on arrival, unless the sponsor certifies maintenance, “the applicant must have funds of at least £1,270; or” — held for 28 days.

Fees and the Immigration Health Charge are set elsewhere and are not quoted here.

Why this site has nothing to gain from your answer

We are paid a fixed fee per enquiry, agreed in advance, identical whichever supplier receives it. We do not give immigration advice. Global Business Mobility is here because the trip that crosses from visit to assignment is usually booked through the same travel channel as the visits before it.

Moving people into the UK for assignments as well as trips?

Describe the requirement once. It goes to no more than three suppliers, once each.

What the travel side should check

Ask the purpose of each inbound trip, not just the dates; the activity decides the route.
Flag repeated or long visits by the same overseas employee for an HR or immigration review.
For assignees, book around the job start date on the Certificate of Sponsorship; the period of permission is counted from it.
Keep the outbound side in view too: UK staff going the other way may need an A1 certificate and, for Europe, ETIAS once it starts.

This page quotes the Immigration Rules as read on 2026-10-04. It is not immigration advice; the rules change frequently and sponsors should check the current appendix and take advice before assigning anyone.

Common questions

What is the Global Business Mobility visa?

A family of five sponsored work routes for overseas employees on temporary UK assignments: Senior or Specialist Worker, Graduate Trainee, UK Expansion Worker, Service Supplier and Secondment Worker.

What is the salary for a Senior or Specialist Worker visa?

Appendix Global Business Mobility: “SNR 8.1. The general salary requirement is £52,500 per year, unless SNR 8.3 applies.” It is also subject to the going rate for the occupation.

Can a Global Business Mobility visa lead to settlement?

No. For example: “The Global Business Mobility – Senior or Specialist Worker route is not a route to settlement.” Each route carries the same statement.

How long can someone stay on Global Business Mobility routes?

Generally up to cumulative permission “totalling 5 years in any 6-year period.”, with 9 years in any 10 for Senior or Specialist Worker high earners.

Can an overseas employee work at the UK branch on a visitor visa?

Only within the permitted activities. Appendix Visitor allows client-facing activities in an intra-corporate setting where they are incidental to the job abroad; filling a role in the UK branch needs a work route.

Who sponsors a Global Business Mobility worker?

The UK business, which must hold a sponsor licence for the route and issue a Certificate of Sponsorship.

Sources cited on this page

Every figure above was read from the source it is attributed to on 20 September 2026. How we check this.