If you’re an employee of an overseas newspaper, news agency or broadcasting organisation, you may be eligible for a Representative of an Overseas Business visa.
The Representative of an Overseas Business Visa allows employees of overseas newspapers, news agencies or broadcasting organisations to come to the UK if they’ve been posted on a long-term assignment.
Note that this is a new visa route launched by the UK government in the summer of 2022 and was formerly known as the ‘Representative of an Overseas Newspaper, News Agency or Broadcasting Organisation visa’.
In addition to this, sole representatives who wish to open a UK branch of their overseas company or business will no longer be able to apply for Sole Representative visas. Instead, you must apply through the UK Expansion Worker visa under the Global Business Mobility category of visas.
However, workers with existing permission as sole representatives on UK Sole Representative visas are still able to extend their stay and settle in the UK through this route.
A Representative of an Overseas Business visa holder will be able to do the following:
However, note that you will not be able to do the following:
A Representative of an Overseas Business visa will initially allow you to stay in the UK for 3 years.
After this time, you may then apply to extend your visa for another 2 years.
However, you must still comply with the conditions and eligibility criteria of the visa itself.
After you’ve been in the UK for a total of 5 years, you may apply for permanent settlement through indefinite leave to remain.
In order to apply for this visa, you must be an employee of an overseas newspaper, news agency or broadcasting organisation working on a mostly UK-based long-term assignment.
Your employer must also have its headquarters and principal place of business outside the UK.
In addition, you must also:
Most applicants for this visa will be journalists. However, other employees may also apply, such as the following:
However, note that secretaries and other administrative support staff will not qualify for this visa and must apply under an alternative immigration route.
You may have to prove that you meet the minimum English language requirement when you apply for a Representative of an Overseas Business visa.
You may do this by either:
However, you will not have to prove your knowledge of English if you’re a national of one of the following countries:
| Antigua and Barbuda | Dominica | St Lucia |
| Australia | Grenada | St Vincent and the Grenadines |
| The Bahamas | Guyana | Trinidad and Tobago |
| Barbados | Jamaica | USA |
| Belize | New Zealand | |
| Canada | St Kitts and Nevis |
You must apply for a Representative of an Overseas Business visa online through the Gov.uk website.
Here, you will fill in your personal details and details of your work and your employment.
Note that the earliest you can apply for this visa is 3 months before your date of travel.
As part of the application process, you will also have to attend a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) service point in order to give your biometrics information in the form of your fingerprints and photograph.
You will also be asked to supply a range of supporting documents with your application. To do this, you may either:
Note that you must not travel to the UK until you’ve received a decision on your application, otherwise it may be withdrawn.
You will need to provide the following documents with your application:
Note that this is not an exhaustive list. You may be asked to provide additional documents that are not listed here, depending on your circumstances.
You will have to provide a certified translation of any document that is not in either English or Welsh.
You should normally get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks when applying from outside the UK.
If applying from inside the UK, you will normally get a decision within 8 weeks.
Note that your application may take longer if UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) need to contact you about your application, such as if:
In certain circumstances, you may be eligible to pay to receive a faster decision on your visa application through UKVI’s priority processing service. However, note that this service may not be available in your country.
The Representative of an Overseas Business visa cost is £719 when applying from outside of the UK.
If you’re applying from inside the UK, such as if you’re extending your visa or switching to this visa from another one, it will cost £625.
Note that the same costs all also apply when you extend your existing visa.
You must also pay the immigration healthcare surcharge as part of your application, which is £624 for every year you’ll be in the UK.
If you’re a Representative of an Overseas Business visa holder and you wish to extend your visa, you must apply online through the Gov.uk site.
If your partner and children are with you in the UK as your dependents, they may also apply with you at the same time to extend their visa, or anytime before their visas expire.
In order to extend your visa, you must already be in the UK as either:
Additionally, both of the following must apply:
If you’re a sole representative, you must also still be supervising the UK branch or subsidiary that you established for the overseas business.
Your visa can be extended for another 2 years after your initial period of permission is granted. If your previous Representative of an Overseas Business visa was issued before 1 October 2009, you may be able to get an extension lasting 3 years.
When extending your visa as a sole representative, you must provide the following:
When extending your visa as a newspaper, news agency or broadcast employee, you must provide the following:
You will be able to bring your family members (otherwise known as dependents) with you to the UK with a Representative of an Overseas Business visa.
Dependents include the following:
Note that if you’re a sole representative, your husband, wife or partner cannot be in the UK as your dependent if they own or control a majority of the overseas business you will be representing.
Your family members must apply for their own visa online through the Gov.uk website.
They may also have to attend a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) service point in order to give their biometrics information in the form of their fingerprints and photograph.
Your family members can also apply to or switch their visas to stay with you if they’re already in the UK.
They can either apply at the same time as you, or anytime before their current visa expires.
If you’re already in the UK on another visa, you may be able to apply to switch to a Representative of an Overseas Business visa instead.
In order to do so, you must be an employee of an overseas media organisation working on a long-term assignment in the UK.
However, you cannot switch to this visa if you’re currently in the UK on one of the following:
If any of the above apply to you, you must first leave the UK and apply for a Representative of an Overseas Business visa from outside the UK.
Additionally, if you plan to switch to this visa from a Student visa, one of the following must apply to you:
In order to switch to this visa, you must apply online through the Gov.uk website.
Note that you must apply to switch before your current visa expires.
You will normally receive a decision on your application within 8 weeks when applying to switch to a Representative of an Overseas Business visa.
For those working for media or news organisations overseas, the Representative of an Overseas Business visa can be an important route to both securing work in the UK and eventually settling here permanently.
If you’re an employee of an overseas media or news organisation and need to apply for a Representative of an Overseas Business visa, WMYV can help.
We are experienced and professional immigration lawyers with a long history of working within UK immigration and business law.
Whatever your circumstances, our expert immigration advisers can help. Whether you’re an overseas parent company looking to obtain a visa for an employee, a worker who’s been tasked with a long-term assignment in the UK, or if you’re simply uncertain about the eligibility criteria for this visa, we can help.
We can also help if you’re in a sole representative arrangement or currently in the UK on the Sole Representative visa route, or if you’re a wholly owned subsidiary of a parent company with commercial presence in the UK.
Reach out to us for more information or to see how we can help you?
If you need to prove your English language ability when applying for a Representative of an Overseas Business visa, you may need to do so by taking an approved English language test.
If you’re in the UK, approved English language tests can only be found through the following providers:
If you’re outside of the UK, approved English language tests can only be found through the following providers:
Note that you will have to pass your approved English language test with at least a CEFR level A1 in speaking and listening.
Indefinite leave to remain is the UK’s term for permanent settlement.
In most cases, you will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain if you’ve spent at least 5 years in the UK on a Representative of an Overseas Business Visa.
In addition, you must:
You must also not have undertaken work for any other business or engaged in business of your own during your 5 years in the UK.
It may be the case that your current UK visa expires while your application for a Representative of an Overseas Business Visa is being processed.
In this instance, you will be allowed to stay in the UK while you wait for a decision on your application.
However, you must have submitted your application before your current visa’s expiry date for this to be the case.
You may be able to pay for a faster processing time when applying for your Representative of an Overseas Business visa.
If this service is available to you in your country, it will cost £500 for the priority service, which will aim to process your application within 5 business days.
Alternatively, you can pay £800 to pay for the super priority service, which will aim to process your application by the end of the next working day.
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