UK Work Permits

People who do not need specific permission to work in the UK

• people who are settled (allowed to stay permanently);
• people who have been allowed to enter or remain to join close relatives settled in the UK, for example husbands and wives, and have been allowed in for a year initially;
• people granted refugee status or exceptional leave to remain
• Commonwealth citizens who have been allowed in as working holiday makers or because they had a grandparent born in the UK or because they have the right of abode;
• Other people who have no restriction prohibition on working stamped on their passports

General

British immigration law and rules on coming to the UK to work are designed mainly to protect jobs in the UK for people already allowed to live and work in the UK and to encourage investment in business only from people with a very substantial amount of money to invest. There are exceptions for certain Eastern Europeans allowed to set up businesses without significant sums of capital under association agreements with the EU.

References

JCWI Immigration nationality & refugee handbook 1999 edition

Butterworths Immigration Law Handbook

Michael Reason LLM, July 2004.