Tier 1 General

From 6th April 2011 the Tier 1 (General) route has closed, however a migrant is able to extend their stay in the UK under the Tier 1 (General) route if they are currently in the UK under one of the following immigration categories:

• Tier 1 (General); or
• Highly Skilled Migrant Programme; or
• Self-employed lawyer; or
• Writer, composer or artist.

The following information is given to provide a generalised overview of the criteria required for the Tier 1 (General) extension visa. If you wish for us to assess whether you qualify for the Tier 1 (General) extension visa, or you wish to engage our services and/or require further information regarding this particular application, please complete the ‘Contact Box’ on this page to enable a member of our team to contact you and advise you further.

In order for a migrant to extend their stay in the UK under the Tier 1 (General) route, they must initially meet the points criteria as well as providing the correct supporting documents to evidence the points they are claiming. In the event a migrant meets the points criteria but the appropriate supporting documents are not attached to the application, the Tier 1 (General) extension application will be refused.

A migrant will need to obtain 80 points in the attributes section which consists of Age, Qualifications, Earnings and UK Experience (unless they were last granted leave as a highly skilled migrant as a writer, composer, artist, self-employed lawyer or as a tier 1 general migrant under the rules in place before 19th July 2010, then 75 points in the attributes section needs to be obtained). In addition to this the migrant will need to obtain 10 points for English language and 10 points for Maintenance.

It should be noted if the Tier 1 (General) extension is granted, the migrant will be granted leave to remain for a maximum period of 3 years.