UK Youth Mobility Visa Scheme

The Appendix Youth Mobility Scheme has replaced the Appendix T5 (Temporary Worker) Youth Mobility Scheme. Added to the list are Icelandic and Indian nationals who are now also eligible to apply.

What is the Youth Mobility Scheme?

The Youth Mobility Scheme is a cultural exchange programme for individuals aged 18 to 30, from participating countries and territories, to enable them to experience life in the UK. They can come to the UK for up to 2 years and undertake employment without sponsorship, although they cannot bring their dependents. Applicants can only come to the UK on this route once.

What are the requirements to apply for the Youth Mobility Scheme?

Those seeking to come to the UK on this route must apply for entry clearance before their arrival. The application must be made from outside the UK.

Applicants must pay any application fee (currently £244), Immigration Health Charge (£1,248), provide required biometric information, and provide a passport or other travel document which satisfactorily establishes their identity and nationality.

Applicants must be a British Overseas citizen, British Overseas Territories citizen or British National (Overseas), or a national of Australia, Canada, Monaco, New Zealand, San Marino, Iceland, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan or India.

Individuals must be over the age of 18 on the date their entry clearance will become valid, and they must also be under the age of 30 on the date of application.

The Home Office will consider an individual’s personal history and immigration history. An applicant cannot previously have spent time in the UK on this route.

An applicant may need to provide a tuberculosis certificate, depending on where they have resided in the six months prior to their application.

Applicants must have funds of £2,350 held for a 28-day period to show that they are able to maintain themselves in the UK. They must not have any children aged under 18 who are either living with them or financially dependent upon them.

Who do these requirements apply to?

Youth Mobility Scheme Sponsorship requirements do not apply to an applicant who is a British Overseas citizen, British Overseas Territories citizen or British National (Overseas). However, they do apply to all other nationals.

The following countries have Deemed Sponsorship Status, and their allocation of places for 2022 is as follows:

• Australia – 30,000 places
• New Zealand – 13,000 places
• Canada – 6,000 places
• Japan – 1,500 places
• Monaco – 1,000 places
• Taiwan – 1,000 places
• Hong Kong – 1,000 places
• Republic of Korea – 1,000 places

For those that are nationals of countries with deemed sponsorship status, they must provide a passport issued by that country to meet the sponsorship requirement.

The countries and territories without Deemed Sponsorship Status, and the total allocation of places available for 2022, are as follows:

• San Marino – 1,000 places
• Iceland – 1,000 places
• India – 3,000 places

Nationals of countries without deemed sponsorship status must provide evidence of sponsorship that has been issued to them no more than six months before the date of the application.

Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and now also India required applicants to use the Home Office’s ballot process. Applicants must submit an expression of interest in applying for entry clearance under the Youth Mobility Scheme through the Home Office’s process.

The Home Office then selects at random who will be invited to apply for entry clearance from the pool. To evidence they were successful in the ballot, nationals of these countries must (a) have been issued an invitation to apply; and (b) made their application within the period of time specified in the invitation.

If you need help with the Appendix Youth Mobility Scheme, contact our experts here.