Spotlight on immigration and workforce mobility across UK and Ireland

For employers operating across both the UK and Ireland, immigration is no longer simply a compliance issue. Increasingly, it’s becoming an important part of workforce planning. Organisations that coordinate their approach across both jurisdictions are often better placed to avoid delays, reduce risk, and support wider business planning. Those that manage cross-border mobility most successfully don’t treat immigration as the final stage of workforce planning – they make it one of the first. We’ll hear from immigration lawyers in both the UK and Ireland about how employers can take a more strategic approach to cross-border mobility.

The UK and Ireland each operate separate immigration systems, with different rules on sponsorship, work permits, salary thresholds, and routes to long-term residence. For employers recruiting internationally or moving staff between the two jurisdictions, those differences can have a significant impact on project planning, recruitment timescales, workforce costs and even how organisations deploy staff across both jurisdictions. Organisations that treat immigration as a last-minute compliance issue may find themselves facing unexpected delays or restrictions, whereas those that plan ahead can build immigration considerations into wider workforce planning from the outset.

So, for employers operating across both the UK and Ireland, the challenge is to coordinate immigration planning across two very different legal systems without creating unnecessary delay, cost, or compliance risk. So let’s hear more on that. Shara Pledger is an immigration expert based at our Manchester office and earlier she joined me by video-link to discuss it: 

Shara Pledger: “If an organisation is operating in both the UK and Ireland, it's really important that their approach to immigration is coordinated and has fully considered all of the implications of both of those sets of rules. The rules are not interchangeable; they are very different for sponsorship for work permits in Ireland, as they're called, as well. So it's really important for organisations to understand that if someone meets the requirements in one jurisdiction it will not automatically translate to them meeting the requirements in another. The systems are also very very different. There are more requirements, for example, in the UK - you'll see far more rules and nuance in relation to requirements for the type of roles that can be sponsored, the salaries that are required, etcetera. So again, there is a real risk that's associated with thinking that because somebody has been able to secure their visa in one of those jurisdictions, it will automatically be the case that they will then qualify for another. I think the real nub of the issue for an awful lot of organisations that are operating in both of those jurisdictions is that they will quite often, particularly if they have a strong base in the Republic of Ireland, be engaging with individuals who are EU nationals who have historically been very used to traveling to the UK, often for business purposes, without any requirement to have any kind of permission and we obviously saw this a lot for UK-based employers just in the immediate aftermath post Brexit of business visits that may well have not really satisfied the visitor rules and requirements for visas that perhaps weren't adhered to. But that remains a risk in the cross-border sphere because you will have individuals who are probably quite used to chopping and changing quite interchangeably between those two jurisdictions, but you can't do that and if the immigration authorities become aware of it then it’s obviously a real problem and could lead to things like civil penalties here in the UK, or obviously also difficulties with Irish authorities where the issues arise there.”

Joe Glavina: “In your experience, where do organisations most commonly encounter difficulties when managing mobility across the UK and Ireland?”

Shara Pledger: “The key difficulty really comes from trying to align thinking about recruitment processes and needs, planning for things like budgets and projects, etcetera, where both of the jurisdictions will be involved because it does mean that you need to juggle an awful lot of considerations, which are very particular, depending on the jurisdiction that you're talking about at any given time. So, really, it's that sort of strategic element of being able to identify really early where somebody might need to be carrying out their business activity in both Ireland and also the UK so that the requirements for that can be fully assessed at the outset so you don't get, for example, part way through project planning to suddenly discover that actually there might be a visa issue that hasn't already been considered. So really, it is about that strategic plan and making sure that people have got that in the forefront of their minds because, obviously, the close proximity of these two jurisdictions and the fact that it is a common travel area really does assist people to kind of push this to the back of their minds and maybe have it as the last consideration, but really it needs to be right at the front.”

So, as you heard, successful organisations don’t leave immigration until recruitment is underway or projects are already in motion. They build immigration planning into their workforce strategy from the outset, helping to reduce risk and avoid unexpected delays. But good planning isn’t just about avoiding problems. Employers that understand the differences between the UK and Irish immigration systems can also make more informed decisions about recruitment, long-term workforce planning and how best to deploy skilled workers across both jurisdictions. So what distinguishes the organisations that manage cross-border mobility particularly well? I put that question to Dublin-based immigration lawyer Louise Shaw.

Louise Shaw: “It’s really understanding that the two systems are very different, and planning for that. The availability of work permits in Ireland and Skilled Worker visas in the UK are different. There are different skill and salary thresholds and so it's being alive to that and alive to the risks, particularly in Ireland, around renewal applications and needing to be paying the renewed salary thresholds at the point of renewal, for example - that's different. Also, I see organisations who can really take advantage of the rules being different. In Ireland, broadly, the skill threshold is lower so there are more opportunities to employ individuals on certain salaries at a lower a lower level. So that's a good opportunity if you need someone within the UK, or Ireland, and for some clients who have a presence across both countries that that can be quite helpful. Also, in terms of longer-term planning, there are very different rules around how long an employee needs to be on a permit or a Skilled Worker visa in the UK before they can apply for residency which then gives them a longer term right to live and work in the country without restriction. So that's worth considering as well if you are looking at much more long-term workforce planning and retaining skills that you might have trained the person up, for example, especially if they originally come under one of the graduate routes that are available in both countries. So that's one part – really taking advantage of where the opportunities lie for bringing in skilled workers across both countries. Also, on the more broad right to work piece, it’s really important - and I do see clients who are quite good at this - information sharing across HR, legal, and global mobility, and keeping an eye on where hybrid workers are working and where business visitors are going and what they're doing, particularly where they are on a specific work permission in one of the countries. So overall, it's about being joined up across the UK and Ireland, understanding the systems are different, and careful planning.”

So the key takeaway for employers is that organisations operating across the UK and Ireland should treat immigration as an integral part of workforce planning, not simply a compliance exercise. By understanding the differences between the two systems and planning early, employers can reduce risk, avoid unnecessary delays, and make more informed decisions about recruiting, deploying, and retaining skilled workers across both jurisdictions. If you would like advice on any of the issues covered in this programme, please contact Shara in the first instance – her details are on the screen for you.