The government authorised exchange category is for people coming to the United Kingdom through approved schemes that aim to share knowledge, experience and best practice and experience the social and cultural life of the United Kingdom. This category must not be used to fill job vacancies or to bring unskilled labour to the United Kingdom.

Your sponsor will be an overarching body who manages the government authorised exchange scheme.  This overarching body must have the support of a United Kingdom government department.

Individual employers and organisations will not be allowed to sponsor migrants in this category, even if they are licensed as sponsors under other tiers or other categories of tier 5. The only exception to this is if you are coming to the United Kingdom as a sponsored researcher, where the higher education institution you are coming to work at will be your sponsor.

Any work you do must be skilled which means it must be equivalent to N or SVQ level 3 or above. This is unless you are taking part in the scheme set up as part of the European Union?s lifelong learning programme, where you can do vocational education and training at a lower skill level.

You are allowed to stay in the United Kingdom for up to 24 months under this category.

The specialist immigration team at Healys LLP will be pleased to assist you with an application under this category.