UK Farm Worker Visa (Seasonal Worker Visa): Requirements and Application Process

UK Farm Worker Visa Video:

UK Farm Worker Visa

Home Secretary of United Kingdom Mr. Sajid Javid Announced UK Farm Worker Visa Pilot Scheme on September 2018. UK is facing extreme labor shortage in agriculture field since UK’s Brexit matter started. Previously UK Farmers were able to get labor from European countries but now it is not any more. So farmers of UK are demanding more manpower to manage their crops and gardens in other words to farmer jobs in UK.

Late in 2018, the UK government announced a farm worker visa pilot scheme (“Seasonal Agriculture Workers Scheme”) that ran on a trial basis from spring 2019 to the end of 2020 with 2,500 places. That pilot has now ended and has been replaced by the Seasonal Worker visa route. Under the current route you can come to the UK for horticulture work (such as picking fruit, vegetables or flowers) for up to 6 months, or for poultry work from 2 October to 31 December in the same year. The government sets an annual quota: 45,000 visas for 2025 (43,000 horticulture and 2,000 poultry) and 42,900 for 2026 (41,000 horticulture and 1,900 poultry). The visa cannot be extended beyond 6 months, you cannot switch to another visa, family members cannot come as dependants, and it does not lead to settlement.

UK Farm Worker Visa Requirements.

As mentioned above, these visas are given to foreigners to work in agriculture fields like managing crops, fruit picking and animal care, so this program doesn’t require any high qualification, experience, degree or IELTS. The official requirements for the Seasonal Worker visa are:

• You must be 18 or over when you apply
• A certificate of sponsorship from a licensed UK scheme operator (your sponsor gives you a reference number)
• At least £1,270 in your bank account (held for 28 days), unless your sponsor certifies your maintenance
• Visa application fee of £340
• Your job must pay at least the minimum wage and follow UK working-hours rules

UK Farm Worker Visa Sponsorship

The UK government has licensed six scheme operators to sponsor Seasonal Worker visas. The six licensed operators are listed below — see also the official licensed-operator guidance.

1. AGRI-HR
2. Concordia (UK) Ltd
3. Fruitful Jobs
4. HOPS Labour Solutions Ltd
5. Pro-Force Limited
6. RE Recruitment (poultry workers only)

A licence of sponsorship has been granted to these six operators. You should only apply for seasonal work through these licensed sponsors. These companies are working like a medium between workers and employers. It is actually good for workers because UK government selected companies to provide sponsorships to foreign workers. So it became slightly easy and straight forward to find job offer from UK. Visa applicants do not need to search and apply anywhere else for job offer. These companies will get registration of interest from UK employers who want labor and then companies will choose labor from abroad.

UK Farm Worker Visa Registration

These company have also collected “Registration of Interest” from UK employers who want workers as well as from non-European workers who wish to work in UK as a farm worker. These companies collected data from visa applicants to shortlist the countries where to get labor.

Under the current Seasonal Worker visa route there is no nationality restriction — workers of any nationality can apply as long as they meet the requirements above and are sponsored by one of the six licensed scheme operators. (During the original 2019 pilot the two operators only recruited from a few countries such as Ukraine, Russia and Moldova because the pilot quota was only 2,500 places — this restriction no longer applies.)

All applicants are advised to stay away from fake consultants and scam agents who are promising to provide UK farm worker visa. Only the six licensed scheme operators listed above are authorized to sponsor seasonal workers. A scheme operator will never ask you to pay money in exchange for a visa, there is no fee for the sponsorship certificate, and genuine work offers are never sent via WhatsApp, Telegram or personal accounts.