In September 2025, US technology companies pledged around £31bn for UK AI and data centre infrastructure as part of the US-UK Tech Prosperity Deal. Where that kind of money goes, other firms follow: suppliers, start-ups and scale-ups from the US, India and beyond, all looking for a UK foothold.

Most of them plan the launch in the same order. Find an office in London, Manchester or Cambridge. Register a UK company. Open a bank account. Start hiring.

The question that often comes last is the one that decides the launch date: how do we get our own people here?

Move, hire or stay remote?

Not every UK launch needs to move people. A company can hire locally, use an employer of record, or keep its team overseas and serve UK customers remotely. Each has its place.

Moving your own people makes sense when the first months depend on knowledge a new hire does not have: the codebase, the product roadmap, the way the company makes decisions. That is why most new UK tech hubs are built around a small group the company already trusts, such as an engineering lead, a product manager or a country manager. Local hiring then builds the team around them.

The pressure to move staff is growing. In a June 2026 survey of 519 employers by Envoy Global, 61% said they had relocated staff in the past year, up from 49% in 2025. With continued uncertainty over US H-1B fees, the UK is now part of the answer for many firms.

When a company does decide to move its people, the visa is not paperwork to sort out after the lease is signed. It is part of the go-to-market plan.

Which visa does an overseas tech company need to open a UK office?

In short: the UK Expansion Worker visa if the UK company is not trading yet, the Senior or Specialist Worker visa if it is, and the Skilled Worker visa for long-term hires. Most UK tech launches use the UK’s Global Business Mobility routes, the Skilled Worker route, or both. The right one depends on a single question: is the UK company already trading? For a company opening its first branch, the UK Expansion Worker route is usually the starting point.

In the UK expansion projects that AY&J Solicitors advises on for overseas companies, the common mistake is treating these as either-or choices. Most launches use more than one route over time: an Expansion Worker to open the branch, then Senior or Specialist Workers and Skilled Workers as the team grows. Planning that sequence at the start avoids gaps when the first visa ends.

How long does it take to move engineers to the UK?

On paper, about three months. In practice, often longer. Every route above needs the UK business to hold a sponsor licence first. That is the step most founders do not plan for.

The Home Office’s published timings are the best case:

• Sponsor licence: most applications are decided in under 8 weeks. A priority service costs an extra £750 for a decision within 10 working days, but places are limited each day.
• Visa application: once the licence is granted and a certificate of sponsorship is assigned, a worker applying from outside the UK will usually get a decision within 3 weeks.

Added together, that is about three months from licence application to an engineer arriving. In practice, the work before the application often takes longer than the wait after it. Gathering the evidence, appointing the right people to manage the licence and settling the company structure can add months, as the example below shows.

What slows a UK launch down?

The delays are rarely about the law. They are about evidence.

• Proving the link between companies. The Home Office needs to see that the UK entity and the overseas company are connected through ownership or control. Group structures with holding companies in several countries can make this harder to show than founders expect.
• Proving the overseas business is real and trading. Accounts, contracts and other records need to show an active business, not a shell.
• Choosing the wrong route. Applying for an Expansion Worker licence when the UK company has already started trading, or the other way round, can mean starting again.
• Salary that does not meet the rules. Packages built for local markets may fall below £52,500 or the going rate for the role once converted.
• No one owning the task. In the first months of a launch, HR, legal and finance all assume someone else is handling the licence.

What does this look like in practice?

One recent client of AY&J Solicitors shows why the order of steps matters. A Japanese mobile games developer, trading for 16 years with around 1,000 staff, wanted the president of its European division to lead a new UK operation. Its head office had already incorporated the UK company before taking advice. If that company had started trading, the UK Expansion Worker route would have closed.

The first advice was simple: do not trade through the new UK entity yet. The team then built a two-phase plan. Phase one was the UK Expansion Worker route to establish the UK presence. Phase two was a sponsor licence and the Skilled Worker route once the business was trading, which is the step that can lead to settlement. There was also no one in place to manage the licence, which had to be resolved before applying.

The sponsor licence was granted in February 2026, around six months after the company first instructed the firm. That is well beyond the published timings, and it is the reason the visa plan needs to start before the lease is signed, not after.

A checklist for CTOs and founders

Before you sign the UK lease, make sure you can answer these questions:

• Who are the first two or three people we need in the UK, and what are their roles?
• Is our UK company already trading, or not yet?
• Which route fits each person: UK Expansion Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker or Skilled Worker?
• Does each salary meet £52,500 or the going rate, whichever is higher?
• Has each person worked for us outside the UK for at least 12 months?
• Can we show the link between our overseas company and the UK entity?
• Who owns the sponsor licence application, and who will manage sponsor duties after launch?
• What is our plan when the first visas end?

Yash Dubal, CEO of AY&J Solicitors, says: “Tech companies plan their UK launch in detail, from the office to the hiring plan. The visa is often the one thing left until last, and it is the one thing that can move the launch date. When immigration is part of the go-to-market plan from day one, the first engineers arrive when the business needs them.”

The bottom line

The UK remains open to overseas tech companies that want to build here. The routes exist, the salary rules are clear and the timings are published. The companies that launch on time are the ones that treat visas as part of the business plan.

AY&J Solicitors helps overseas companies expand to the UK and sponsor their staff. Its business immigration team advises on choosing the right route, applying for a sponsor licence and moving existing staff from offices in the US, India and elsewhere to a new UK branch.

Sunny Sandhu is the Head of Legal Operations and Senior Immigration Associate at A Y & J Solicitors, an SRA-regulated, Legal 500-ranked UK immigration law firm. He advises overseas businesses on sponsor licences and Global Business Mobility visas.