Legal Team
+44 (0)1235 778 577
[email protected]
Legal Team
Tel: +44 (0)1235 778 577
Email: [email protected]
This route is available to researchers (which includes academics, researchers, scientists, research engineers or other skilled research technology specialists) for a maximum duration of 2 years to undertake the following activities:
The researcher does not have to be employed overseas to be eligible for sponsorship under this scheme
Any work or activity undertaken within the scheme must be at or above RQF level 3.
To be eligible for this visa route, an individual must score a minimum of 40 points, in line with the criteria below. Failure to score points in one or more of these criteria will result in a visa refusal.
30 Points: Assigned a Certificate of Sponsorship (Diamond will assign to individual in order to meet this criterion)
10 Points: Meeting Home Office maintenance requirements
You cannot apply for your visa before you receive a Certificate of Sponsorship, which would be issued based on your engagement start date. A Certificate of Sponsorship has a three month expiry period, so cannot be issued more than three months prior to your proposed start date. Once a Certificate of Sponsorship has been issued you may immediately commence your visa application, taking local application timescales into consideration.
You must apply online here.
The visa application must be lodged in the country where you currently reside. Note: this does not have to be your country of origin. As noted in UKVI guidance: “Applications for all other types of entry clearance (under the points based system), including settlement should be made in the applicant’s country of residence. ‘Country of residence’ is not necessarily their country of origin and refers to wherever the applicant has permission to reside, for example, for work or study purposes. Many countries will issue overseas nationals with residency cards in these cases. An applicant who has permission to stay in a country as a visitor for 6 months, for example, is not a resident.”
Depending on the circumstances, Diamond can certify maintenance for you. If Diamond cannot certify your maintenance, you are required to provide a bank/savings account in your name holding at least £945.
Please see here for up-to-date guidance on visa fee costs.
This will vary depending on the country in which you submit your visa application. For guidance on location specific timeframes, see here. Certain countries provide enhanced services which will expedite the visa application.
The payment of the Immigration Health Surcharge is mandatory for all non UK or non Irish nationals who are issued a visa of more than 6 months in length. It is an additional charge, over and above the visa fee and must be paid up-front at the time of the visa application. Payment of the surcharge will ensure that you have full access to the NHS on the same terms as a permanent UK resident.
The full cost must be paid at the point of application.
As part of the online visa application process, you will be prompted to pay the surcharge via a separate online portal. After payment of the charge, you will automatically be issued a long reference number which will start ‘IHS’.
When prompted in the online visa application, you must enter this reference number in order to proceed.
For further guidance, please see the UKVI webpages.
There may be slight variations depending on the country in which you submit your application, but in general, after you submit your application online and make payment you will be sent an email from the Home Office requesting you to attend a local Visa Application Centre to enrol your fingerprints and photographs.
Once that is complete, you will be asked to post all your supporting documentation to the Embassy, who will then consider your application. You will be informed by the Home Office where you need to send your documents.
After you submit your application online, you will be provided with an information sheet which confirms which documents you need to submit.
We are not able to sponsor dependants under the Temporary Worker scheme. You will be responsible for making any applications to bring your dependants. For information about bringing dependants to the UK please refer to the guidelines here.
Your dependants can apply at the same time as you to enter the UK. Alternatively, they can wait until you have entered the UK and started your engagement before they apply.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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