Anybody who is not a citizen of United Kingdom requires a work permit to work in UK.

But, there are some categories that are exempted from this rule. Citizens of the different countries which constitute the European Union are exempted from this rule. There a few more categories of people who are also exempted. They include Permanent Residents, spouses of EU nationals or existing Work Permit holders, Commonwealth citizens who are holders of ancestry visas, and persons who have applied for asylum in the UK. To be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain status to become a Permanent Resident, a non EU citizen has to provide evidence of living and working for more than five years in the country.

There are three categories of work permits with different procedures. They are:

1A person who is already working in the UK on a work permit, but now wants a work permit to work for another employer.

2A person who is already working in the UK on a work permit, and wants to extend it to continue working for the same employer.

3A person who is presently residing outside the UK and wish to work in the UK with a new job.

For all of them will have to apply to Border and Immigration Agency of the Home Office which was previously known as UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

In the first and third case, a new work permit application has to be made to the authorities and in the second case a work permit extension application has to be made. For the first two cases, A Further Leave to Remain (IED) application has to be made to enable the person to continue working with existing employer or to take up work with a new employer.

For a person who is not presently residing in the UK, there are two ways of getting work permit.

Those persons who are highly skilled and are at least a graduate may apply for work permit under Highly Skilled Migrant Program. The holders of work permit issued under this program are allowed to come to the UK and seek employment. They will be allowed to stay in the country for two years. This residency period could be farther extended if they could prove that they are working full time.

In case of the other option, it is the employers that have to apply for work permit for their potential employee and this work permit is issued to allow the person to work for that particular employee.

To obtain such a work permit, the employer has to prove that the selected candidate is experienced enough to be granted such a work permit. Also, the employer has to prove that they have made sufficient effort to select a person who is a UK or EU citizen, but failed.

Therefore, before applying for a work permit for getting employment in the UK, a person should go through all these details to ensure their eligibility of obtaining a work permit.