Overseas Players & Managed Migration – Immigration Rules (Home Office) January 2017
Published by: North Essex Cricket League
Published on 27 January 2017
Last Updated: 13 September 2022
It is advisable that all member clubs of league read the following, especially the final section: Sanctions and Penalties
All non EEA citizens will require prior permission (a visa) to come to the UK to participate in sport if they do not hold:
Most common visa types within Cricket are:
The ECB are not registered immigration officials and cannot offer definitive advice. Our understanding of the immigration rules for each visa is:
Tier 5 Creative & Sporting:
Designed for professionals in their home country coming here and acting as a professional.
Can:
Cannot:
Standard Visitor Visa:
3 years old – merged version of the old Sports Visitor, General Visitor and Business Visitor. Policy of each still applies.
Sports section is for a person to join as an amateur in a predominantly amateur team or club to gain experience in a particular sport if they are classified by the Home Office as an Amateur in that sport.
Can:
Cannot:
Non Visa Nationals:
Nationals of Non Visa Nations such as Australia and New Zealand are not required to apply for a visa to visit the UK if they are here for less than 3 months initially, extendable to 6 months.
They must comply with the Standard Visitor Visa (sports) immigration policy.
Can:
Cannot:
Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme:
This provides individuals (aged 18 to 30) from certain countries an opportunity to come an experience living and working in the UK.
Can:
Cannot:
Tier 4 (Student):
Most commonly used by students from abroad studying at a University in the UK.
Can:
Cannot:
Home Office definition of Professional vs Amateur:
Paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules set out the definitions for an amateur and a professional sportsperson:
An “Amateur” is a person who engages in a sport or creative activity solely for personal enjoyment and who is not seeking to derive a living from the activity. This also includes a person playing or coaching in a charity game.
A “Professional Sportsperson”, is someone, whether paid or unpaid, who : is providing services as a sportsperson, playing or coaching in any capacity, at a professional or semi-professional level of sport; or being a person who currently derives, who has in the past derived or seeks in the future to derive, a living from playing or coaching, is providing services as a sportsperson or coach at any level of sport, unless they are doing so as an “Amateur”.
Deriving a living is defined as receiving payment for playing cricket and does not need to be the sole earnings.
A person may also be considered as “seeking to derive a living” if they have played as part of a player pathway**.
** Player “Pathway”: A player may be considered to be on a “Pathway” and therefore classified as a “Professional Sportsperson”, if that person has played cricket above U17 at state/ province/ territory level (paid or unpaid) in any country.
Responsibility of Clubs:
Clubs wishing to use the services of a player who is in the UK, but not on a Tier 5 Creative & Sporting (Non FCC) visa, must ensure that the visa the person has, allows them to play and/or coach.
They must make their own checks, and not solely rely on information that Agents provide them.
Sources of support:
Sanctions and Penalties
ECB:
If any club found to be playing an individual who is in breach of their visa the process is to:
Home Office:
“Employment” can be paid or unpaid.
In cricket, the club Chairman holds the legal responsibility for all activities in the club and is therefore the “Employer”
An employer who has not carried out the correct checks or chooses to ignore the requirements:
