The Tier Visa is a recently introduced type of visa. It consists of Tier 1: Migrants with desirable professional skills; Tier 2: skilled Workers with an offer of a job; Tier 3: Temporary, low skilled workers; Tier 4: Students and Tier 5: Youth mobility schemes and other temporary workers.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 afford an applicant permanent residency or indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Additionally Tier 2 to 5 visa applicants need to obtain a certificate of sponsorship from an institutions, (for example for Tier 2 visa holders the sponsoring institution will be a British Company; for Tier 3 the sponsoring will be the operator of a specific worker scheme; for Tier 4 the sponsor will be an educational institution and finally for Tier 5 visa holders the sponsor will be the home government of the applicant).

This system does not apply to temporary immigration systems like visiting visas or travel or tourist visas, this is due to their short term nature and the restrictions placed on them specifically with regards to employment; they are separate from the UK Tier Visa system and visiting visa holder cannot switch to the Tier system.

In terms of spouse or dependents immigration, they are distinct from the Tier Visa system, with the Tier 1, 2 and 4 permitting the combined immigration of dependents (e.g. spouse, civil partner, unmarried partner and dependent children) to join the Tier Visa holder in UK, with the rights to work and study.