Businesses want a new visa that works across the UK and Ireland
Key Points
- The CBI and Ibec have called for an All-Island Work Visa allowing non-British and non-Irish nationals to work on both sides of the Irish border.
- Sponsored workers are currently restricted to the jurisdiction that issued their visa - a delivery driver hired in Dublin cannot legally drive to Belfast.
- The groups want the scheme to cover non-Irish EU nationals first, with later expansion to non-EU sponsored workers.
- Both governments committed at the UK-Ireland Summit in Cork to agree a bilateral approach to cross-border working this year.
Business groups in the UK and Ireland have called for a new All-Island Work Visa that would allow foreign nationals to work on both sides of the Irish border, according to a report published this week by the CBI and Ibec.
The report found that sponsored workers are typically restricted to the jurisdiction that issued their visa, blocking them from carrying out duties across the border even where crossing it forms a routine part of the job.
Maxol, Ireland’s largest family-owned forecourt and convenience retailer, told the business groups that the terms of its employees’ visas mean a delivery driver cannot drive from Dublin to Belfast, and an IT specialist sponsored to work in Ireland cannot support the company’s operations in Northern Ireland.
The problem has intensified since Brexit, which removed the flexibility non-Irish EU nationals previously enjoyed under free movement.
Two immigration systems on one island
The Common Travel Area continues to allow British and Irish citizens to live and work seamlessly across the island, but no equivalent provision exists for anyone else.
An EU national can live and work visa-free in the Republic of Ireland but needs a UK visa the moment they cross the land border into Northern Ireland, and non-EU workers must navigate two separate immigration systems entirely.
The CBI and Ibec said this has reduced flexibility for employers and shrunk the available talent pool, particularly for all-island businesses and for sectors such as IT and logistics where skills shortages are most acute and most often filled by international recruits.
Among surveyed members, 42% said mobility barriers are making it harder to fill skills gaps, while 12% have declined to hire a candidate because of cross-border administrative or legal complications.
How the visa would work
The groups proposed an all-island visa arrangement covering non-Irish EU nationals in the first instance, allowing them to work across the island without threatening the integrity of Great Britain’s immigration system.
The scheme would then expand to cover non-EU sponsored workers at a later stage.
The report also called for clear, joint government guidance for employers and employees on the rules governing cross-border working for sponsored staff, and for the UK Government to review Skilled Worker Visa salary thresholds, which often exceed market rates for vacancies in Northern Ireland.
Former Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Taoiseach Micheál Martin committed at the UK-Ireland Summit in Cork in March 2026 to reach a decision in principle this year on a bilateral approach to cross-border working.
The CBI and Ibec urged both governments to establish a joint forum to deliver that commitment at pace, arguing an all-island visa would let businesses fill skills shortages more easily, allocate staff seamlessly across roles, and cut the administrative burden attached to hiring foreign talent.
