The UK government is planning to maintain visa-free travel for EU visitors after Brexit.
Proposals for how the UK immigration system will work when the country leaves the EU in 2019 are set to be unveiled during the autumn.
Reports from the BBC and The Times suggest that there will be “no extra curbs” on EU citizens travelling to the UK.
But visitors from EU countries would have to apply to the UK government for permission if they wanted to work, study or settle in the UK.
Companies wanting to employ EU workers would have to apply for sponsorship permits and it has also been suggested that the government could limit the number of these permits by individual sectors.
The reports come after government issued a paper on Wednesday (August 16) on how it proposes to deal with the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The government has proposed that there should be no “physical” border in Ireland such as customs posts. But its plans have been criticised for a “lack of detail”.