Self Sponsorship Visa for the UK

While there is no dedicated self sponsorship visa for the UK, there are visa options that can allow you to move to Britain to work for yourself.

In this guide, we look at the most commonly used UK visa for those who are self employed – the Skilled Worker visa, as well as the Innovator Founder visa as an alternative self sponsorship route.

Is there a self sponsorship visa UK?

While there is currently no dedicated self sponsorship visa for the UK, it may be possible to establish or invest in a UK-based business and, having been approved by the UK Home Office for a suitable licence, arrange for your business to sponsor you for a Skilled Worker visa. Equally, if you already own or partly own a business in the UK, provided your business is approved to sponsor workers on the Skilled Worker route and you meet the requirements for a Skilled Worker visa, this can potentially provide you with the ideal solution to self sponsorship.

A Skilled Worker sponsor licence is the permission granted by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to a UK-based business to enable that business to assign Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) to migrant workers under the Skilled Worker route. UKVI is the division of the UK’s Home Office responsible for both sponsor licensing and visas. A Skilled Worker must have an offer of a genuine job role from an approved sponsor that meets the relevant route-specific requirements before they can make a valid application to enter or stay in the UK on this route. The sponsor confirms this by assigning a CoS to the migrant worker.

As self sponsorship is not a mainstream immigration route in the UK, it is strongly advised that you seek the advice of an immigration specialist who can evaluate your case, as well as assist you and your business with your respective sponsor licence and visa applications.

What is the Skilled Worker visa?

A Skilled Worker visa will allow you to come to or stay in the UK to work in an eligible job role with an approved organisation for up to 5 years and, provided you continue to meet the relevant requirements, you can apply to renew your visa an unlimited number of times.

Additionally, having continuously lived in the UK for a period of 5 years, you can apply for for indefinite leave to remain (ILR). To be eligible for ILR, also known as settlement, you would need to continue to be needed for your job and meet the salary requirements after being granted settlement. You would also need to meet a knowledge of language and life in the UK requirement, known as the KOLL requirement. However, provided you can meet the relevant requirements, you would be able to live and work in the UK on an indefinite basis.

As a long-term work route, one that provides a path to settlement, it is possible for your spouse, partner and any children to apply as your dependants to accompany or follow to join you in the UK on this route. A dependant would typically be granted a visa in line with the length of stay granted to the principal applicant or primary visa-holder, where they can either apply at the same time or at a later date. They can also apply to extend their stay as dependants on the Skilled Worker route, as well as apply for permanent settlement.

Skilled Worker visa requirements

To be eligible for a Skilled Worker visa, you must have a confirmed job offer before making your application and be suitably qualified to fill that role. You must also:

• be working for a UK-based employer that has been approved by UKVI to sponsor migrant workers on the Skilled Worker route
• have a valid CoS from your licensed employer with information about the role that you have been offered in the UK
• be doing a job that is on the list of eligible occupations under the UK’s Immigration Rules
• be paid a minimum salary, where how much will depend on nature of the job role
• be able to speak, read, write and understand English to at least Level B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale
• have savings of at least £1,270 to show that you can support yourself on arrival in the UK or, alternatively, have your UK sponsor certify maintenance of this amount on your CoS.

When it comes to the maintenance requirement, you will only need to show funds of £,1270 or have your sponsor certify maintenance if you are applying for entry clearance to come to the UK, or you are applying to switch into this route from a different immigration route and you have not been in the UK for a minimum period of at least 12 months.

When it comes to the minimum skill and salary requirements, a Skilled Worker must have a job offer in an eligible occupation as set out in Appendix Skilled Occupations of the Immigration Rules. The occupation in question must also meet the Skilled Worker salary requirements as set out in Appendix Skilled Worker and Appendix Skilled Occupations. This means that the salary for skilled workers must meet or exceed all of the following:

• the general salary threshold, which for most job roles is at least £26,200 per year
• the ‘going rate’ for the selected occupation, and
• where applicable, the minimum hourly rate of at least £10.75 per hour.

This means you would need to be paid at least £26,200 per year or £10.75 per hour, whichever is the higher. However, if the going rate for your role is higher than both of these, you would need to be paid at least the going rate. For example, if the proposed salary is £27,000 per year, but the annual going rate for the job you will be doing is £30,000, the salary requirements for this visa will not be met. Each occupation code has its own annual going rate.

Skilled Worker sponsor licence requirements

There are a number of general and route-specific requirements that must be met to be approved by UKVI for a sponsor licence on the Skilled Worker route. To be eligible for sponsorship, the Home Office must be satisfied that your UK-based business is:

• a genuine organisation that is operating lawfully in the UK
• any owners, co-owners, directors and those responsible for the day-to-day running of your business are honest, dependable and reliable, and are not engaging and have not engaged in behaviour or actions that are not considered conducive to the public good
• capable of carrying out its sponsor duties, having regard to the HR systems and recruitment practices in place in your business.

When deciding any sponsor licence application, UKVI will look at the history and background of the applicant business, including any evidence of previous non-compliance with the UK’s Immigration Rules. It will also take into account any criminal convictions and immigration violations committed by those involved in the day-to-day running of the business, including the key personnel named in the sponsor licence application.

The key personnel are the people nominated to manage the sponsorship process within your business, where each of your key personnel must usually be a paid member of staff or engaged as an office-holder and be based in the UK for the period that they will be required to fill the role they have been appointed to. Some or all of these individuals will have access to the Home Office sponsorship management system (SMS) in the event that a licence is approved, where the SMS can be used to issue CoS and comply with the sponsor duties.

In addition to the general requirements necessary to be eligible for a Skilled Worker sponsor licence, the applicant business must also be able to offer a job role that:

• is genuine and not a sham, where UKVI must be satisfied that the role has not been created mainly so that you can apply for entry clearance or permission to stay in the UK
• does not amount to the hiring of you as a worker to a third party who is not the sponsor, either to fill a position or to undertake routine contract work with that party
• meets the minimum skill level and salary requirements for the Skilled Worker route.

How does the genuine vacancy requirement affect self sponsorship?

Importantly, being able to offer a suitably skilled and salaried job on the Skilled Worker route is not all UKVI will focus on when assessing the suitability of your business to sponsor you as a Skilled Worker. UKVI will not approve a sponsor licence if they have reasonable grounds to believe the job you are being sponsored to do either does not exist, or is a sham, for example, the job exists but you will not be doing it. Similarly, even if the job exists and you have every intention of working in that role if you are granted a visa to do so, UKVI will again not approve a sponsor licence if this job has been created mainly to provide you with a basis upon which to apply for a Skilled Worker visa to come to or stay in the UK.

When it comes to self sponsorship, the genuine vacancy requirement can represent a significant hurdle to your business obtaining a licence and you subsequently being granted a Skilled Worker visa, where any concerns from the UKVI caseworker deciding the licence application may lead to a pre-licence compliance visit to your UK-based business and/or an in-person interview with you as the visa applicant. The proposed sponsoring employer must be able to show a genuine need for the job as described and you, as the proposed visa applicant, must have the appropriate qualifications, skills and experience to do that job.

Importantly, if the business that you own or partly own is already approved to sponsor Skilled Workers or other categories of migrant worker, compliance action may be taken against the business where UKVI forms the view that a job role has been specifically created to facilitate your visa application. This can include having its existing sponsor licence suspended, downgraded or revoked, the net effect of which could be the loss of sponsorship for any existing migrant workers and those workers even being forced to leave the UK.

Seeking the help of an immigration specialist at the earliest opportunity can help you to maximise the prospects of a successful outcome and, where applicable, minimise the risk of any action being taken against an existing sponsoring business and its migrant workforce.

Innovator Founder visa for the self employed

The UK Innovator Founder visa is aimed at overseas entrepreneurs looking to set up and run a business in the UK. As with the previous Innovator and Start-up routes, the Innovator founder route is not a sponsored work route. This means that an entrepreneur can essentially self sponsor, provided they meet the relevant requirements. This re-branded route has also introduced a number of favourable changes to attract foreign entrepreneurial talent to the UK, including the removal of the £50,000 minimum investment requirement previously required under the Rules.

However, there are still various strict eligibility requirements that must be met, as set out under Appendix Innovator Founder of the UK’s Immigration Rules, including an English language and financial requirement, as well as a complex endorsement requirement. This will require you to obtain a written endorsement from a Home Office-approved endorsing body.

Endorsement process entails making an application to the appropriate endorsement body for your industry, which will then assess if your business idea is innovative, viable and scalable. These are the three strict criteria for an Innovator Founder visa, where you must have a detailed business plan which meets either new or existing market needs and/or creates a competitive advantage (innovative). This business plan must be both realistic and achievable based on the resources available to you, where you must have the knowledge, skills, experience and market awareness to successfully run your new UK business (viable). You must also be able to show evidence of planning, with potential for job creation in the UK, as well as growth into both national and international markets (scalable).

As successfully securing an endorsement under the Innovator Founder route is likely to present a number of practical and evidential challenges, you may want to explore the alternative ‘self sponsorship visa UK’ option under the Skilled Worker route first.

Self sponsorship visa FAQs

Last updated: 17 June 2023