Scale-up Worker visa

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About the Scale-up Worker visas

If your business is growing fast, you might want staff on a Scale-up worker visa. This will help you grow your business.  

You’ll have the flexibility of sponsoring a worker for six months. After this, your sponsorship duties end. The worker you hired can carry on working with you to upscale your business without sponsorship.  

We’ll cover both the requirements to sponsor and apply for a Scale-up Worker visa.  

Scale-up Worker sponsor licence

Sponsors need to: 

• Have a valid sponsor licence for the Scale-up visa 
• Give workers a valid certificate of sponsorship 
• Pay a fee of £25 to give a certificate of sponsorship 
• Understand and follow your sponsorship duties 

If you have a licence to sponsor workers, you can apply online to add the Scale-up route to your licence (gov.uk)

You’ll need to show you: 

• Are financially secure 
• Offer real jobs that meet the criteria 
• Meet the definition of a Scale-up sponsor 

There are two ways you can meet the definition of a Scale-up sponsor: 

1. The standard pathway 
2. The endorsing body pathway

Under the standard pathway, the Home Office will look at your employment and/or turnover growth. You’ll need to show that: 

• Your annual growth has risen by at least 20% in the three years before your application  
• You’ve had a minimum of 10 workers at the start of the three-year period 

You can use your employment or turnover increase to show your annual growth. 

If your business hasn’t been running for three years, you can use the endorsing pathway.  

You’ll need to be endorsed by an endorsing body approved by the Home Office.  

You’ll need to show you: 

• Have had a minimum of 10 workers paid on Pay as you Earn (PAYE)  
• Have a VAT registration 
• Are financially secure 
• Are trading in the UK 
• Have an HMRC footprint of less than four years 
• Have a potential growth rate that meets the requirements of a Scale-up visa 
• Can offer the required salaries 
• Have a UK-registered corporate bank account 

Read about the requirements for a Scale-up sponsor licence (gov.uk)

A Scale-up sponsor licence is valid for four years. It cannot be renewed.  

With a licence, you can give certificates of sponsorship to workers.  

Certificates need to show that a worker will work for you for at least the first six months of their visa. At the end of the six-month period, your responsibilities for the scale-up worker will end.  

The scale-up worker can continue to work for you or someone else.   

How to apply

Workers can apply online outside the UK (gov.uk)

Workers can apply to switch to a Scale-up Worker visa from inside the UK, if they meet the requirements (gov.uk)

For example, students could switch to a Scale-up Worker visa from inside the UK, if they meet the requirements. 

Workers can apply to extend a Scale-up Worker visa from inside the UK, if they meet the requirements (gov.uk)

If applying for the first time, a Scale-up Worker must have a sponsor. After this, they can apply to extend their visa without a sponsor. 

To apply, they’ll need: 

• An eligible job offer (gov.uk) 
• A certificate of sponsorship from a sponsor, if applying for the first time 
• To fill an online form 
• To pay an application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge to use the NHS 
• To have a tuberculosis test, if from a listed country (gov.uk)
• To prove their identity 
• To send their supporting evidence to the Home Office 

To prove their identity, workers can either: 

• Use the UK: Immigration ID Check smartphone application 
• Have their fingerprints and photograph taken at a visa application centre 

A certificate of sponsorship automatically expires after three months. This means a worker must apply for a visa within three months from the date on the certificate.  

Who can apply for a visa

Scale-up workers must: 

• Be 18 and over 
• Have an eligible job offer from a business that is growing 
• Have English language skills at level B1 or above on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale (coe.int) 
• Hold savings of £1270 for at least 28 days before the application, unless exempt or you agree to cover their expenses for the first month as their sponsor 

Scale-up workers need a job offer before applying for a Scale-up Worker visa for the first time. The job must: 

• Be on the list of eligible jobs on the gov.uk website (gov.uk) 
• Have an annual salary of at least £36,300, or the ‘going rate’ for a specific job 
• Meet the qualification requirements  
• Last for at least six months 

Eligible jobs are published online (gov.uk). They’re published with the occupation codes and the minimum salary for each code.  

Who is suitable for a visa

Workers need to be suitable for a Scale-up Worker visa.  

The Home Office will look at: 

• A person’s character 
• If someone has followed UK immigration rules in the past 
• Criminal records 

Dependants

Partners and children can apply to join a scale-up worker in the UK if they meet the requirements. They can apply online (gov.uk)

A partner includes: 

• A spouse 
• A civil partner 
• An unmarried partner, if they have been in a relationship for at least two years 

 A child can be: 

• Under 18, or 
• Over 18 if they’re already in the UK as a worker’s dependant 

They’ll need to pay extra fees for a partner or children.  

They’ll need to show evidence to prove your family relationship. Read about the requirements for a partner or children of a scale-up worker (gov.uk)

How much it costs to apply

There’s a fee of £822. 

There’s an Immigration Health Surcharge to use the NHS of £1035 per year of the visa.  

How long it takes to apply

Processing times are published online (gov.uk)

At the moment: 

• Applications from inside the UK are taking eight weeks 
• Applications from outside the UK are taking three weeks 

Outcomes

Visas are usually granted for up to two years.  

At the end of the two years, workers can apply to extend their visa for another three years without a sponsor.  

They can also apply to switch to another route if they meet the requirements.  

After living in the UK for five years, workers can apply for settlement if they meet the requirements (gov.uk)

If their application is unsuccessful, they cannot appeal. We recommend getting legal advice about applying for an administrative review or judicial review.  

If you need advice on whether you can switch to a Scale-up Worker visa from another visa, we recommend booking a free one-to-one appointment with us.

Photo credit: Digital Tourism Scotland / Matt Davis