In this video, I explore the idea of self-employed sponsorship on the skilled worker visa.
Is self-employed sponsorship on the skilled worker visa possible? Yes, but only in very limited circumstances.
Sometimes, because of the nature of the profession in which you work when sponsored, you are technically self-employed rather than employed.
Barristers are usually self-employed, operating in a Chambers. The sponsor mechanism for barristers is that the Bar Council (that’s the relevant representative body) sponsors them, that is, if they are not-British. So they are self-employed, but nonetheless sponsored.
A similar position can exist for dentists and private tutors, for example, who are sponsored, but technically self-employed. As long as the skilled worker criteria are met, this is capable of being permitted by the Home Office. In all cases, you need to show that the job is genuine, in other words it has not been created mainly so that you can apply for entry clearance:
What you certainly cannot do is assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to yourself UNLESS you are on the Expansion Worker visa. In that case, you can assign the Certificate of Sponsorship to yourself.
Sponsorship requires you to have a licence, and appoint an Authorising Officer and Level 1 User. As an Expansion Worker, you can hold those positions and apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship and assign that certificate to yourself. If you are interested in that route, I have a checklist for you, that you can download for free using the link in the description below and in my pinned comment.
If you were not applying for the Expansion Worker visa, and you assigned the Certificate of Sponsorship to yourself, then the licence would be revoked:
The same consequence would follow if you tried to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to your wife, husband, parent or father-in-law, etc. This is the ‘conflict of interest’ point that I have talked about in previous videos.
When you are assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship to yourself as an Expansion Worker visa, that’s not self-employed sponsorship. Rather, at the point that you apply for the licence, you would be employed by the overseas parent company, rather than self-employed. And even once you get the visa, you would not be self-employed. You would be employed.