Working in the UK

• Working during your studies

  Student Visa

  Student visa holders can work (paid or unpaid) in the UK during their studies (with exception of EU/EEA/Swiss passport holders who applied for and received an IHS refund).

  Students here as a visitor cannot work, which includes work placement or work experience.

  To work in the UK, Student visa holders must have a National Insurance number. 

  Working hours

  Normally Student visa holders are able to work (paid, unpaid, and voluntary) 10 or 20 hours per week during term time, and full hours during University vacation periods. You can view our term time dates, and refer your employer to this webpage. Your visa will detail the amount of hours you are permitted to work, along with any restrictions.

  Working restrictions

  There are certain kinds of work you cannot do on a Student visa:

  • start a business, undertake business-related activity or be self-employed (even if your business is registered abroad).
  • work as a professional sportsperson, including as a sports coach
  • entertainer
  • a permanent full-time job
  • doctor or dentist in training, unless you are on the International Foundation programme.

  Developing a business idea

  Some students wish to start their own business after they have finished their studies and move onto a visa that allows self employment (e.g graduate route visa, innovator founder). You are not allowed to undertake business activity while on a student visa, but you are allowed to develop your business idea alongside your studies by conducting pre-business activities (defined by HMRC, which are not considered to be business activities).

  You can:

  • Carry out preliminary activities such as writing business plans or negotiating contracts; and
  • Incur preliminary/pre-trading expenditure, such as incurring costs with a view to deciding whether to start your business.

  This is the extent of the information we have on pre-business activities. Neither the Immigration Rules nor any related immigration guidance go into any further detail. Doing other activities that don’t securely fit into this definition e.g. conducting app or webpage testing, is a ‘grey area’ and could put your student visa at risk. If your intended pre-business activities don’t fall into this definition, we would advise you to seek legal advice before starting.  

   

  For further information on working in the UK during your studies, please see the UKCISA website.

• Volunteering during your studies

  Volunteering or Voluntary work?

  The difference between unpaid work and volunteering is that unpaid workers usually have contractual obligations to perform the work (for example, to attend at particular times and carry out specific tasks), and the employer is contractually required to provide the work. The worker is usually paid in kind.

  Students who are volunteering do not have a contract. They must not be a substitute for an employee, and they must not be doing unpaid work (for example, receiving payment in kind). They can support a charity or voluntary or public sector organisation, but must not be undertaking work ancillary to the organisation’s charitable purpose, for example: routine back office administrative roles, retail or other sales roles, fund-raising roles and roles involved in the maintenance of the organisation’s offices and other assets

  Student Visa

  You should always check with the volunteering organisation whether it could be regarded as unpaid employment. If it is, you will not be able to do the work if you are on a Standard visitor visa, or you will have to count the hours against your allotted working hours per week if you are on a Student visa.

  Visitor Visa

  Visitors may undertake volunteering provided it is for a registered charity and will be for no longer than 30 days in total. The 30 days do not have to be consecutive and can be split across the visitor’s period of permission to be in the UK. Visitors may not undertake voluntary work; you must be clear on the difference between the two.

• Working after your studies

  When you have completed your course

  Most students have immigration permission that extends beyond the end of your studies. You can work full time for this extra period when you have completed your course, and the course end date as shown on your CAS has passed, and you are out of term time.

  The student work restrictions continue to apply - this means you cannot start a permanent post unless you are eligible to do so through applying for another visa ie. graduate route or skilled worker visa and you meet the eligibility to start a permanent post without delay.

  Moving into a work route

  If you apply to stay in the UK under a work route, you can usually work full time hours until you get a decision. Usually, you must not take work that your student work condition prohibits. But there are exceptions for some work routes.

  Graduate Route

  See our information on Graduate route. It is a Post study work route that allows you to stay in the UK and work for up to 3 years depending on your degree.

  You can only take a permanent full time position while your Graduate application is pending if you applied for your student visa on or after 6 April 2022. 

  Skilled Worker Route

  You must have completed your studies before applying for a skilled worker visa (PhD students can apply if they have completed 24 months of their programme).

  A Skilled Worker visa allows you to come to or stay in the UK to do an eligible job with an approved employer. In most cases, the job must meet minimum salary and skill level.

  Find out more details about the Skilled Worker route. If you need advice about switching to a skilled worker visa you'll need to seek specialist independant legal/immigration advice.

  Student Union Sabbatical Officer

  You can stay in the UK if you have been elected to a full-time salaried post as a sabbatical officer at an education establishment where you are registered as a student. Find out more about staying in the UK as a sabbatical officer.

  Innovator Founder

  For those that are either seeking to start a business in the UK, or with existing businesses endorsed by an approved body. For those seeking to start a new business, the business idea should be "new, innovative, viable, and scalable". You will need an endorsing body to endorse your business idea. There are currently only 4 endorsing bodies for an Innovator Founder visa.

  High Potential Individual

  For individuals with an undergraduate or postgraduate degree from one of the top global universities from outside the UK. The qualification must have been awarded within the last 5 years. Successful applicants will be granted 2 years of immigration permission (3 years for those with a qualification equivalent to a UK PhD). 

  This lists of eligible institutions from 2016 to 2022 can be found in the Global Universities List.

  Youth Mobility Scheme visa (T5)

  Under the Youth Mobility Scheme, you can work in the UK for 2 years (3 for New Zealanders) if you are a national of a qualifying country. You can only apply from your home country.

  Temporary Worker Scheme - Govt Authorised Exchange

  The Temporary Worker scheme allows you to undertake specific types of work in the UK for a period of one or two years. 

  UK ancestry

  The UK ancestry route allows eligible persons to take employment and to set up a business. You can only apply if you are a Commonwealth citizen aged 17 or over and you can prove you have a grandparent who was born in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, or the Republic of Ireland (but only if your grandparent was born there before 31 March 1922). 

  India Young Professional Scheme

  This visa allows Indian citizens between the ages of 18 and 30 to live and work in the UK for 2 years. To apply for this visa you must first be selected in the India Young Professionals Scheme ballot. You cannot apply without being successful in the ballot first. There are some additional requirements for the visa such as holding sufficient finances and holding an eligible qualification. You cannot apply for this visa if you have already held leave under the India Young Professionals Scheme or the Youth Mobility Scheme.

• Working after your PhD prior to viva

  For PhD students, the period between submitting your thesis for examination and official notification of viva outcome is considered to be 'vacation' period, and you can work full time.

  The period between official notification of the viva outcome and unconditional approval of degree, which includes time working on corrections if applicable, is considered a return to full-time study. Working during this time can only be undertaken as follows:

  • Students who are not studying on a Student visa can continue to work full-time during this period unless the viva outcome is ‘revise and resubmit’.
  • Students on a Student visa can only work for up to 20 hours a week in accordance with the restrictions of their Student visa.

• Graduate Route

  The Graduate route is a working visa route, successful applicants can stay for 2 years, PhD graduates for 3 years.  Only current student visa dependants can apply for dependant permission under the Graduate route.

  More information can be found on UKCISA and UKVI webpages. The assistance we can give on the Graduate route is limited, but if you have any questions, contact the International Advice team and we can try to direct you to appropriate sources for advice.

  • You'll need to pay the visa application fee and the full (non student) IHS fee at point of application. 
  • When you apply you must have a valid Student visa and you must know the CAS number you used to get that visa.
  • You can only apply from within the UK after the University has confirmed your successful completion to the UKVI
  • You need to have studied in the UK for either:
    • at least 12 months, if your course’s total length is more than 12 months
    • the total length of your course, if its total length is shorter than 12 months

  **any PhD student applying for the 3 year visa should keep in mind that the Graduate route visa is to allow you to live and work in the UK. The Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000 (13.4a) establishes that if you remain outside the UK for a continuous period of 2 years your permission will lapse. **

  If you could not study in the UK because of coronavirus (Covid-19)

  The rules on how long you need to have studied your course in the UK may not apply if you needed to study outside the UK because of Covid-19.

  Your Student visa was for more than 12 months

  You can count any time spent studying outside the UK between 24 January 2020 and 30 June 2022 as time spent studying in the UK.