You have a sponsored job, but you also have a business idea. You might want to offer consultancy services, take freelance projects or build a company with your partner. An accountant can explain the business structure, and registering a company may appear straightforward.
The immigration question needs answering before you begin the work.
A Skilled Worker can undertake some self-employment and business activity, but the permission is conditional. Registering a company does not authorise you to run it without restriction. The assessment concerns what you will actually do, how much time it will take and how that work fits alongside your sponsored employment.
For someone already sponsored by another employer, the immediate question is whether the proposed activity qualifies as permitted supplementary employment. If the business is intended to become your main occupation, that requires a different plan.
Immigration permission concerns the activity you perform
The Immigration Rules use a broad definition of employment. It includes paid and unpaid work, self-employment, business activity and professional activity. The assessment therefore extends beyond whether you receive a salary or have an employment contract.
A person delivering services through their own company may still be working. So may someone completing projects as a sole trader or helping to operate a family business without wages.
This is why the first discussion should concern your duties. “I want to open a company” tells an adviser relatively little. A description explaining that you will design products, negotiate contracts, supervise staff and answer customer enquiries gives a much clearer basis for assessment.
The business structure remains relevant, but it should follow an understanding of the proposed work.
Our Skilled Worker visa guide explains the wider relationship between your permission, your sponsor and the role for which you were sponsored.
Owning shares and running the company are different questions
A shareholder owns an interest in a company. A director has responsibilities for its management. The same person can hold both positions, but the roles should be examined separately.
Government guidance explains that shareholders may receive dividends and exercise voting rights. Directors have responsibilities for matters including company records, accounts and reporting. Appointing an accountant does not remove the director’s legal responsibility for those matters.
For immigration purposes, the practical assessment should distinguish an investment from the work you undertake in connection with it.
Someone who holds shares while others operate the company presents a different situation from someone who finds customers, delivers the service and manages the business. Describing both people simply as “business owners” conceals that difference.
A directorship also deserves more scrutiny than a company registration certificate. Ask what decisions you will make, what responsibilities you will exercise and how much time those activities will require.
Our recommendation is to describe your actual involvement in writing. If you intend to be a passive investor, the arrangements should reflect that intention. If you intend to manage or deliver work, those activities need assessment under your immigration conditions.
When can business activity qualify as supplementary employment?
Under the ordinary supplementary employment conditions, you must continue working in your sponsored job. The additional work must take place outside your contracted sponsored hours and remain within the weekly limit. Qualifying supplementary employment does not require the additional business to hold a sponsor licence.
The work must also satisfy an eligible occupation provision. The current Rules contain several alternatives.
| Basis for eligibility | What needs checking |
|---|---|
| Listed work | The additional role is covered by Appendix Immigration Salary List. |
| Matching professional work | Its profession and professional level match your sponsored position. |
| Other specified occupations | Its SOC 2020 occupation code is eligible under Tables 1, 2 or 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations. |
| Transitional occupations | Tables 1a, 2aa or 3a may apply if you were granted Skilled Worker permission under the Rules in force before 22 July 2025 and have held continuous Skilled Worker permission since then. |
The transitional provision is one alternative within the definition. It does not remove the separate Immigration Salary List or matching-profession provisions.
A business idea can therefore be commercially sensible while still requiring closer examination of the proposed work. Keeping the activity small does not resolve an occupation problem, and having suitable professional skills does not resolve an excessive time commitment.
The occupation assessment must reflect your duties
A company’s activities and your personal occupation are related, but they are not interchangeable.
Companies House uses Standard Industrial Classification codes, usually called SIC codes, to describe the nature of a company’s business. That classification serves a different purpose from the occupation assessment required for Skilled Worker work.
For example, a company may describe itself as a consultancy. That does not establish that everything its owner does qualifies as professional consultancy work.
The proposed duties need enough detail to show the substance of the role. What services will you provide? Who will perform the technical work? Will you mainly advise clients, manage operations, make sales or fulfil orders?
The title “director” is also insufficient on its own. It should not be used as a substitute for explaining the work or selecting the appropriate occupation classification.
For a small business, the owner may perform several functions. A useful assessment should consider that reality rather than rely on a polished title that describes only one part of the activity.
The 20-hour limit includes business administration
The government expressly permits qualifying work for your own business within the additional-work arrangements. It also confirms that business administration, including preparing invoices, counts towards the 20-hour allowance.
That makes billable hours an unreliable measure of the total commitment.
A consultancy project may involve client meetings, preparation, delivery, revisions, invoicing and correspondence. An online business may require time dealing with suppliers, updating listings and resolving customer problems. Those tasks should be included when mapping the activity for assessment.
Consider a hypothetical freelancer who spends 16 hours delivering client work, three hours preparing proposals and four hours managing the business during one week. The total is 23 hours. Looking only at the hours charged to clients would conceal the problem.
The allowance also covers supplementary work across multiple arrangements. The Home Office’s right-to-work guidance confirms that the 20-hour total applies whether the work involves one or several additional employers.
If you already have a supplementary job, assess that commitment alongside the business. Do not create a separate allowance for each activity.
A practical schedule should leave room for predictable administration and unexpected demands. Planning exactly 20 hours of client delivery gives you no room for the work needed to support it.
Work can begin before the business makes a profit
A business may require substantial effort before its first payment arrives. Developing a service, producing work for prospective clients or handling initial orders can involve active business work even when the venture is not yet profitable.
Because the Immigration Rules include unpaid activity, the absence of wages or profit does not settle whether you are working.
There is a meaningful distinction between considering an idea and beginning to operate it. Reading about a market is different from taking responsibility for delivering a customer’s project. Where the proposed preparation becomes substantial or involves actual commercial commitments, assess it before proceeding.
A free pilot project deserves particular attention. If you agree to deliver a service without charging so that you can obtain testimonials or future business, “unpaid” does not provide a complete immigration answer.
The sensible point for review is before your plans become obligations to customers, suppliers or staff. At that stage, you can still adjust the duties, timetable or business arrangements without having to unwind commitments.
Tax registration and dividends do not determine work permission
Tax compliance and immigration permission answer different questions.
HMRC’s guidance explains when a sole trader needs to register for Self Assessment. Those registration requirements concern tax administration. They do not create permission to undertake work that your immigration conditions do not allow.
A tax registration threshold should therefore never be treated as an immigration earnings allowance.
The method of taking money from a company also needs separating from the work performed. Government guidance describes dividends as payments a company can make to shareholders from available profits. Receiving dividends does not, by itself, establish whether you were actively working in the business.
If you manage clients and deliver services, taking dividends instead of wages does not remove those activities from the assessment.
Similarly, leaving all the income in the company does not mean that no work occurred. An accountant can advise on the financial and tax treatment, while the immigration review should establish whether your involvement is permitted. Both assessments should describe the same underlying arrangement.
A partner’s business does not extend your own work rights
A business may belong to your spouse, partner or another family member. That ownership does not resolve what work you can personally undertake.
A Skilled Worker dependant generally has permission to work, including self-employment, subject to the restriction on professional sportsperson or sports coach work. Those conditions differ from the sponsored worker’s conditions.
That difference can matter within the same household. Your partner may be permitted to run a business while your own involvement remains subject to the conditions of your Skilled Worker permission.
The assessment should identify each person’s contribution. Who finds customers? Who performs the service? Who manages the bank account, staff and suppliers? Who covers the business when the other person is unavailable?
Putting the company in your partner’s name does not answer those questions. Nor should occasional assistance be described so vaguely that nobody can explain what you actually do.
Clear roles help the household plan realistically and provide a sound basis for checking each person’s permission.
Your sponsored employment must remain part of the plan
Under the usual Skilled Worker conditions, supplementary employment depends on continuing in the sponsored job. A business becoming profitable does not automatically allow you to leave that employment and continue working for yourself under the same arrangements.
This is particularly important where the business is growing gradually. The point at which it can replace your income may arrive before you have permission to make it your main occupation.
Reducing your sponsored hours or salary also needs separate review. The fact that business income can cover your household expenses does not establish that the sponsored role continues to meet its requirements.
Our guide to sponsored worker salary reductions explains the questions that changes to sponsored pay can raise.
Check your employment contract as well. Outside business interests may engage provisions about consent, confidentiality, conflicts or intellectual property. Your employer’s agreement can be relevant to those contractual matters, but it does not alter your immigration conditions.
What if the business needs more of your time?
Growth should trigger a review before the working arrangement changes.
You may need to limit the commitments you accept, delegate suitable work or investigate an immigration arrangement that permits the intended role. Delegation needs to be genuine: the assessment should still include the management and other duties you retain.
Where additional employment does not qualify as supplementary employment, secondary employment may be possible through further sponsorship. Home Office guidance requires a new Certificate of Sponsorship and an application to vary permission. The worker must already have started employment with the first sponsor.
That process is not a general application for unrestricted freelance hours. There must be an eligible sponsorship arrangement supporting the proposed work.
If a visa update is required, submitting the application does not authorise you to begin the new arrangement. Government guidance says the new permission must be confirmed before starting the new job.
Commercial deadlines should be planned around that dependency. A customer contract requiring immediate full-time availability may be unsuitable while the necessary permission remains unresolved.
Can your own company sponsor you?
A business in which you have an ownership interest may be able to sponsor you if the organisation, role and application meet the relevant requirements.
This arrangement is often called “self-sponsorship”. It operates through the Skilled Worker sponsorship framework. Incorporating a company does not create a separate immigration permission.
The proposed job must withstand the normal genuineness assessment. The Rules exclude jobs that do not exist, are a sham or have been created mainly to secure immigration permission.
The business also needs to be capable of supporting the proposed employment. A useful review considers its actual operations, work available, funding, sponsorship personnel and compliance arrangements.
Pay requires particular care. Company turnover and profit should not be treated as interchangeable with qualifying salary. The sponsor guidance specifies which guaranteed payments can count. Personal investments into the sponsoring business may also affect the salary assessment under the Rules on payments from the applicant to the sponsor.
These issues should be examined together before relying on the company as your future sponsor. Our Business Sponsor Licence service explains the organisational preparation involved.
What should you prepare for an assessment?
The most useful starting point is a clear description of the proposed arrangement, supported by documents that show how it will work.
| Information | What it helps establish |
|---|---|
| Current immigration permission and relevant earlier decisions | Your conditions and any potentially relevant transitional provisions |
| Sponsored job description, contract and working hours | The existing employment around which the business must fit |
| Business ownership and management arrangements | Your role alongside any shareholders, directors or partners |
| Detailed description of your intended duties | The substance of the activity requiring assessment |
| Weekly estimate covering delivery and administration | The realistic time commitment |
| Draft client agreements or project proposals | What you will be obliged to deliver and when |
| Growth plans and intended changes to your main job | When a further immigration decision may become necessary |
The purpose is to identify a workable arrangement before you commit to it.
If you have already begun, use actual records where possible. Diaries, invoices, customer correspondence and project files can help establish what happened and how much time it required. An assessment based only on the company’s registration date or revenue will leave important gaps.
Knightsbridge can review your proposed business activity against your Skilled Worker conditions, sponsored employment and longer-term plans. We can help identify whether the arrangement fits your current permission, requires adjustment or needs a different sponsorship approach before you proceed.
