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on October 23, 2023
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The short answer to the question at the top of this article is yes, residents from the UAE are able to apply for the UK self-sponsorship visa route, provided that they meet the relevant requirements.
However, not everyone who considers or who has heard of the self-sponsored way of moving to the UK, will know what it actually is. Although it is an entirely legal process, it is not an immigration route that has been well-publicised.
First, it is important to clear up some potential confusion; there is technically no such thing as a “UK self-sponsorship visa”, or at least, not a visa that has this name. It is not an official visa route of the UK Government in its own right.
Instead, the term “UK self-sponsorship visa” refers to the process whereby a national of another country – such as the UAE – may be able to relocate to the UK in order to work for their own business, with that business effectively sponsoring them to come to the UK. Typically, then, the self-sponsored route involves the prospective migrant setting up or buying into a business based in the UK. This business then applies to be approved to sponsor that migrant on the Skilled Worker visa route. So, it is the Skilled Worker visa that the migrant will ultimately hold.
If you are interested in moving to the UK via the self-sponsored method, there will effectively be two broad requirements that you will need to satisfy. These will be:
So, if the organisation that will sponsor you as your employer does not hold a sponsor licence from the Home Office already, it will need to apply for and get approved for this first.
Your prospective employer in the UK will therefore need to satisfy the latest requirements for this. This will include ensuring it has the appropriate systems in place for the monitoring of sponsored workers, and not having any unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences or certain other crimes, such as money laundering or fraud.
Then, there will be the second stage of self-sponsorship: making sure you are granted a Skilled Worker visa by the Home Office. Again, there will be a list of eligibility criteria that you will need to meet. These requirements will include – but will not be limited to – doing a job that is on the list of eligible occupations, and being paid a certain minimum salary, with the exact required amount depending on the type of work that you will be undertaking. The UK Home Office will also expect you to be able to speak, read, write, and understand English when you apply for the Skilled Worker visa. You will need to prove that your capability in the language is at a minimum of level B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale.
Relocating to the UK on a “self-sponsored” basis can be attractive for many reasons – not least the many advantages that the Skilled Worker visa itself can bring.
The Skilled Worker visa can last for up to five years before the holder needs to extend it. And if you do spend five years in the UK on this visa, by the end of that period, you may be able to apply to settle permanently in the UK – a status known as “indefinite leave to remain” (ILR). This would give you the right to continue living, working, and studying in the UK for as long as you wish.
Furthermore, being sponsored by your own company to come to the UK and work here would give you relative long-term certainty about your future in the country, given that you would not be subject to the whims of someone else acting as your employer.
So, as a holder of the Skilled Worker visa on the self-sponsored route, you would be able to plan for the months and years ahead with confidence, all without having to deal with some of the potentially constraining requirements that other UK visa categories might impose on you.
And if you are successful in obtaining ILR status eventually through this visa route, you could even use this to apply for British citizenship a year later.
As this article will have hopefully given you a sense of, there is a lot involved in the process of attempting to move to the UK via the self-sponsorship route. So, you will doubtless appreciate the comprehensive help and advice of a team of award-winning UK immigration solicitors in the UAE, who will be able to project-manage your case from start to finish. To learn more about our renowned, fixed-fee service in relation to this visa, please feel free to call our Dubai office today on +971 4272 0822. Alternatively, you can fill in and submit our straightforward online contact form to request a free consultation with us.
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