Self-Sponsor Work Visa UK: Employment Through Your Company

You must still meet every requirement of the Skilled Worker route in Appendix Skilled Worker, and the sponsor licence rules in the Home Office guidance for sponsors, and these apply across the UK, including England and Wales. The general salary threshold for most new Skilled Worker applications from 22^nd July 2025 is £41,700 a year or the going rate for your occupation code, whichever is higher. Key Personnel appointments and the genuine vacancy test are the two areas that most often decide whether a self-sponsorship route succeeds or fails.

Summary

• You can be sponsored under the Skilled Worker route even as a majority shareholder or sole director of your own UK company, provided your company holds a valid sponsor licence.
• Your company needs an eligible Authorising Officer and Level 1 User in place for as long as the licence exists, and a UK-based director can usually fill both roles at the outset if you have no UK staff yet.
• You can later become Authorising Officer once you hold valid Skilled Worker permission, but the plan to transfer the role should be disclosed as part of your original licence application.
• Your Certificate of Sponsorship will only be granted if the Home Office decision maker is satisfied the role is a genuine vacancy under SW 5.5 and SW 6.3 of Appendix Skilled Worker, not one created mainly to obtain a visa.
• Getting the Key Personnel structure or the genuine vacancy evidence wrong can lead to a downgraded, suspended, or revoked licence, which puts your permission to stay in the UK at risk.

Although it is not an official immigration visa or route, majority shareholders can be sponsored under the Skilled Worker Visa by their own companies. It provides founders who own all or most of their business a legitimate route to work in the UK and, after continuous, lawful residence in the UK for five years, apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

The self sponsorship route is extremely complex and ruthlessly scrutinised by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). In my experience, founders often assume proving they own the sponsoring company is the hard part. However, the challenge typically comes down to:

• who can fill the Key Personnel roles when you have no UK staff yet, and
• whether the Home Office accepts your role as a genuine vacancy rather than one invented to secure entry clearance.

Who can act as UK sponsor licence key personnel

Your Key Personnel are the named individuals who run your sponsor licence, and a director or shareholder of your own company can usually fill these roles at the point of application. Home Office guidance requires each Key Personnel appointee to be based in the UK for the period they hold the role, hold a valid National Insurance number unless exempt, and be a paid member of staff or office holder of your organisation rather than a contractor or consultant engaged for a specific purpose.

You must nominate three roles on your licence application:

• Authorising Officer,
• Key Contact, and
• at least one Level 1 User,

The same person can fill more than one of these roles if they meet the eligibility rules. Section L4.9 of the sponsor guidance provides that none of your Key Personnel can be a contractor contracted to you for a specific purpose, and section L4.26 states none of them can be legally prohibited from being a company director, unless a court has given permission for that person to act as a director, or to promote or form a business, and acting as Key Personnel would not contravene that permission.

Your Authorising Officer must be a paid member of staff or office holder within your organisation and also the most senior person responsible for your activity as a licensed sponsor.

In cases where you are setting up a new UK company or subsidiary from overseas and have not yet hired UK staff a director who is already based in the UK, such as a business partner, spouse, or trusted associate, can hold both roles at the point you submit your licence application. You cannot nominate yourself as Level 1 User at this stage if you are applying for your own Skilled Worker permission from outside the UK, because you would not yet be based in the UK or hold the immigration status the role requires.

Becoming authorising officer later

You can become Authorising Officer once you hold valid entry clearance or permission to stay as a Skilled Worker and are based in the UK. To make this change, you must first be appointed as an additional Level 1 User within the Sponsorship Management System, and a UK-based legal representative, such as Gulbenkian Andonian Solicitors, can be nominated to help manage this process once your licence is granted.

Once you are added as a Level 1 User, you must share your date of birth and National Insurance number so the existing Level 1 User can add your details to the Sponsorship Management System. This route is commonly used where an overseas founder wants a UK-based director or legal representative to establish the licence and appoint the necessary personnel first, before transferring the Authorising Officer role to themselves once their own Skilled Worker visa is granted.

Do I need to disclose my plans upfront to UK Visas and Immigration?

Disclosing your intention to become Authorising Officer later helps keep the information you give UKVI consistent and reduces the risk of a later finding that the arrangement was used to get around genuine sponsorship requirements. Appendix A of the sponsor guidance sets out the supporting documents your company must submit with its licence application, and a clear explanation of your intended role strengthens that submission.

If you do not disclose your plans and the UKVI later questions your ability to undertake the Authorising Officer role, an investigation could conclude that the arrangement was used to circumvent UK immigration control.

If the Home Office finds evidence of abuse in your Key Personnel arrangements after your licence has been granted, it can downgrade, suspend or revoke your sponsor licence under section L3.12 of the sponsor guidance, which in turn can lead to the curtailment or cancellation of your permission to stay in the UK. This risk applies specifically where an investigation concludes the succession plan for the Authorising Officer role was used to get around genuine sponsorship requirements.

Given these consequences, transparency in your original Appendix A submission and close attention to the suitability requirements in sections L4.26 and L4.27 of the sponsor guidance reduce your exposure to compliance action later.

What makes my role a genuine vacancy

Paragraph SW 5.5 of Appendix Skilled Worker provides that a sponsored role only qualifies if the decision maker does not have reasonable grounds to believe the job does not exist, is a sham, or has been created mainly so you can apply for entry clearance or permission to stay.

Under paragraph SW 6.3 of Appendix Skilled Worker:

1. whether the sponsor has shown a genuine need for the job as described; and
2. whether the applicant has the appropriate skills, qualifications and experience needed to do the job as described; and
3. the sponsor’s history of compliance with the immigration system including, but not limited to, paying its sponsored workers appropriately; and
4. any additional information from the sponsor.

For a self-sponsored applicant, you are both the sponsor making that case and the applicant whose skills are being tested against it, so your supporting evidence needs to work from both directions at once.

Required evidence 

You need to give the Home Office your job title and Standard Occupation Classification code, the duties, and functions of the role, where the role sits on your organisation’s hierarchy chart, and the skillset, experience, and qualifications the role requires. Where you are sponsoring yourself into a subsidiary that is already trading, you should also explain why your work can no longer be carried out remotely from overseas and why your presence in the UK benefits the organisation.

You must select the appropriate Standard Occupation Classification code and ensure your salary meets both the general threshold and the going rate for that code, since under SW 6.2 a decision maker will query a code that appears less appropriate than the role actually merits. The government’s occupation coding tool gives example job descriptions and entry-level requirements that help you select the correct code, and Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Occupations then confirms the applicable going rate for sponsorship purposes.

Salary

For most new Skilled Worker applications, you must be paid at least £41,700 a year, or the going rate for your Standard Occupation Classification code under Appendix Skilled Occupations, whichever figure is higher. Your role must also sit within an eligible occupation code listed in the relevant tables of Appendix Skilled Occupations or on the Immigration Salary List, and this applies in England and Wales as it does across the whole of the UK under the single Skilled Worker route.

Several exceptions let you qualify on a lower figure, provided your pay never drops beneath £33,400 a year, or £37,500 where a non-STEM PhD applies.

• Immigration Salary List roles: qualify at £33,400 a year, provided this still meets the going rate for your specific occupation code and the part of the UK where you will work.
• Early-career applicants: if you are under 26, currently or recently on a Student visa studying at bachelor’s level or above, currently or recently on a Graduate visa, or working towards a regulated qualification or chartered status, you can be paid 70% of the going rate, provided this is at least £33,400 a year; total UK stay on this basis is capped at 4 years.
• STEM PhD holders: 80% of the going rate, provided this is at least £33,400 a year, where your doctorate is relevant to the sponsored role.
• Non-STEM PhD holders: 90% of the going rate, provided this is at least £37,500 a year, on the same relevance basis.
• Postdoctoral researchers: 70% of the going rate in eight specified occupation codes covering chemical, biological, physical, and social science, unspecified research, and higher education teaching, capped at 4 years total UK stay.
• Separate salary rules apply to certain healthcare and education roles, and to prison officers extending, updating, or switching into this visa.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sponsor myself if I own 100% of my UK company

Yes, owning all of the shares in your UK company does not bar you from being sponsored by it, because the restriction that once blocked majority shareholders under Tier 2 (General) no longer applies under the Skilled Worker route. You must still meet the standard eligibility requirements, including the genuine vacancy test, the salary threshold and the Key Personnel rules described above.

Do I need UK employees before applying for a sponsor licence

No, you do not need existing UK employees before applying, provided you can appoint a suitable director or another eligible person as your Authorising Officer and Level 1 User. Many overseas founders appoint a UK-based director or a legal representative to fill these roles initially, then transfer them once the founder holds valid Skilled Worker permission and is based in the UK.

What if my licence is revoked after I am sponsored

If your company’s sponsor licence is revoked, your Skilled Worker permission to stay in the UK would normally be curtailed. Revocation most often follows a Home Office finding of dishonesty, non-compliance with sponsor duties, or abuse of the sponsorship arrangement, so full transparency with UKVI throughout protects your position.

Talk to Gulbenkian Andonian Solicitors

If you are planning to set up a UK company or subsidiary and want to check whether your self-sponsorship route will meet the genuine vacancy and Key Personnel requirements, we can review your structure before you apply. Get in touch with our business immigration team to plan your application with confidence. Please phone 020 7269 9590.