Most people with a Student visa can work. They are usually keen to maximise their opportunities for paid work, for gaining work experience, and for the other social and cultural benefits of working. But have recent changes in technology, communications, business practice and work culture in the UK also expanded the work you can do under a Student visa?
In this blog, I will break down what the Student work conditions say and what they actually mean. I’ll look at some real examples of work that students may want to do, and how they fit in (or do not fit in) to those work conditions. In every case, I will refer to the definitions in the Immigration Rules and Home Office guidance. For up-to-date information about working conditions, including recent changes and updates to the rules, visit our student work page.
Your international student adviser can always help you navigate what the immigration rules and guidance allow someone with Student permission to do, including the rules about working.
1. The law: Student visa work conditions
A ‘Student’ is someone with immigration permission (a visa) to be in the UK under the Student route, or under the Tier 4 route that it replaced.
Most Students can work up to 20 hours a week during term time, although some are restricted to 10 hours, and some have a work prohibition. Check your visa vignette, biometric residence permit, or your eVisa for your work conditions, and find out more about working during your studies on our website.
Paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules provides a definition of ‘employment’ for all types of immigration permission, not just for students. However, not all types of ‘employment’ under that definition can be conducted if you hold Student permission. If you need to check whether a specific activity is allowed under the Student work conditions, you would need to check the specific Student rules.
Here is a summary, based on the work restrictions in Appendix Student, but bringing in some general definitions from elsewhere in the Immigration Rules:
Working for an employer
You can do this within your 20 (or 10) hours per week restriction during term-time, and with no specific time limit in vacations. For more information on working for an employer whilst on a Student visa, see our Student work page.
Being self-employed or engaging in business activity
You are not allowed to be self-employed or engage in business activity. Being self-employed normally means you manage your own workload, pay, and tax. If you are going to be doing the work as a freelancer, contractor or consultant you are highly likely to be self-employed. There is guidance on gov.uk to help you find out if you are self-employed.
You cannot run a business at all while you have Student permission in the UK. The Immigration Rules give no exceptions for online businesses or for businesses where the clients are outside the UK. For more details, read page 93 of the Student route caseworker guidance which gives three examples of what ‘business activity’ means.
Working in professional sports including coaching
You cannot work in professional sport, including as a coach, but you can participate in amateur sports. An ‘amateur’ is defined in paragraph 6 as “a person who engages in a sport…solely for personal enjoyment and who is not seeking to derive a living from the activity”.
If your proposed sport-related activity is not amateur sport but a remunerated job, the first thing to check is whether it is self-employment and therefore prohibited anyway. For example, working as a self-employed personal trainer, yoga teacher or online eSports gamer may not be allowed, not because it is professional sports, but because of the overarching prohibition on self-employment.
If the job is for an employer, the employer will need to ascertain whether the work conditions of your immigration permission allow you to do it. The Student and Child Student caseworker guidance has a list of scenarios taken from paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules which indicate that someone may be working in professional sport, and hence it would be prohibited if you have Student permission, including:
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- Providing services as a sportsperson, playing or coaching in any capacity, at a professional or semi-professional level of sport.
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- Receiving payment, including payment in kind, for playing or coaching that is covering all, or the majority of, their costs for travelling to, and living in the UK.
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- Being registered to a professional or semi-professional sports team. This includes all academy and development team age groups.
This list of what a ‘professional sportsperson’ means also includes four more scenarios which appear to be more about your personal history and previous activities than about a specific potential job in the UK. If you are concerned that these might affect your right to work, speak to your employer. The four scenarios are:
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- Representing a national team within the previous two years, including all youth and development age groups from under 17’s upwards.
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- Representing a state or regional team within the previous two years, including all youth and development age groups from under 17’s upwards.
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- Establishing an international reputation in their chosen field of sport.
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- Engaging an agent or representative, with the aim of finding opportunities as a sportsperson, and/or developing a current or future career as a sportsperson.
Sports-related work placements and activities related to a sports scholarship during a course at degree-level are allowed. This is confirmed in the Student and Child student caseworker guidance:
“[Sports-related work placements] are permitted where the placement is an integral and assessed part of their course and does not involve the student filling a permanent vacancy. Additionally, Students […] must not take up a role that requires them to play or coach sport as part of a work placement, unless they are doing so as an amateur.
Where an applicant [with a sports scholarship] is required to play or coach sport in exchange for receiving the scholarship, this activity is only permitted if they are studying a course at degree level or above, at a higher education provider and the scholarship has been awarded for playing or coaching sport at an amateur level for their Student sponsor or British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS). This will not be considered a breach of the professional sportsperson restrictions.”
If you are offered a job and you have concerns about whether your Student permission allows it, speak to the employer directly.
Working as an entertainer
The Immigration Rules do not define what an ‘entertainer’ is, which can make navigating this area of work difficult. However, the Immigration Rules do define what an ‘amateur’ is in paragraph 6 . ‘Amateur’ is defined as “solely for personal enjoyment and not seeking to derive a living from the activity”. Therefore, you may be able to partake in entertainment (i.e., acting or performing) as an amateur or as a hobby, as this would not likely be classed as working, and your Student work condition may have no bearing on whether you can do it. Bear in mind that you would not be able to be paid in any way for activities like this.
Any performance that is an assessed part of your course, including an assessed work placement, is not considered to be working as an entertainer. This is a concession contained on page 61 of the Student route caseworker guidance.
Work as a postgraduate doctor or dentist
You can only work as a postgraduate doctor or dentist if you are on a recognised foundation programme. It is likely that if you are following either of these pathways that you will be on Skilled Worker permission where the work conditions differ. More information can be found on our Skilled Worker page.
Work placement
A work placement “assessed as an integral part of the course” is separate from any other employment, so you can do both a work placement and a job at the same time, and the hours spent on the work placement do not count towards your allowance.
This is not so for a work placement that is not an assessed part of the course. That needs to be done within your normal work restrictions.
Students’ union sabbatical officer
Working as a students’ union sabbatical officer is separate from any other permitted work, so you can work in this role and it will not count towards your working limit. For more information on this, see our Students’ union sabbatical officers page.
Permanent full-time job
A permanent job is one with no end date on your contract. You can do a permanent part-time job, but not a permanent full-time job.
Full-time normally means a full working week, 40 hours or so, which for someone with Student permission is only possible during vacations when they have no restriction on the number of hours they can work. A temporary full-time job outside term-time is fine, as many students do this in vacation periods.
A job that is both permanent and full-time is not allowed, except if you have already applied for the Graduate route. Your employer will need to see evidence of that.
If you are being sponsored to switch from the Student route to a Skilled worker visa, you can also start your sponsored job as soon as you have applied. In this case, the whole timeline of when you can apply and when you can start work needs to be led by your sponsor employer and based on what the Immigration Rules allow.
In all cases, remember that it is your employer who checks and ascertains whether you are allowed to do any specific job under your Student permission, in line with their own responsibilities to prevent illegal working. They have a lot to lose by not taking this responsibility seriously, with sanctions and fines for facilitating illegal working.
2. Risks of illegal working
It is your employer’s decision whether to employ you, and it is their role to check whether your Student permission allows you to do the job. The Home Office considers that employers have the central role in preventing illegal working, and if they fail to do the proper checks, they face penalties.
At the same time, a Student is also expected to know and understand their own immigration conditions. If you are found to be working in breach of the Student work condition, you also face potential penalties. If you are found to be working too many hours, or doing work that you are not allowed to do under the Student conditions, you can be removed from the UK. Having worked illegally, you may face a ban on re-entry for a certain period of time.
Your university or college is also obliged to report to the Home Office any students who they know are working illegally. If you believe you may have breached your work conditions and you are looking for independent advice, you can call our Student advice line. For independent legal advice, you can consult a legal adviser/solicitor. You can use the Office for the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC)’s ‘Find an immigration adviser’ tool to seek out registered, regulated immigration advice.
3. Income tax
In the UK, income tax for Student permission workers is managed for you by your employer. They deduct it from your pay under the pay as you earn (PAYE) scheme. There is no need to file a tax return.
Sometimes someone with Student permission may also need to file a self-assessment tax return if they receive income from other sources. This doesn’t include self-employment or business activity, because they are prohibited, but from sources such as:
- rent from a property you own
- dividends from shares you own
- some interest earned on savings
- fees for some “paid volunteering”, or other one-off payments (this income may be liable for income tax)
Filing a self-assessment tax return does not in itself mean you are self-employed. It just means you have extra income that needs to be assessed for tax.
For more details about income tax, see the UK government's guide to who needs to file a tax return.
4. Volunteering
Volunteering does not count towards your maximum 10 or 20 hours if it meets the definition of volunteering in the Student route caseworker guidance (page 94):
“Volunteers 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 (although they are sometimes reimbursed for reasonable travel and subsistence expenses). [...] Volunteers usually help a charity or voluntary or public sector organisation.”
Any other kind of unpaid or voluntary work that does not meet this definition will count towards your weekly 10 or 20 hours limit.
The national Student Volunteering Week takes place every February.
5. Popular jobs in the UK
Now I’m going to share some specific scenarios or types of work that students often ask me about. The Student work conditions do not make specific provision for any of them, so it is a matter of assessing whether they fit into the rules and guidance.
Working for an employer outside the UK
When you are physically outside the UK, any work conditions attached to your Student permission are not relevant. The UK government has no jurisdiction over your work activities when you are not in the UK. You will of course need to check what your work rights are in the specific country where you are working.
Any work you do when you are physically in the UK, including for an employer who is not in the UK, counts towards your weekly 10 or 20 hours limit. You are also subject to the other Student permission restrictions, for example you can only be employed, not self-employed.
A non-UK employer will probably not know anything about your Student permission work conditions, and they have no responsibility to ensure that you are working within your restrictions. So, this becomes your sole responsibility. The logistics can be tricky, so here is a suggested checklist for anyone working remotely for an overseas employer while in the UK on Student permission:
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- Make sure your overseas employer knows you are based in the UK, and that they are happy with this.
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- Monitor your own work hours, so that you know your work is always within your Student work conditions. For example, a maximum of 20 hours, Monday to Sunday during term-time. You might need to explain to the employer that you are subject to this restriction, for example, if they want or expect you to work more than 20 hours.
Working for more than one employer
Employers know about the work restriction for those with Student permission, and they will be checking that your permission allows you to do the job with them, including not exceeding any restriction on the number of hours you can work during term-time.
The term-time restriction is on the total number of hours you can work per week, not per employer per week. You cannot, for example, work 20 hours per week for one employer, and more hours per week for another employer – except if it is vacation time when you have no limit anyway, or if you are doing a work placement that is both integral to and an assessed part of your course of study.
In theory, you can split your 20 hours per week allowance across several employers. This could be tricky to manage, because you would need to be very clear with both employers what hours you can work and why. It would be a good idea to keep your own records of your weekly hours worked across all jobs to ensure that you always stay within the 20 hours maximum. This will be especially important if any of your employers are outside the UK, and hence they do not know about the Student permission work restriction anyway.
Gig economy jobs
The gig economy means working for companies like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat, DPD, Evri and Uber.
Gig economy workers have certain rights like employees do, such as holiday pay and pension rights. However, most of the companies still consider them self-employed contractors, not employees. This is therefore not an option for someone with Student permission.
It is possible that some jobs which appear to be gig economy jobs may be employment, not self-employment. You will need to ask the company which it is.
Resident warden on call
If your total number of hours on duty, including overnight, are within your weekly maximum 10 or 20 hours anyway (including any other paid or unpaid work you are doing), then you can work as a resident warden on call.
However, if counting all the hours on call, including any when you are not actively working or even asleep, would take you over your weekly 10 or 20 hour maximum, we advise that you get individual advice from both the housing services and the human resources departments at your university before accepting the job. The university may consider the whole on-call period as your working hours and pay you accordingly, or they may not.
Selling through online marketplaces, creating digital content and influencing
Anyone can sell their unwanted items through an online marketplace like eBay. This is not work. The UK government's guidance on working for yourself says that, “you’re probably not trading if you sell some unwanted items occasionally or you don’t plan to make a profit”.
Online selling becomes ‘trading’ if you sell or make items for profit or if you “sell online, at car boot sales or through classified adverts on a regular basis”. The guidance says that, “If you start working for yourself, you’re classed as a sole trader. This means you’re self-employed - even if you haven’t yet told HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).”
Using social media such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to create and share digital content purely for fun or to express creativity and opinions is not considered to be work. If you use it as a source of income through monetisation and subscriptions, like an influencer or digital content creator would, that also becomes trading.
You might read about the ‘trading allowance’ that allows someone to earn up to £1000 in the tax year without needing to register as self-employed or declaring the earnings to HMRC. This is purely a tax allowance for those who can lawfully run a small business. It is not an exemption from the Student work restriction which, as we know, has an overall prohibition on such business activity.
Earning an income as a content creator, streamer (i.e., Twitch/Kick), influencer or trading on online marketplaces are not one of the three named examples of business activity in the Student route caseworker guidance (page 93), but it seems clear that HMRC sees it as such. In May 2023, prompted by information provided by the online platforms, HMRC started actively approaching UK-based content creators and influencers who made money from their digital content.
Digital nomad
A digital nomad is someone who uses technology and the internet to create a freelance online working life that disregards conventional working factors like a physical workplace and business hours. They may even spend time living in different countries, either making a living from freelance work conducted and sourced online, or through sources of ‘passive income’.
This a very attractive idea in theory, and technology makes it perfectly feasible, but in reality it is only possible if your immigration status in the country where you are staying allows you to do freelance work. Your Student permission work conditions do not allow it, so you cannot be a digital nomad while you are living in the UK.
Dealing in shares, currencies and cryptocurrencies
There are no restrictions on what assets or financial products you can own. However, some activity in these areas may be seen as business activity.
You can buy and own shares, but if you own more than 10% of the shares in the company (including if they are held in trust for you) you cannot work for the company. This is one of the specific examples of business activity in the Student route caseworker guidance (page 93).
If you regularly buy and sell stocks, shares, currency, property or other assets in order to make money, this is highly likely to be seen as business activity. You might want to keep such holdings in ‘hold’ mode while you have Student permission. If you make a dividend income from shares you own, that is not necessarily business activity in itself, but you must pay income tax on this income via a self-assessment tax return. If you require further advice on this, seek advice from HMRC.
The Immigration Rules and any related guidance do not make any specific provision for cryptocurrencies. It would be logical and safest to assume that mining and active trading is both self-employment and a business activity and therefore prohibited for someone with Student permission.
Separately, HMRC has published dedicated guidance on how cryptoassets including bitcoin or cryptocurrency are taxed.
Direct sales companies
Consultants, managers, directors and distributors for direct sales companies are self-employed, so you cannot do it in the UK if you have Student immigration permission. Such companies will not check your right to work because they are not your employer. They leave it to the individual consultant to monitor their own self-employment and any attached responsibilities, including whether their immigration status allows them to do the work.
Income from owning a property
Anyone of any nationality and any immigration status can buy and own property in the UK.
If you rent out your property, you must pay income tax on the income you receive from rent. Furthermore, renting out a property or buying a property as an investment could be seen as a business activity. It’s best to get professional immigration advice before buying a property.
Television talent shows, media appearances and competitions
Current and former international students have been contestants on televised contests including Britain’s Got Talent, The Great British Bake Off and University Challenge. However, if you decide to try to enter a contest that involves skills or performing, whether it is televised or not, you need to check at an early stage whether the organisers view it as employment. You must remain conscious of your restrictions under your Student permission, and shows like these can often be a grey area with respect to the Immigration Rules. You may wish to seek independent advice before engaging with a show of this kind. Of course, you will also need to check whether your academic schedule allows you the time to participate.
Writing, publishing, visual art
When you formally publish your writing or other written or visual work, including self-publishing, you are usually hoping that people will buy it and that you will earn some money. Therefore, it is highly likely to be seen as a business activity and you may not do it under the Student work conditions.
To avoid this, if you want to publish your writing or other work purely as an artistic expression or leisure activity or to share it with the public, you can do it through a (non-monetised) blog, social media or personal website.
Focus groups, clinical trials
When you take part in a focus group, clinical trial or other similar experiment, you are normally given some cash and usually some food and drink. The organisers will need to check your identity, usually your passport, but this is for their own statistical monitoring. They do not need to check your right to work because they do not consider it work, but ‘paid volunteering’.
However, it would not meet the narrow definition of volunteering, so it does count towards your weekly maximum permitted working hours.
And while it is not self-employment, HMRC advises that payments for taking part in very well-paid clinical trials could be seen as income that is liable for tax.
Babysitting, dog-walking
Missing your young relatives? Wish you could have a pet in your student housing?
You can do dog-walking or babysitting while you are in the UK, but under the Student work restriction you can only do it unpaid. Any service you provide for payment, including babysitting, dog-walking or anything paid ‘cash in hand’ is likely to be seen as self-employment or at the very least, a business activity.
Dog-walking and babysitting are a chance to experience aspects of the local culture away from your student life and a great way to socialise.
Student housing normally doesn’t allow pets, but the website Borrow My Doggy connects you with local dogs who need walking and company. Walking a dog may give you an insight into the British public that you do not normally see, especially in cities: people will smile, stop to pet the dog, and ask you its name, breed and age.
If you have any questions about the work conditions of your Student permission, contact an international student adviser at your institution. The UK Government also provides helpful resources online in respect of your employment status and rights.
You can contact us to discuss specific cases on our student advice line. Please note that we do not offer advice via email or social media.
Andrew is a freelance adviser at UKCISA. He works with the Advice & Training team to provide OISC-compliant advice to members, international students, and the public on international student affairs, and deliver informative, engaging training to UKCISA members. Outside of this, he works independently with universities on one-off or temporary projects, regularly co-hosts events with careers services, and consults on fee status assessment.
