Your employer must either qualify under:

• Standard pathway: be an eligible fast-growing business (sometimes called a ‘scale-up business’); or

• Endorsing Body pathway: have been endorsed by an approved body, also known as an endorsing body

Standard Pathway 

Under the standard pathway, the Home Office will automatically assess your employer’s employment growth and/or turnover growth, based on information they have submitted to HMRC.

To be an eligible fast-growing business, in the 3 year period immediately before they were approved by the Home Office to sponsor scale-up workers, they must have:

• grown by 20% on average in each year in either employment or total sales (turnover)

• had at least 10 employees at the start of the 3 year period

Endorsing Body Pathway

The endorsing body pathway is for organisations that are unable to qualify under the standard pathway because their HMRC history is not long enough, but can demonstrate clear potential/ability to do so in the next 4 years.

Under the endorsing body pathway, an approved endorsing body will confirm your employer’s eligibility to apply for a Scale-up sponsor licence.

Your employer will need to satisfy the endorsing body that they meet various requirements.

You can stay in the UK with a Scale-up Worker visa for 2 years. You’ll need to apply to extend your visa when it expires.

If you want to stay longer in the UK

You can extend your visa as many times as you like by 3 years, as long as you still meet the eligibility requirements.

After 5 years, you may be able to apply to settle permanently in the UK. This gives you the right to live, work and study here for as long as you like, and apply for benefits if you’re eligible.

Once you’ve applied online, proved your identity and provided your documents, you’ll usually get a decision on your visa within:

• 3 weeks, if you’re outside the UK

• 8 weeks, if you’re inside the UK

You may be able to pay to get a faster decision.

With a Scale-up Worker visa you can:

• work in your sponsored job for at least 6 months

• leave your sponsored job after 6 months

• study

• bring your partner and children with you as your ‘dependants’, if they’re eligible

• take on additional work, including becoming self-employed

• do voluntary work

• travel abroad and return to the UK

• apply to settle permanently in the UK (also known as ‘indefinite leave to remain’) if you’ve lived in the UK for 5 years and meet the other eligibility requirements

You cannot:

• apply for most benefits (public funds), or the State Pension

• work as a professional sportsperson, for example a sports coach

If your application is successful, you’ll get a full list of what you can and cannot do with a Scale-up Worker visa.

During the first 6 months of your stay

You cannot change employer unless you apply to update your visa.

You do not need to update your visa if you start a different, eligible job with the same employer.

After 6 months

You can:

• continue working in your job

• change or stop doing your job without telling the Home Office

• be self-employed

You do not need to update your visa.

You can extend your Scale-up Worker visa without a new sponsor when your current visa expires. You must meet the earnings requirements.

Your partner and children can also apply to join you or stay in the UK as your ‘dependants’ if they’re eligible.

If your partner or child’s application is successful, their visa will usually end on the same date as yours. If a child’s parents have visas with different expiry dates, the child’s visa will end on the earlier date.

A dependant partner or child is any of the following:

• your husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried partner

• your child under 18 - including if they were born in the UK during your stay

• your child over 18 if they’re currently in the UK as your dependant

You’ll need to provide evidence of your relationship to your dependant when you apply.

Your partner

You must be able to prove one of the following:

• you’re in a civil partnership or marriage that’s recognised in the UK

• you’ve been living together in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply

• you’ve been in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply but you cannot live together, for example because you’re working or studying in different places, or it’s not accepted in your culture

If you’re not living together, you’ll need to prove that you have an ongoing commitment to each other, for example by providing evidence that you:

• communicate regularly with each other

• support each other financially

• care for any children you have together

• spend time together as a couple, for example on holiday or at events

Your child

They must:

• live with you, unless they’re living away from home in full-time education - for example, at boarding school or university

• not be married or in a civil partnership

You’ll need to provide evidence of their address, such as:

• a bank statement

• credit card bills

• driving licence

• NHS registration document

• an official letter from their university or college

Money they need to support themselves

Your partner and children must have a certain amount of money available to support themselves while they’re in the UK.

You - or your partner or child - will need:

• £285 for your partner

• £315 for one child

• £200 for each additional child

You - or your partner or child - will need to have had the money available for at least 28 days in a row. Day 28 must be within 31 days of you or them applying for this visa.

You’ll usually need to show proof of this when they apply, unless either:

• you have all been in the UK with a valid visa for at least 12 months

• your employer can cover your family’s costs during your first month in the UK - this must be confirmed on your certificate of sponsorship

If your partner or child is applying at a different time to you, they’ll only need to prove they have enough money to support themselves if they have been in the UK for less than 1 year.

In order to qualify for indefinite leave to remain as a Scale-up Worker you will need to prove that:

• You have spent a continuous period of 5 years in the UK with valid leave;

• The 5-year continuous period has comprised time spent with permission in any of the following routes (alone or in combination): Scale-up, Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator, T2 Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Representative of an Overseas Business, as a Tier 1 Migrant, other than Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur);

• You are in employment in the UK on the date of application with a salary paid through PAYE of at least £36,300 per year (or £34,600 per year if your most recent permission on the route was on the basis of a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned between 12 April 2023 and 3 April 2024 or £33,000 per year if your most recent permission on the route was on the basis of a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned on or before 11 April 2023;

• You have had monthly PAYE earnings in the UK equivalent to at least £36,300 per year (or £34,600 per year if your most recent permission on the route was on the basis of a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned between 12 April 2023 and 3 April 2024 or £33,000 per year if your most recent permission on the route was on the basis of a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned on or before 11 April 2023) during at least 24 months of the last 3 years immediately before the date of application;

• You meet the Knowledge of Life in the UK requirement (unless an exemption applies).

The Home Office will consider your guaranteed basic gross pay, recorded through UK-based PAYE.  Other sources of income (including earnings from self-employment and earnings from outside the UK) will not be considered. 

For the purpose of calculating your PAYE earnings in the UK during the last 3 years absences from work due to statutory maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, shared parental leave, statutory adoption leave or sick leave will be treated as periods during which you were paid the equivalent of at least £36,300 per year (or £34,600 per year if your most recent permission on the route was granted on the basis of a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned between 12 April 2023 and 3 April 2024 or £33,000 per year if your most recent permission on the route was granted on the basis of a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned on or before 11 April 2023).

Genuine Earnings Requirement

In order to be granted settlement as a Scale-up Worker, you will need to satisfy the Home Office that your PAYE earnings are genuine. 

If there are reasonable grounds to believe that your PAYE earnings have been fabricated or inflated or do not relate to genuine employment then your Scale-up Worker ILR application will be refused.