UK Paid Permitted Engagement Visa: Here's how to stay and offer your services in the UK

LONDON - If you are an expert of your field, you can work in the United Kingdom for a month through the Paid Permitted Engagement Visitor Visa which is a lucrative opportunity for all those who have a skill to show and prove.

To be eligible for this visa, you must have been invited by a UK-based organization or client (such as a gallery, university arts faculty, school or events venue agent or agency broadcaster) through which you can visit the UK for up to 1 month. You cannot extend your stay in the UK under this visa.

Eligibility criteria for Paid Engagement

To be eligible for Paid Permitted Engagement Visa, you must meet the conditions elaborated below:  

• You’ve been formally invited by a UK-based organisation to attend a pre-arranged event or other permitted engagement

  which relates directly to your expertise, qualifications and main job in your home country

• Your age must be equal to or above 18 and you’ll leave the UK at the end of your visit
• You’re able to support yourself during your trip (or have funding from someone else to support you)
• You’re able to pay for your return or onward journey (or have funding from someone else to pay for the journey)
• You’ll not live in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits, or make the UK your main home

Experts who can apply for Paid Engagement visa

The basic criteria for Paid Permitted Engagement Visa is that you must depict an expertise. You can be paid to do an activity that relates directly to your profession including:

• Performing
• Talking about, presenting or launching your work to other professionals or the public
• Giving lectures
• Joining judging panels or debate panels
• Taking part in professional conferences

A ‘professional artist’ can be anyone working in the performing or creative arts. For example, poets, make-up artists, stylists, set designers, photographers and fashion models.

How to prove your expertise

You can prove that you have an expertise in any field through your published work, publicity material for recent performances, screenings, concerts, talks, readings or exhibitions, media coverage and reviews or awards you’ve received.

For instance, professional sportspeople who are paid to do an activity that relates directly to their sporting profession are eligible for the visa for taking part in a sporting event for which they need an invitation from a UK-based sports organisation, agent or agency or broadcaster.

The aspect that should be kept in mind is that you must be able to show you’re an established sportsperson in your home country, for which you can show proof of recent performances, awards and media coverage, or awards you’ve received.

Same goes for other professionals like qualified lawyers, lecturers, academic examiners or assessors and Air pilot examiners.

Preparing the Documents

It must be kept in mind that you will need this Paid Permitted Engagement Visa before you enter the country. Moreover, you will need following documents to avail the visa:

• Valid passport for the whole of your stay
• Formal written invitation from a UK-based organisation. The invitation letter could be from an organisation in the creative arts or entertainment industries, a sports organisation, agent or broadcaster, a higher education institution, a research organisation, an aviation training organisation regulated by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, a client, if you’re a lawyer

It is to be mentioned that this paid engagement visa is specifically for those who have an expertise in any area and in your documents, you must show that the event or engagement relates to your expertise, qualifications and main job in your home country. It depends on what you’re being paid to do in the UK as far as the supporting documents are concerned.

How to Apply for Paid Engagement Visa

The process for applying for the Paid Permitted Engagement Visa is similar to other visa types. You have to apply for the visa online here and complete all the codal formalities accordingly.

Cost of Visa

A Permitted Paid Engagement Visitor visa costs £100 for up to 1 month and the official guidelines say that the earliest you can apply is 3 months before you travel.

What you are not Permitted to Do

Under the Paid Engagement Visa, you are not allowed to:

• Do paid work unrelated to your main overseas job or area of expertise
• Study
• Live in the UK for extended periods
• Claim public funds (benefits)
• Pass through the UK to another country (‘in transit’)
• Marry or register a civil partnership, or give notice of marriage or civil partnership