UK Skilled Worker Wrapper

What must be true

Skilled Worker requires:

• a confirmed job offer;
• a UK employer approved by the Home Office;
• a Certificate of Sponsorship from that employer;
• an eligible occupation;
• salary compliance;
• B2 English, unless an exemption applies.

For you, the applicant-side case is not the main bottleneck. The bottleneck is the sponsored role.

Current sponsor facts

The GOV.UK sponsor register was last updated on 2026-06-26 when checked for this wiki.

The current CSV lists:

Organisation	Register entry
Charity Entrepreneurship	Worker (A rating), Skilled Worker
Impact Operations Limited	Worker (A rating), Skilled Worker
80,000 Hours Limited	Worker (A rating), Skilled Worker
Longview Inc Ltd	Worker (A rating), Skilled Worker
Alpenglow Group Limited t/a The Centre for Long-Term Resilience	Worker (A rating), Skilled Worker

The register did not show "Ambitious Impact" as a separate sponsor name. That is expected if AIM operates under Charity Entrepreneurship.

Current fee and timing anchors

Use these as planning anchors, not final filing advice:

Item	Current GOV.UK figure
Sponsor licence fee, small or charitable sponsor	GBP 611
Sponsor licence decision	Usually under 8 weeks
Sponsor licence priority	GBP 750 for a 10-working-day decision, if available
Worker Certificate of Sponsorship	GBP 525
Immigration Skills Charge, small or charitable sponsor	GBP 480 for first 12 months, then GBP 240 per additional 6 months, where the charge applies
Skilled Worker visa fee, outside UK, up to 3 years	GBP 819
Immigration Health Surcharge	Usually GBP 1,035 per year
Standard Skilled Worker decision time	3 weeks outside UK; 8 weeks inside UK
Applicant priority decision	Usually 5 working days if available
Applicant super-priority decision	Usually next working day if available

Salary anchor

The standard Skilled Worker salary requirement is GBP 41,700 or the occupation's going rate, depending on the role.

Because you are under 26, the "paid less" rule may allow 70% of the going rate, but only if salary is at least GBP 33,400.

So do not discuss a stipend-level role. Discuss a real full-time salary.

The third-party labour constraint

This is the rule that matters most for an AI uplift consultancy.

GOV.UK sponsor guidance says that, where a worker is supplied on a contract basis, the sponsor must have full responsibility for the worker's duties, functions, outcomes, and outputs.

The guidance also says a sponsor cannot sponsor a worker if:

• the sponsor is hiring the worker out to another organisation to fill a position there; or
• the worker is providing an ongoing routine role or service for a third party that is not the sponsor.

This does not ban all client-facing work. It does mean the work must be structured as the sponsor's own time-bounded service or project, with the sponsor responsible for the outputs.

Clean AI uplift structures

CE/AIM internal programme

Clean if:

• CE employs you;
• CE manages you;
• your output is AIM/CE AI uplift infrastructure, training, tooling, or portfolio support;
• support to incubated charities is CE's programme delivery, not each charity independently employing you.

New UK AI uplift org

Clean if:

• the new org employs you;
• the org has governance and funding;
• the org contracts with clients as an organisation;
• you are not merely leased into client staff roles.

Impact Ops service project

Clean if:

• Impact Ops employs you;
• Impact Ops sells or delivers a specific AI uplift project;
• Impact Ops owns responsibility for the deliverables.

Risky structures

Avoid these:

• sponsor on paper, independent consultant in reality;
• employer-of-record wrapper with no real management;
• ongoing staff augmentation for another org;
• stipend or grant-only arrangement treated as employment;
• vague "founder" title with no reporting line, salary, or sponsor-owned outputs.

Best next action

Ask the sponsor candidate to draft a one-page role description before talking forms.

It should answer:

• legal employer;
• job title;
• duties;
• occupation code;
• salary;
• hours;
• start and end dates;
• reporting line;
• UK work location;
• who owns outputs;
• what outside work is allowed.

If that page is coherent, a solicitor can turn it into a Skilled Worker filing. If it is not coherent, the visa route is not ready.