Working extra hours and second jobs

The basic rule

A Skilled Worker visa lets someone work in the job their employer sponsors them for. People apply for the Health and Care Worker visa through the Skilled Worker application. GOV.UK sets out the same rules on extra work for both.

The Immigration Rules allow a few things on top of the sponsored job:

• extra paid work, called "supplementary employment"
• voluntary work
• working out a notice period for a job held on the date of a visa application
• study

Other work is not allowed unless the visa is updated to cover it.

Overtime with your sponsor

Overtime in the sponsored job does not need a visa update. GOV.UK says there is no limit on overtime hours under the visa rules. For Health and Care Worker visa holders, bank shifts for an NHS sponsor also do not need a visa update.

Overtime pay does not count towards the salary the visa needs. The rules only count guaranteed basic pay.

Working time law still applies. Most workers cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average, normally averaged over 17 weeks. Workers can choose to opt out of this limit, and some jobs have exceptions.

A second job: supplementary employment

The rules allow a second job, called supplementary employment, if all of these are true:

• the person keeps working in their sponsored job
• the second job is no more than 20 hours a week
• the hours are outside the hours they are contracted to work for their sponsor

The second job also has to be one of these:

• a job on the Immigration Salary List, a list of jobs set out in the rules
• a job in the same profession and at the same professional level as the sponsored job
• a job in an occupation code in Tables 1, 2 or 3 of the list of eligible jobs, which GOV.UK calls "higher skilled"
• a job GOV.UK calls "medium skilled", but only for people granted Skilled Worker permission under the rules before 22 July 2025, and who have held it without a break since

At the time of writing (October 2026), care worker and senior care worker jobs (codes 6135 and 6136) are on the Immigration Salary List. The list changes over time, and many of its entries have a removal date of 31 December 2026.

The second employer does not need a sponsor licence. A sponsor licence is the Home Office approval an employer has to sponsor workers. There is no need to tell the Home Office about supplementary employment that meets these conditions. Home Office guidance says the worker should tell the second employer that the job is supplementary, so it can do right to work checks.

More than 20 hours: a second sponsored job

A second job of more than 20 hours a week is not supplementary employment. GOV.UK says the visa has to be updated first, so the person is sponsored for both jobs.

This needs a new certificate of sponsorship (CoS) from the second employer. A CoS is the record a sponsoring employer gives a worker, with details of the job. The second employer has to hold a sponsor licence. The application includes a letter asking to change the current permission. Home Office guidance says this can only happen after the person has started their first sponsored job.

Your own business

GOV.UK says the 20 hours a week can be in another job or in the person's own business. The same conditions apply, including the type of work. Business admin, such as preparing invoices, counts towards the 20 hours. In the Immigration Rules, "employment" includes self-employment.

Volunteering and unpaid work

Voluntary work is allowed in any sector. It has a legal meaning, taken from the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. The work has to be:

• unpaid, apart from reasonable expenses such as travel
• for a registered charity, a voluntary organisation, a body that raises money for one of these, or a statutory body (set up by law, like Historic England)

Unpaid work for a business is different. The Immigration Rules say "employment" includes unpaid employment. So unpaid work that is not voluntary work counts as employment under the visa conditions, for example an unpaid placement at a company.

What is not allowed

Home Office guidance says extra work outside these conditions breaks the visa conditions. The exception is when the visa has been updated to cover it. Examples include:

• a second job of more than 20 hours a week without updating the visa
• a second job in an occupation that does not meet any of the conditions above
• extra work during the hours contracted to the sponsor
• keeping a second job after stopping work in the sponsored job

Skilled Workers identified as victims of modern slavery, with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision, may have these work limits lifted.

Partners and children on dependant visas have different rules. They can do any work except as a professional sportsperson or sports coach.

Whether a particular job fits these rules depends on its occupation code and the person's visa history. A regulated immigration adviser can look at an individual situation.