Creative Worker visa

Whether you hold your own creative sponsor licence or not, we can help.

As an approved A-rated sponsor under the Temporary Work - Creative Worker route, we can directly sponsor your overseas talent for creative engagements in the UK.

What is a Creative Worker visa?

This visa is intended for individuals working in the creative industries who have received a temporary paid job offer in the UK for a specific creative role. It’s a revamped version of the former ‘Tier 5 Creative and Sporting visa’.

The sponsorship may be for:

A single engagement for a set duration, e.g. an actor in an 8-week long theatre performance; or

For several engagements via the same organisation, e.g. an entertainer with multiple tour dates and one or more short gaps between performances.

Who is eligible for the visa?

A Creative Worker will be sponsored if they can demonstrate a unique contribution to the UK's labour market. The sponsor must provide evidence of this such as proof of international status, requirement for continuity purposes, or other personal attributes.

This route is typically used by:

Actors	Film crew	Musicians
Entertainers	Dancers	Composers

How we can help

We offer convenience without compromise. We have skilled immigration lawyers and over two decades of expertise to advise accurately on compliance requirements, alleviating the stress of sponsoring talent without the worry of non-compliance impacting the status of your talent or production timetables. Ultimately, our service will significantly reduce the workload for you as you won’t be required to hold and/or maintain your own sponsor licence.

We also offer unparalleled industry experience gained from working within the creative sector for many years across film and TV production to ad-campaigns; live music to theatre; fashion shows to festivals; and exhibitions to one-off global events. We have been an integral part of the production team of some of the largest events ever staged and help deliver projects all over the world.

We will support on:

Early stage strategy;

Visa processing and Home Office compliance requirements; and

A complete service of direct sponsorship of your overseas talent for creative engagements in the UK.

How our service works

Provided you are a UK company incorporated by Companies House with PAYE and valid Employers Liability Insurance, we will help with:

1. Registration

We’ll kick off the process with an introductory call to discuss your needs and assess your eligibility for this service.

2. Onboarding

Once you’re signed up, we’ll run through our user-friendly process and you’ll be able to begin submitting initiation requests immediately using our bespoke technology platform.

3. Sponsorship & visa application

Your initiation request will be assessed to determine if entry under the streamlined 3-month ‘Creative Worker Visa Concession’ is appropriate. If it is, we will prepare the electronic work permit, known as a Certificate of Sponsorship, and advise on any necessary supporting documents. Where applicable, we will also advise on the full visa application process.

4. Post-Entry Compliance

We will provide full support and guidance on the necessary retention of records in line with Home Office compliance requirements. Our technology allows you to see at a glance live and completed applications with additional automatic reminders to flag approaching visa expiries.

Get in touch

To speak to a member of the team, please email lscreative@lewissilkin.com, or to be kept up to date about our Creative Worker visa offering, sign up below.

Related items

Creative Worker visas: common compliance pitfalls and tips to avoid them

30 May 2024

The Creative Worker route has become increasingly popular as a more practical and convenient alternative to mainstream sponsored work routes such as the Skilled Worker route, which now has restrictively high salary requirements. In this article, we highlight key compliance pitfalls under the Creative Worker route and offer tips on how to avoid them.