UK Scale-up Worker route: lawyers’ guide to points-based eligibility, sponsored/unsponsored applications, PAYE earnings, English/finance, validity and suitability, dependants, permission conditions, settlement and challenging refusals

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Practice notes

The Scale-up route

This pathway allows UK companies that have achieved recent rapid growth to secure a Home Office sponsor licence so they can hire highly skilled people who are neither British nor Irish and who possess the expertise required to help the Scale-up business keep expanding and thriving. It is described as a points-based route, and officially entered the Immigration Rules as Appendix Scale-up on 22 August 2022. A notable hallmark of the Scale-up route is that it begins as a sponsored route (covering the first six months) and then converts to an unsponsored route thereafter.

A sponsor is accountable for each sponsored worker only for the initial six months, in relation to migrant sponsorship duties and responsibilities, yet must otherwise remain compliant for the full term of the licence overall. Accordingly, two distinct sets of criteria may apply-sponsored or unsponsored-depending on the application type that is being made. Every applicant must also satisfy the English language, financial, suitability and validity requirements described below. The Practice Note: Sponsoring a worker under the Scale-up route weighs the advantages and disadvantages of this route against the Skilled Worker route, and examines eligibility issues linked to the sponsor’s assignment of a Certificate of...

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Web page updated on 28/05/2026

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