UK Student Visa Work Rules: How Many Hours Can You Work?

A part-time job helps with living costs and builds UK experience. But the Student visa work rules are strict, and a breach can end your studies. Here is exactly what is allowed.

How many hours can you work?

• Degree level and above: 20 hours a week in term time. Below degree level: 10 hours.
• A “week” runs from Monday to Sunday.
• The limit is fixed for every week and cannot be exceeded, so you cannot average your hours.
• If you have more than one job, the hours are added together.
• Unpaid or voluntary work counts towards your hours. Genuine volunteering for a charity, with no contractual obligations or payment, is treated differently.
• If your CAS is for a part-time postgraduate course, you cannot work at all.

When you can work full-time

• During the official vacation periods for your programme. Get your term dates from your university in writing.
• Not during a master's or PhD dissertation or write-up period, which counts as term time.
• After your course end date, until your visa expires.
• On a work placement that is an integral, assessed part of your course, usually capped at half the course length.
• As a students' union sabbatical officer, for up to two years.

Jobs you cannot do

You cannot be self-employed or carry out business activity, work as a professional sportsperson including as a coach, work as an entertainer, take a permanent full-time job, or work as a doctor or dentist in training unless you are on the foundation programme.

Watch for these traps, which catch students out far more often than the headline rules:

• Many delivery and ride-hailing apps engage riders as self-employed contractors, which rules them out.
• Freelancing for an overseas client while you are in the UK counts as self-employment.
• Working remotely for an overseas employer while physically in the UK still counts towards your hours.
• Setting up and running your own company is business activity, however small it is.

Right to work checks and paperwork

Employers check your right to work using a share code from your eVisa. You will also need a National Insurance number, which you apply for online; it can take up to 16 weeks after you have proved your identity. Keep your payslips, timesheets and your university's term-dates letter — together they prove you stayed within your limits.

What happens if you break the rules

If your university becomes aware of a breach, it must report it to UKVI. Your visa may then be cut short, and you may be removed from the UK before finishing your course. A breach can also damage future visa applications.

Employers face civil penalties of up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 for repeat breaches. That is why good employers check your hours carefully — and why the ones who do not are a warning sign.

A compliance checklist

1. 1Get your term and vacation dates in writing.
2. 2Track your hours Monday to Sunday across every job.
3. 3Refuse cash-in-hand work and self-employed contracts.
4. 4Keep payslips and timesheets.
5. 5Ask your university's international student team before taking unusual work.