Sports persons

The UK has a long tradition of hosting sporting events and attracting the finest sportspersons to compete here. The Immigration rules reflect this.

To enter the UK as a sportsperson, there are 4 broad requirements.

1. The applicant must have a certificate of sponsorship. This essentially means that he has an employer who has a licence to employ sportspersons. So an example, if a professional football wished to sign for UK club and he had no permission to work in the UK, he could then only join a football club which held the appropriate Tier 2 licence.

2. The applicant must also have the endorsement of his designated body – each sport has a professional overseeing body which will endorse the sportsperson as broadly skilled enough that he deserves a certificate in his favour. In the above example, the Football Association would grant this endorsement and without it the club could not sign the player. The Football Association, like all governing bodies has general criteria to assess the player’s skill. It is usually based on their promise or whether they have played in 75% of their country’s international games over a specific period of time.

3. The sportsperson must have the ability in English Language. This is usually set at IELTS 6.5. If they do not have this then there is an option to apply for a temporary visa to play as a sporting worker under Tier 5 which does not require English Language.

4. That the appropriate maintenance levels appear in their bank accounts. This should cover the previous 3 months and cover all dependents. The employer can certify that they will cover all the costs of the applicant and his family in the alternative.

Of course, these provisions do not apply if the applicant has alternative permission to work. These can include:

The applicant is a national of a EEA country (European Economic Area) or a national of Switzerland – see the European nationals page.

• The applicant is a British overseas territories citizen,

• The applicant is a Commonwealth citizen, because at least one of your grandparents was born here – see the UK ancestry page for further details.

• The applicant has indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom

Contact our leading immigration lawyers for further guidance.

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