List of UK Jobs in Demand

I did a quick search for these types of jobs. I found one with a salary of about £10 per hour. I don't think it's likely that the organizations that employ the people in these positions are going to be sponsoring visas for non-UK workers.

Exactly. There are salary minimums attached to tier 2 visas anyways and that is not likely to meet it. I also recently learned in a talk for international students trying to stay in the UK post graduation that tier 2's can only be granted if the job is at a certain level of qualification. Right now that level is PhD or professional (doctors, solicitors, and the like). Each job category has a certain minimum salary threshold for an employer to even be granted the certificate of sponsorship for that position and that employee. And I seriously doubt that the position we're discussing here is consider PhD or professional level. Therefore it's highly likely that this is an impossible job to get sponsored for. My guess is that they would treat it like trying to get sponsored for a role in retail. The only saving grace I can think of is if it's considered under acting and entertainer which has looser rules I think.

Yeah, but what you're not grasping is that this isn't a question of qualifications or relative skill.

I wasn't the one who brought up qualifications. You and Geeta posited that she would not be as qualified as a Brit, and I said, "No that's not necessarily true." Helena seems if anything over qualified - with a Public Ivy League degree in History, an upcoming degree in Archaeology and solid international experience in the field.

The pay scale - if it is only £10/hour - and Alison's assertion that a PhD may now be required, would certainly make things extremely difficult. Those could be poisoned pills.

Look I am not trying to pick a fight with you Titans....I am an admirer of your work here. And your comment about the door already being slammed shut didn't fly over my head. My default position, however, as an immigrant, is to fight the corner of the immigrant.

Perhaps I chose my words poorly several posts back, but the essence of what I was attempting to say remains true. Being brilliant at your job and being capable of doing wonderfully in similar jobs in the UK is not enough to get you a visa. That is just how things are. It doesn't matter if the OP is the best living history interpreter in the world, if the employer is not able to sponsor a visa or if someone else can do the job adequately, she won't be hired. If I could be forgiven for using myself as an example again, I have the highest qualification in my field from one of the most highly regarded institutions in the UK, but if I didn't have leave to remain based on marriage to a British citizen, I wouldn't have been hired for my job. My employer isn't a Tier 2 sponsor, and the job doesn't pay enough to meet the requirements. No way around it.

It's possible to sympathise with people who want to move to the UK and are foiled by the giant brick wall that is the immigration rules without telling them things that are patently untrue. "Fighting in the corner of the immigrant" in my book is helping them to understand what the rules are and what they would need to do to meet them, not telling them they can do something they can't. If Helena manages to get a visa to do something she's well-qualified to do then I will tip my hat to her as someone who has succeeded against immense odds. But I don't think she will. Not because of any failing of hers, but because the rules have been carefully designed to prevent it.

Sonofasailor, you and I disagree on many points, but I have always admired the calm and reasonable way you make your arguments . I hope we can agree to disagree here and call it a day.

Just to clarify-- apparently just because the official name of the qualification requirement level for a tier 2 is "PhD" doesn't necessarily mean an actual PhD is required. For instance, solicitors are ok to be sponsored as are people who teacher at university level, even if they don't actually possess a PhD. I think the point of the qualification level is to preserve the "highly skilled" nature of the tier 2 visa itself. Paralegals are not highly skilled enough but lawyers are. So even though I'm a lawyer in the US, since I'm not yet qualified here and the only legal job I can get here is a paralegal, I can never be sponsored as one because the position is simply not highly skilled enough.

Anyhow, I've actually quite enjoyed reading the recent stuff in this thread. It's a pretty good discussion about the subtleties of getting work sponsorship.

Just thought I'd post this here since I clicked the thread looking for it and every link was no good anymore:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-k-shortage-occupation-list