Freelance work on a student visa?

Hello all.

I did see one question about freelance work, but it didn't quite fit my situation, and I'm having trouble getting info from official channels (unless I'm looking in the wrong places).  I'm going to be in the UK starting in September on a student visa.  I know working on a student visa is limited to 20 hours per week during term time.  I plan to supplement my savings/loans by working freelance writing magazine articles.  My question is-  how do I measure this time?  If I do, say, one article per week (which would never happen, but for argument's sake) would I estimate how long it takes me?  If I estimated, for example, 5 hours per week spent on writing work, could I work another (regular) part-time job for those other 15 hours?

Also - if I was writing for an American magazine, getting paid in dollars into an American account - would that count towards my 20 hours?

I don't want to break any rules, I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to support myself for three years...

I can answer one part of your question - I've done a bit of freelance writing (although it's over here in the U.S.) and I keep track of the hours I work - I just time myself approximately from when I sit down to write / do interviews until when I stop (taking out time for if I go run errands, have lunch, etc.) and add it all up when the article's done. Depending on what I'm writing, I get paid either by the word or by the hour.

Even if you're paid by the word, I'd recommend keeping track of your hours anyway, just in case, and putting it on your invoice so you'll have some sort of proof that you did work x amount of hours.

Not sure how freelancing (either in the UK or the US) would count towards your allowed 20 hours, but hopefully someone else can help you on that.

You have another problem that you haven't considered...and that is that you are not allowed to be self employed on a student visa.  When/if you work, you have to be a PAYE employee.  I suspect this may scupper your plans, sorry.

Vicky

Hm.  Well yes, that is interesting, Victoria.  Thanks for the info.