Right to work for casual workers

Casual workers are hired on an irregular basis for a short period of time, provided they have the right to work in the UK. Employers may engage visa holders on a casual basis, but should be aware that different UK visas have different conditions. In some cases, a particular visa poses work restrictions or limits the types of work the visa holder can do.

The University of Oxford Staff Immigration team undertake monthly checks to ensure that all casual workers have a valid right to work check on PeopleXD and that Student/Tier 4 visa holders are not exceeding the maximum hours imposed by their visa.

For information about the employment process from a Personnel point of view, please see the Casual Workers and Casual teachers page on the University of Oxford HR Support website.

Please send an email and relevant documents to Tier4casualpayments@admin.ox.ac.uk

where a Student/Tier 4 student visa holder is working over 20 hours per week on a casual basis. More information about this can be found below

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Employing Casual Workers with UK Visas (Except Student/Tier 4)

An employing department or college must check the right to work of a casual worker before their employment starts. If the individual is a List A document holder (please see table below), they have no restriction on the type of work they can do, or their weekly working hours.

British or Irish national
National of EU/EEA country who has Settled status
Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) holder

If the casual worker is a List B document holder, there may be some work restrictions that apply. Please see the table below for more information.

Selection of List B visas - Work restrictions to consider when employing on casual basis
Visa type	Work restriction
Global Talent/Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) visa	No work restrictions - Except cannot work as a doctor or dentist in training or professional sports person/coach
Start-up/ Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa	No work restrictions - Except cannot work as a doctor or dentist in training or professional sports person/coach
Skilled Worker/ Tier 2 (General) visa	Permitted to work up to 20 hours per week as supplementary employment. Several additional restrictions apply. Please see Supplementary employment page for more information
Student/ Tier 4 visa holder	Normally restricted to working 20 hours per week. Please see the according below for more information and exemptions
Tier 5 (Sponsored researcher) visa holder	Permitted to work up to 20 hours per week as supplementary employment. Several additional restrictions apply. Please see Tier2/5 Supplementary employment page for more information
Tier 5 (Youth Mobility Scheme) visa holder	No work restrictions - Except cannot work as a doctor or dentist in training or professional sports person/coach
PBS Dependant visa holder Family member of Global Talent/2/4 or 5 visa holder	No work restrictions - Except cannot work as a doctor or dentist in training or professional sports person/coach
UK Ancestry	No work restrictions - Except cannot work as a doctor or dentist in training or professional sports person/coach

For more information about the right to work process, please refer to our right to work pages.

Employing Skilled Worker/ Tier 2 or Tier 5 (sponsored researchers) on a casual basis

Skilled Worker/ Tier 2 and Tier 5 (Sponsored researchers) be employed on a casual basis in addition to their normal employment or engagement with the University, but there are strict restrictions that apply. Please see full details on the Supplementary Employment page.

Employing Casual Workers on Student/Tier 4 Visas

Student/ Tier 4 visa holders are normally restricted to working up to 20 hours per week, which includes casual hours.

Where a Student/ Tier 4 visa holder plans to work more than 20 hours in any week, they should email their name, student number and course to the Staff Immigration Team (SIT): Tier4casualpayments@admin.ox.ac.uk

Furthermore, if a student is a postgraduate research student or a PhD student, a letter from their supervisor should be provided which confirms the dates that the student is "on holiday" and does not have any study commitments.

This will allow SIT to authorise the payment. If you know any Tier 4 student who will be working over 20 hours in a week, please make them aware of this change. All Student/ Tier 4 visa holders have also been informed of this requirement.

Casual pay requests will not be processed for individuals with incorrect or incomplete right to work information in PeopleXD, or where there are questions over Student/ Tier 4 hours. If pay is stopped the Staff Immigration Team will inform the department why this has happened and a correct casual payment request will need to be resubmitted in the following month.