The Charity Worker visa is for unpaid voluntary work with a licensed charity, for up to twelve months, at £340. It is not a volunteering visa in the loose sense: the work must relate to your sponsor's charitable purpose, you cannot be paid, and a twelve-month cooling-off period stops the route being used twice in a row.
UK Work Visas
Charity Worker Visa UK 2026: Unpaid Work, Cooling-Off and Costs
What the Charity Worker Visa Is
A sponsored route for unpaid voluntary work with a UK charity, granted for up to twelve months or the period on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter. The fee is £340, plus the health surcharge at £1,035 a year and £1,270 in savings unless your sponsor certifies maintenance. You cannot be paid for the work, cannot take a permanent job, and cannot claim public funds.
It replaced the old Temporary Worker Charity Worker category and sits within the Temporary Work family. The defining feature is that the work must relate to the work of your sponsor organisation — this is a route for people contributing to a charity's purpose, not for general unpaid work experience with a charitable employer.
What the Work Has to Be
The caseworker guidance sets three conditions on the role. It must directly contribute to the achievement or advancement of the sponsor's charitable purpose. It must attract no payment or remuneration of any kind, including benefits in kind — the only exception being reasonable expenses under the National Minimum Wage Act, which can extend to accommodation that is reasonable in the circumstances.
And it must not fill a permanent position, including on a temporary basis. That third condition is the one sponsors trip over: covering a vacancy while recruitment runs is exactly what the route does not permit, however genuine the charity and however unpaid the worker.
There Is No General Volunteering Visa
People arrive at this route looking for permission to volunteer in the UK, and it is narrower than that. You need a UK charity that already holds a Temporary Worker sponsor licence and is willing to assign you a certificate of sponsorship. Without a licensed sponsor there is no application to make, whatever the organisation or the cause.
Short unpaid work for a charity can sometimes be done under other permissions — visitors may undertake limited volunteering, and several work and study routes allow voluntary work alongside their main activity. Those are conditions attached to other permissions rather than a route in their own right, and none of them is a substitute for sponsorship where the charity work is the reason for coming.
Eligibility
The requirements are the shared Temporary Work ones plus the unpaid-work conditions. There is no English language requirement and no salary threshold, for the obvious reason that there is no salary.
- Certificate of sponsorship: from a licensed charity, describing work that relates to the sponsor's own work.
- Unpaid: no payment or benefits in kind beyond reasonable expenses, which may include reasonable accommodation.
- Not a permanent role: the position must not be a permanent one, even filled temporarily.
- Money: £1,270 held for 28 consecutive days, unless your sponsor certifies maintenance.
- Cooling-off: no Charity Worker or Religious Worker permission in the 12 months before applying, unless you were outside the UK throughout.
- Certificates: a tuberculosis test if you are applying from a listed country, and certified translations for documents not in English or Welsh.
Your Sponsor
The charity must hold a Temporary Worker licence, which costs £611 regardless of the organisation's size, with each certificate at £55. Caseworkers check the certificate against the sponsorship system before deciding: one that has been withdrawn means refusal unless another is assigned, and one already recorded as used cannot support a second application.
The licence carries the same duties as any other, and the same consequences for failing them — reporting, record-keeping and cooperation with compliance visits, as set out in our sponsorship guide. A charity applying for a licence for the first time should expect the process to take around eight weeks.
The Twelve-Month Cooling-Off Period
An applicant for entry clearance on this route must not have held permission as either a Charity Worker or a Religious Worker at any time during the 12 months immediately before the date of application. The only way through it is to show you were not in the UK at any point during those 12 months. Two things follow. Time on the Religious Worker route blocks a Charity Worker application just as much as previous charity time does. And the period is measured to the date you apply, not the date the work starts — so a return planned around a season or an academic year can fail on a matter of weeks.
Planning Around the Cooling-Off Rule
Because the bar looks back 12 months from the application date, the practical planning question is when you left, not when you last worked. Someone who finished a charity placement in June and returned home immediately can apply the following June; someone who stayed on in the UK afterwards on another permission cannot, because they were in the country during the look-back period.
Fees
£340 per person, the same inside or outside the UK, plus the health surcharge at £1,035 a year for adults and £776 for under-18s. A twelve-month grant therefore costs about £1,375 for one applicant before travel. Each dependant pays the same again. Comparisons across routes are in our fee table.
How to Apply
Apply online up to three months before the start date on your certificate, prove your identity and provide your documents — the mechanics are in our application form guide and the evidence in our document checklist. Decisions usually take about three weeks from outside the UK and eight weeks inside it, with paid faster services available.
You can enter the UK up to 14 days before the start date on the certificate. Refusals on this route usually turn on the unpaid condition or on the role looking like a job — the wider pattern is in our refusal reasons guide.
Where the Certificate Can Let You Down
Caseworkers check the certificate\u2019s current status before deciding, and its condition at that moment is what counts. A certificate withdrawn by the sponsor after you applied means refusal unless a replacement is assigned, and one already marked as used cannot support another application. Certificates must also be used within three months of being issued.
What You Can and Cannot Do
You work for your sponsor in the role on the certificate. You can study, though some courses need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate, and you can take a second job of up to 20 hours a week in the same sector and at the same level as your main role. You cannot receive payment for the sponsored work, take a permanent job, or claim public funds.
Partners and Children
A partner and children can apply as dependants if they are eligible, each paying the £340 fee and their own health surcharge and showing their own funds. Their permission ends when yours does. The mechanics match the other sponsored routes and are set out in our dependant visa guide.
Charity Worker Against Skilled Worker
A charity that wants a paid employee is in the wrong route. The Skilled Worker route handles paid roles, requires an eligible occupation code and a salary meeting the threshold and going rate, and carries the skills charge. Charity Worker carries none of that because it buys none of it — no pay, no permanent post, twelve months at most.
Sister routes cover adjacent situations: Religious Worker for supporting religious work, Government Authorised Exchange for approved training and research schemes, International Agreement for work covered by international law, and Creative Worker for performers.
Sponsors: Getting the Role Description Right
The description on the certificate is what a caseworker reads. It should show how the work advances the charity\u2019s purpose, make clear that the post is additional rather than an existing vacancy, and avoid language borrowed from paid job adverts. Charities that reuse an employment job description for a voluntary placement create the exact impression the rules are written to catch.
Settlement
This route does not lead to settlement, and time on it does not count towards indefinite leave to remain. Nor can you switch into another route from inside the UK in most cases, since the Temporary Work categories are entered from abroad. Anyone treating a year of charity work as a first step needs to plan the next application from outside the UK rather than from within it.
Sources: GOV.UK Charity Worker route page on GOV.UK; Appendix Temporary Work — Charity Worker; and the Home Office Temporary Work caseworker guidance version 38.0. Figures verified 22 August 2026.
Frequently Asked
Questions about the Charity Worker Visa
Up to 12 months, or the period given on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter. You can enter the UK up to 14 days before the start date shown on the certificate. The route cannot be extended into a longer stay, and the cooling-off rule prevents an immediate second application.
No wages and no benefits in kind. The only permitted payments are reasonable expenses under the National Minimum Wage Act, and the guidance confirms that this can include the provision of accommodation where that is reasonable in the circumstances. Anything that looks like remuneration for the work puts the application, and the sponsor's licence, at risk.
You must not have held permission as a Charity Worker or a Religious Worker at any time in the 12 months before you apply for entry clearance, unless you can show you were not in the UK at any point during those 12 months. Religious Worker time counts against a charity application in exactly the same way as previous charity time.
Yes. There is no route for volunteering in the UK without one. The charity must already hold a Temporary Worker sponsor licence and must assign you a certificate of sponsorship describing work that relates to its own charitable purpose. A first licence application typically takes around eight weeks, so this is not something to start weeks before travel.
Yes, up to 20 hours a week in the same sector and at the same level as your sponsored role. You can also study, although some courses require an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate. What you cannot do is take a permanent job, receive payment for the sponsored charity work, or claim public funds.
£340 per person, identical inside and outside the UK, plus the health surcharge at £1,035 a year for an adult. You also need to show £1,270 in savings held for 28 consecutive days unless your sponsor certifies maintenance. A single applicant on a 12-month grant is therefore looking at roughly £1,375 in fees and charges.
No. The role must not fill a permanent position, including on a temporary basis, and it must directly contribute to the sponsor's charitable purpose. Covering an existing post while recruitment runs is outside the route, and a role that reads as a job description rather than a voluntary contribution invites a genuineness challenge.
No. Time on the Charity Worker route does not count towards indefinite leave to remain, and you generally cannot switch from it into another route while in the UK, because the Temporary Work categories are entered from abroad. A move to a settlement route such as Skilled Worker normally means a fresh application from outside the UK.