I have a friend who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa and she's 28.

She's well-qualified, and currently works as a cop, but wants to quit the job due to illusionment.

For the past two years, she's considered quitting the job and wants to move to the UK to work in either a lap-dancing bar or as a strip club. She claims that because she's got qualifications she would be a "Skilled Worker".

I don't fully understand the UK visa system itself (I'm a British citizen and British by birth) so haven't had to deal with emigration and work issues.

I have no issue with what my friend wants to do; but would it be legal in the UK and could she get a job?

She was Skype-ing me a few weeks ago asking about this.

How can I help her and my basic question is; would she be able to get a job in the UK and get a work visa?

closed as off-topic by David Richerby, Henning Makholm, Kate Gregory, Michael Hampton, Ali Awan Jul 4 at 18:44



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    Have you actually met - this seems like a scam. Being a skilled worker anbd then looking for a lap-dancing bar or as a strip club. - or is the OP a troll? – Mark Jul 4 at 13:05
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    I don't know the UK rules, but I would assume any rules mentioning skills have the purpose of making it easier to recruit to positions where special skills are required, that might not be that common in a country. Lap-dancing and/or stripping probably doesn't fall in that category, there's probably some police officers that has very specialised task that requires special skills, but I don't know anything about that area. – Henrik Jul 4 at 13:08
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    Does she have a British grandparent? Could look at ancestor visa gov.uk/ancestry-visa – BritishSam Jul 4 at 13:50
  • This is probably the funniest question around here in a while. – jcaron Jul 4 at 15:59

No, she can’t do this legally without a visa https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y ‘Skilled worker’ doesn’t mean “having qualifications but working in unskilled employment”. She can use the tool on the uk.gov site to find out which visa, if any, would allow her to work.

Note that working while in the UK on a Standard Visitor visa is not allowed.

  • @David A second set of quotation marks might help, as in ‘Skilled worker’ doesn’t mean 'having qualifications but working in unskilled employment'., that is to say the "skilled" bit is a test on the job or class of work, rather than on the employee. – origimbo Jul 4 at 13:53
  • @origimbo You're right, thanks. Edited. (Actually, deleted and re-posted) – David Jul 4 at 13:58
  • The second sentence — "'Skilled worker’ doesn’t mean having qualifications but working in unskilled employment." — doesn't make sense to me. – David Jul 4 at 13:59
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    @David: I think the point is that to be a “skilled worker” for immigration purposes, you have to find a job that uses those skills. You can’t use the fact that you’re an engineer to move to the UK and work as a janitor. – Michael Seifert Jul 4 at 17:26
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    @MichaelSeifert I certainly agree with your conclusion, but I still don't understand the wording that Traveller has presented. – David Jul 4 at 17:41
