Work Permits - what's needed

Provided we have sufficient information, including that your act can be demonstrated as having sufficient international status and satisfy UK Immigration criteria we should be able to accept your case.

In most cases acts should already have UK representation. You will also need to have work in the UK already confirmed.

Please read our checklist of what is needed to issue a work permit (aka Tier 5 Certificates of Sponsorship or CoS) and pay particular attention to whether you are a visa national or a non-visa national act (see Visas).

Work permits can be issued quite quickly. Our standard turnaround time is 5 business days though this increases to 10 business days during peak season (May through August) though we also offer an expedited service – (see below*).

Please see fees for the cost of our services which take account of the requested turnaround time, the size of the group (when more than one applicant) and the length of time requested to process the Tier 5 CoS.

Please email us at workpermits@cmeas.com the completed checklist (and travel grid if necessary) if you wish to make an application. Or if you have any remaining questions on applying for Tier 5 CoS.

Expedited work permits

If you need to expedite your work permits urgently (non-visa nationals only - i.e. if you don't need a visa before you leave for the UK) then please text 'work permits' on our work permit hotline +44 (0)7908 495549 and we will call you back within the hour (in 90% of a cases). Please note that we do charge extra for turnaround times less than 5 working days (see Fees).

*Our turnaround time is from the moment that we receive all the information required to assign and release the work permits.

CME Artist Services do not do visa applications. The artist, or the artist's representative do their own visa applications using the work permit that we provide. We will however be more than happy to offer advice on how to fill in the online form.