Youth Mobility Scheme: Hiring Japanese Cooks in UK Restaurants

A Japanese national on the Youth Mobility Scheme can work in your UK kitchen for up to 24 months with no sponsor licence, no certificate of sponsorship and no salary threshold. Your only immigration duty is the right to work check. Japan has 6,000 places a year and no ballot. The applicant pays £340 plus a £776 yearly health surcharge. The visa cannot be extended or repeated, so start looking for the successor around month 14.

The scheme for Japanese nationals

All of these costs fall on the applicant. Your cost to the Home Office is zero.

The 24 month calendar

Chefs cannot be sponsored as new Skilled Workers, so a YMS cook cannot switch to a work visa with you at the end. Unless they have another basis to stay, they leave. Restaurants that treat YMS as an ordinary hire tend to notice this around month 22, too late to replace them. Plan from day one:

If you rely on YMS for more than one post, stagger the start dates so two people never leave in the same quarter.

Where to find YMS cooks

The visa is the easy part. Finding a trained cook who holds it, or is about to apply, is the work.

• Before arrival, in Japan. Advertise in Japanese on channels Japanese cooks read. Many applicants decide on the UK first and look for a job second, so an ad that explains the visa helps them decide. See where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad and recruiting from culinary schools.
• After arrival, in the UK. Many YMS holders arrive first and job hunt in London. Japanese community boards, shops and your own staff's networks reach them. A referral bonus paid after probation works well here (see referral programmes).
• Your leavers. A cook who leaves on good terms at month 24 is your best recruiter for the next one.

In the ad, ask for skills (knife work, sushi, Japanese language if the job truly needs it), not nationality. Ask every applicant the same question: "Do you have, or will you have by [start date], the right to work in the UK?" and state that you cannot sponsor.

Hiring someone still in Japan

1. Remote interview with a practical element (skills tests for remote hiring).
2. Written offer with start date, hours, pay and any help you give.
3. Candidate holds £2,530 for 28 days, then applies online, no earlier than six months before travel.
4. Decision usually within three weeks of proving identity.
5. On arrival, the candidate shares their status with you and you run the check before the first shift.

Realistically, two to three months from offer to first shift.

What the offer must say

State the end date plainly. It builds trust and stops the conversation happening at month 22. Copy and adapt:

Any repayment clause must still leave the worker at or above the National Living Wage (£12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026). For other relocation items see relocation packages.

24 months of cost: YMS hire against a local hire

Both columns assume a full time cook paid the ONS ASHE 2025 provisional London median for chefs, £34,120 a year, with employer National Insurance (15% above £5,000) and the minimum 3% pension contribution.

Count the training cost in your own hours. For example, 60 hours of a senior chef's time at the London chef median of £15.15 an hour is about £909; your figure will differ. The cash gap is small. The real cost is that recruitment and training recur on a known date, so budget them as a fixed event every two years. There is no official UK hospitality turnover rate to compare how long a local hire stays.

What a YMS holder can and cannot do

• Work in most jobs. Professional sport is the main exclusion.
• Be self employed only from rented premises, with equipment worth no more than £5,000 and no employees. As an employee on your payroll this does not apply.
• Not bring family on their application; family must apply separately.
• Be paid and treated like any other employee: National Living Wage, tax, pension auto enrolment, holiday.

What to do this week

1. List every YMS holder in your kitchen with their visa end date, and mark month 14 for each in the diary.
2. Add the fixed term wording above to your offer template.
3. Write one ad in Japanese and English and publish it where cooks in Japan and in London will see it.
4. Ask your current YMS staff who they know who is applying.

General information checked against official sources on 27 September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Fees and rules change; confirm on GOV.UK before acting.