Innovator Founder ILR job creation: what counts as a full-time job?

01 / The 2 alternatives

Create 10 qualifying jobs, or 5 qualifying jobs at the salary threshold.

INNF 17.1(f)(vi) is satisfied where the business has created the equivalent of at least 10 full-time jobs for settled workers. INNF 17.1(f)(vii) provides the alternative: at least 5 full-time jobs for settled workers, each with a mean salary of at least £25,000 a year, gross pay and excluding allowances.

The 5-job route is not simply a smaller headcount. Every job must pass the salary condition as well as the status, duration and paid-hours conditions. Four qualifying roles at £35,000 and 1 at £24,500 do not satisfy the wording merely because the average pay across all 5 exceeds £25,000.

Nor can the same workforce be counted under both alternatives as 2 achievements. INNF 17.2 prevents repeated reliance on the same criterion. Settlement still requires a second distinct business achievement and the wider endorsement and personal requirements.

02 / The unit of analysis

The Rules count qualifying jobs, not seniority, titles or recruitment announcements.

There is no requirement that a qualifying employee be a manager, director, graduate or specialist. Seniority may explain commercial value, but it does not substitute for the legal test. An operational role is not excluded merely because it is junior, provided it is genuine paid employment satisfying the published conditions.

A signed offer for a future start, an open vacancy, an outsourced service and an independent contractor do not by themselves show that the business created a qualifying job for a settled worker. The employment relationship, paid hours and duration must be established on the evidence.

For the 5-job route, examine the mean salary of each job. Gross pay is relevant; allowances are expressly excluded. A package described as £27,000 may fail if £3,000 consists of an allowance. The schedule should separate salary from allowances, benefits and reimbursements instead of relying on total employment cost.

03 / The 12-month condition

A role existing for 12 months is not enough if the worker was not employed throughout.

INNF 17.4 requires each job relied upon to have existed for at least 12 months. It also requires the settled worker filling it to have been employed for at least 12 months. The caseworker and endorsing-body guidance describe the worker as remaining employed for the whole period claimed.

That wording matters after staff turnover. A position occupied by Employee A for 6 months and Employee B for the next 6 should not be presented as a qualifying 12-month job merely because the description remained unchanged. The guidance specifically rejects combining 2 shorter jobs in the same position to make 12 months.

The safest schedule works backwards from the proposed endorsement date and identifies an uninterrupted 12-month window for each worker and job. Start and end dates, unpaid gaps, changes in hours and payroll anomalies should be resolved against primary records rather than hidden in a year-end total.

04 / Full-time equivalence

Full-time means an average of 30 paid hours a week, not the contract label.

INNF 17.5 defines full-time by paid hours. The worker must average at least 30 paid hours a week. A contract headed ‘full-time’ does not cure records showing a lower paid average, while an internally described part-time role may contribute to a permitted combination if the actual hours and duration qualify.

Two or more part-time jobs held by different employees may be combined to create 1 full-time equivalent. Each constituent job must have existed for at least 12 months. The rule does not allow a business to aggregate a succession of short engagements or annualise a busy quarter.

Variable-hours employment needs a transparent calculation identifying the 12-month period, paid hours, paid leave and any unpaid time. The published rule supplies the 30-hour average; it does not authorise selecting only favourable weeks or treating unpaid availability as paid work.

05 / Settled-worker status

The worker must be settled when the job begins, not only when the founder applies.

The Rules require the worker to have been settled when the job started and to remain employed for the whole 12-month period claimed. A later grant of indefinite leave does not retrospectively make earlier employment a qualifying settled-worker job.

A British citizen or person with indefinite leave will commonly meet the relevant status requirement, subject to the evidence. The definition also covers specified categories including people with settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and certain people on the UK Ancestry route. Nationality alone may not answer the question, and status should not be inferred from payroll or a later share code.

An employee on Skilled Worker permission is not a settled worker merely because the employment is lawful and sponsored. If that employee later settles, identify the date and obtain advice on which later period, if any, can be relied upon. Status evidence should be checked at recruitment and preserved consistently with right-to-work and data-protection duties.

06 / The £25,000 route

Test each job's mean gross salary after removing allowances.

The higher-pay alternative requires a mean salary of at least £25,000 a year for each of the 5 jobs. It does not permit pooling 5 employees to produce an average salary. Calculate each role separately across the period relied upon.

Gross pay does not mean every sum on a payslip. The rule expressly excludes allowances. Reimbursements and benefits should not be relabelled as salary. If base salary changed, show the calculation used to reach the annual mean rather than citing only the latest rate.

The threshold is not permission to pay less than employment law requires, nor is employment-law compliance enough to satisfy the immigration test. INNF 17.4 separately requires compliance with relevant UK legislation, including the National Minimum Wage and Working Time Regulations. Payroll, tax and employment obligations should be reconciled with the immigration calculation.

07 / Evidence architecture

Build an employee-level matrix that reconciles to payroll, banking and accounts.

The Rules do not publish 1 universal document list. A credible file should nevertheless let the endorsing body verify each element without reconstructing the case from unrelated records. Start with a schedule listing the job, employee, start date, status when the job began, claimed period, average paid hours and, where relevant, mean gross salary excluding allowances.

Cross-reference it to employment contracts and variations, status evidence recorded when the job began, RTI submissions, payroll reports, payslips, employer bank payments and the ledger. Accounts can support the aggregate payroll cost, but rarely prove an individual's hours, status at the start or 12 months of continuous employment.

An accountant or payroll adviser can verify pay and reconciliation. They should not be asked to give the immigration conclusion. The legal team should identify the test; the endorsing body must assess the achievement. Where records disagree, resolve the underlying event before drafting a narrative around it.

08 / Founder teams

A shared payroll does not give every founder the same settlement achievement.

INNF 17.3 prevents team members applying for, or already granted, Innovator Founder settlement from sharing the same means of meeting the criteria. The example is explicit: if 2 founders each rely on creating 10 jobs, the business must have created 20 jobs in total.

The same discipline applies to the 5-job alternative. Allocate distinct qualifying jobs to each applicant rather than placing the whole payroll into both endorsement requests. Different application dates do not remove the restriction once an earlier team member has settled using the venture.

Founder-level planning should begin before recruitment decisions are irreversible. The company should not manufacture positions, but genuine growth can be recorded in a way that preserves which founder will rely on which independent achievements and why.

09 / The whole case

Job creation is 1 achievement inside a wider endorsement and settlement decision.

A successful job matrix does not itself produce settlement. The endorsing body must confirm significant progress, a registered and trading business, sustainability for the following 12 months and the applicant's active key role. At least 2 listed business achievements must be met.

The applicant must also meet qualifying-residence, continuous-residence, English-language, Life in the UK and suitability requirements. The settlement endorsement must be issued no more than 3 months before the application. The employment period, second achievement, endorsement date and permission expiry should be modelled together.

If a job reaches 12 months only after permission expires, the problem cannot be solved by calling the role permanent. Consider whether another achievement is satisfied, further permission is available or a different lawful strategy is required. The timetable should follow the evidence that exists.

Practical questions.