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I am an independent IT consultant permanently based in Spain, but I don't hold EU citizenship and have no legal or economic connections to the UK. I'm struggling to secure contract work with UK-based companies, even for roles that are Outside IR35. I've found that many UK employers are reluctant to hire non-UK residents for full-time remote contract opportunities due to concerns about tax obligations, compliance risks, and potential legal issues.

What We Can Choose From:

Personal Service Company (PSC): I'm open to incorporating a UK Ltd company, which is a common structure for UK contractors and is fully compliant for contracting outside IR35.

Umbrella Companies or EOR Solutions: These seem like good options where an umbrella company invoices the client on my behalf and pays me, either under PAYE or through a B2B arrangement. However, this doesn't work for me because I can't be hired in my country of residency (Spain) due to residency restrictions as a digital nomad. I can only work for remote companies within the EU region as an employee and I can provide my services to any non-EU companies via a B2B arrangement.

Global Payroll Solutions: I haven't explored this option extensively, but I understand that convincing employers to adjust their payroll systems (e.g., using Deel, Moorepay, Cintra) specifically for me isn't realistic.

Despite demonstrating that the nature of the contract would be purely B2B with no permanent employment considered, I continue to face resistance from UK employers, who seem to prefer hiring locally.

What I've tried so far

  1. Change the location on Linkedin from Spain to the UK to be able to apply for UK jobs
  2. Applied for about 100 different job openings ( on Linkedin, Indeed, Reed, Glassdoor, etc) - mostly Outside IR35 but both remote/hybrid roles.
  3. Talked to one of the reputable and well-known Umbrella companies, they have branches in Spain, the UK, and other countries.

The options Umbrella company provides to me are the following:

  1. They can hire me as an employee in Spain but I need to change my visa regime from a digital nomad to a skilled worker visa. The process of modification might take a few months and I haven't considered this option so far as a priority.
  2. They can make a contract B2B with my personal services company but only under the Outside IR35 contract regime.

PROS of Umbrella companies You automatically eliminate all legal and compliance headaches and your client is happy

CONS of Umbrella companies They don't help you find a client and negotiate all the conditions with him. However, they may help explain to him all the necessary aspects of a potential contract relationship.

I haven't conducted a single job interview so far with UK clients. All recruiters act as firewalls and stop immediately the conversation after hearing about any complications and potential visa sponsorship requirements since they have an explicit request from the clients to search the candidates within the UK only.

The typical reply from the company is: Thank you for your interest in the 123 position at XYZ in the London Area, United Kingdom. Unfortunately, we will not be moving forward with your application, but we appreciate your time and interest in XYZ

Question:

What are some practical workarounds or strategies I can use to persuade UK-based companies to consider me for remote contract roles, without compromising their compliance or legal frameworks? I’m fully open to travel occasionally to the UK for hybrid work arrangements as well.

I appreciate any advice or insights from others who have navigated similar challenges!

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    Very few companies are currently actively interested in hiring remote workers. Hiring workers in other countries has a whole bunch of legal and bookkeeping complexity which makes it even less interesting. Unless the company already knows you and specifically wants you, there are probably far too many people with equal skills and fewer complications.
    – keshlam
    Commented Sep 8 at 23:58
  • Is there a specific reason why you are searching employment in the UK and not mainland Europe such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands? If you already have contracts with these countries abroad, please edit your question and include this information.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Sep 9 at 6:10

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I struggled to decide to write an answer here because what I want to write isn't what you're looking for. However I feel that ultimately this may prove useful, even as a 'what not to do'.

So, full disclosure, I am not someone who has successfully navigated these challenges, I am in fact a hiring manager who is probably responsible for implementing these challenges. I'll detail these here with regards to points you've made. This may help you to better navigate these or at least focus your efforts to where you may have more success.

Hybrid Roles

I regularly advertise opportunities with my organisation for roles within my strategic remit. The vast majority of these require an on-site presence. Even with that, I receive almost as may applications from those in other countries as I do within our locality. As we cannot sponsor people moving here for work, I have to dismiss them. This is true even of hybrid roles. If my role has any on-site requirement at all, I'm afraid I won't be considering your application. If we say you need to be in the office X days per week, or even X days per month, I'll see your application and immediately conclude you won't want to be travelling from Spain that often because the cost of flights, taxis and hotel stays would quickly erode anything we pay you, and I have no incentive to pay for it for you.

Applying through LinkedIn etc

Regardless of where people are based, I get really poor applications through these services (not all, it has to be said, but a lot of bad ones). These encourage quick applications, usually with little detail and no real information about the person who made them. The person who sends me a well-crafted application with a thoughtful and relevant cover letter showing they have looked in to this company and what we do and has generally gone beyond the "click here to apply" button will always get more attention. This may or may not apply to you, good for you if this is not relevant.

Skills availability

Generally speaking the UK has a good talent pool of IT professionals. If I can hire who I need in the UK and avoid the complexity of hiring a contractor not based here (more on that in a moment) then why do I need to go through the extra effort to hire a non-UK based contractor?

Process complexity

Hiring you may not be as straightforward for a UK based company as you may think. I have hired people in the way you are proposing before. In my response to another question I said:

To give you an idea of the complexity, when this was asked of me I had to meet with: my boss, my corporate accountant, the head of finance, the head of HR and the head of legal several times to work out exactly how to legally achieve what I was asking. These are some of the busiest and highly paid people in the organisation (me excluded, I'm a middle manager) so this investment of time was significant.

Your application and experience would need to stand very clearly apart from all the other candidates to make this worth my time. This part at least would be mitigated by you investigating umbrella companies. Also, when I've done it, those applicants were successful through their network - they we're known either to me personally or someone else in the team as someone who absolutely could do what we needed, and do it well.

And all of this is before we get to the traditional worries of hiring people we've never met or never will meet. I'm more ok with that, I hired people remotely during the pandemic and it worked out very well. But I don't believe I'm indicative of many more traditional hiring managers you speak about.

Like I said at the top, this is clearly not a "how-to" answer to your question, for which I apologise. However hopefully this does give you some insight in to how the hiring thought process works and why you may be struggling. In this way, I hope it is helpful to you.

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How can an independent IT consultant secure a remote contract work

You can't guarantee this normally, all you can do is keep applying and make it as easy to hire you as possible.

The only way to make them look for you is to have a skill set that they cannot get locally or by leveraging your personal or professional network.

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Move to the UK.

If the main problem for applying for jobs in the UK is that you live in Spain rather than the UK, the solution is obvious: move to the UK.

If you can't do that, why are you applying for jobs in the UK in the first place? Look for jobs in Spain.

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  • Note that companies pay based on local prevailing rates for the employee, not those for their home base. They are unlikely to pay you more than a compatable Spanish company would for the same work.
    – keshlam
    Commented Sep 9 at 15:20
  • One of the challenges facing companies in the UK is the reluctance among some C-level executives to adapt their mindset, payroll frameworks, and other systems to better accommodate a remote workforce. This can be seen as a form of location-based bias. In an era where innovative off-payroll global solutions, like Deel (not an endorsement), are making it easier for contractors worldwide to secure their ideal roles with minimal hassle, it's essential for businesses to evolve accordingly. Additionally, it's worth noting that the Spanish job market often lags behind the UK in terms of pay rates.
    – DDZ
    Commented Sep 10 at 11:13
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    @DDZ, it's likely because of barriers to entry that the UK market has higher pay rates. The problem with "innovative" charades like payroll companies which supply individual workers to employers are many. One is that the courts and taxman might not accept the effect of the intermediation and will instead determine that the employment is direct but disguised. Another is that, where workers have access to valuable business information or IP, the fact that they are outside the legal jurisdiction means important controls are lost.
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 11 at 1:17

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