So skipping a year on Upwork makes your contract chances lower than being a new user.

[abixbg]

2 years ago I had temporary stopped earning on Upwork to focus on my family and used savings earned here to furnish my flat and care for my newborn son... recently I realized that this was huge mistake!

Not only I lost my Top rated status due 1year not earning a dime, I am also not eligible for being Rising Talent. Since 2012 I had just the first contract (mere $20) that wasnt 5 stars (it was 4* on one of the categories) and earned thousnts of dollars here... I am primary focusing on long term jobs and I have just one client since last November happily working together. But the project is almost finished and i started looking for new opportunities... 

Apparently this working history is worth nothing and the support staff just copy/pastes me the rules: I have to try finding 5 low quality jobs just to get any JSS and then wait 16 weeks to get top rating again. Excuse me but thats is in no way motivating to be loyal user of that platform! It looks like it is better for me to make a new profile and start as a Rising talent with rates 3-4 times lower than I had gradually earned. 

[a_lipsey]

---

Radoslav N wrote:

2 years ago I had temporary stopped earning on Upwork to focus on my family and used savings earned here to furnish my flat and care for my newborn son... recently I realized that this was huge mistake!

Not only I lost my Top rated status due 1year not earning a dime, I am also not eligible for being Rising Talent. Since 2012 I had just the first contract (mere $20) that wasnt 5 stars (it was 4* on one of the categories) and earned thousnts of dollars here... I am primary focusing on long term jobs and I have just one client since last November happily working together. But the project is almost finished and i started looking for new opportunities... 

Apparently this working history is worth nothing and the support staff just copy/pastes me the rules: I have to try finding 5 low quality jobs just to get any JSS and then wait 16 weeks to get top rating again. Excuse me but thats is in no way motivating to be loyal user of that platform! It looks like it is better for me to make a new profile and start as a Rising talent with rates 3-4 times lower than I had gradually earned. 

---

Creating a new account will get both accounts banned, which is not the result you want. 

Upwork allows you to hold onto TR status for a whole 12 months based on previous earnings, but if you aren't earning and doing jobs, how can they continue to list you as Top-Rated when there is no assessment to base it off of? Maintaining profiles and ratings are part of running our businesses. 

You don't have to take low earnings jobs to get a JSS again. Your profile, while not having a JSS, has good reviews and shows earnings. It would be worse if you came back and had a low JSS due to outcomes dropping out of the 2 year window. It will take a little more work to get new jobs because you let your profile sit for 2 years, but you can still get work. You may have to slightly drop your rate - I wouldn't say cutting it drastically, just a little to get your profile going again. 

It's ironic to call yourself a loyal user when you haven't been using Upwork for 2 years. To Upwork you look like a dormant account, not like a "loyal user."  

All you had to do was take like 1-2 jobs in that 2 year period to maintain Top Rated status. As I said, we are all running businesses and have to consider how to maintain those businesses, even when we have to take time off. 

[abixbg]

For me personally "top rated" means trustworthy and doing a good job as a freelancer and not proifitable for the platform itself. It's not like I suddenly forgot how to do my job or started scamming clients... Also being loyal for me is not using another platform for for the same purpouses as Upwork and it has nothing to do with the frquency of earning on the platform. I even recommended it to friend that wanted to try freelancing... Won't happen again for sure. Correct me if I am wrong but since most clients use JSS filters I don't even show up in the queries without one... So my best course of action is to get any (even if its worse than I had before) with quick $5 jobs since I already have more than enough ernings in the last year and start my 16 week timer right away.

[a_lipsey]

---

Radoslav N wrote:

For me personally "top rated" means trustworthy and doing a good job as a freelancer and not proifitable for the platform itself. It's not like I suddenly forgot how to do my job or started scamming clients... Also being loyal for me is not using another platform for for the same purpouses as Upwork and it has nothing to do with the frquency of earning on the platform. I even recommended it to friend that wanted to try freelancing... Won't happen again for sure. Correct me if I am wrong but since most clients use JSS filters I don't even show up in the queries without one... So my best course of action is to get any (even if its worse than I had before) with quick $5 jobs since I already have more than enough ernings in the last year and start my 16 week timer right away.

---

I understand that you believe Top-Rated means what you believe it means. But the fact remains that those are not Upwork's definitions. Top-Rated has very specific criteria. 

You are right, you will not show up in specific searches where that is a criteria, but you are still able to apply directly for any jobs you want. As a client on this site, I can say that not all clientes only look at JSS or badges. You only need to find a few to get your JSS back and running and back into Top Rated status. Coming back to build a business after a two-year hiatus is going to have some challenges, but you can apply for jobs and build up your profile again, like every other freelancer. It's not like there is no opportunity for you to do that. Plenty of non-TR freelancers are making plenty of money.