Skilled Worker Visa 

What is a UK Skilled Worker visa?

The UK skilled worker visa enables foreign nationals to work in the UK in an eligible skilled role for a sponsoring employer that holds a licence to recruit overseas workers.

Skilled worker visa holders must meet skills, salary and English language requirements. The skill threshold and list of eligible jobs were tightened by the Government on 22 July 2025.

Skilled worker employment leads to settlement and the ability to bring family dependants.

UK Skilled Worker Visa requirements

To be eligible for sponsorship for a UK Skilled Worker visa, you will need to meet the following requirements:

• • You must be aged 18 or over when you apply.
  • You have been issued with a valid certificate of sponsorship by a UK employer who holds a sponsorship licence approved by the Home Office.
  • Your job must appear on a list of of eligible occupations and the Immigration Skills Charge has been paid where required. 
  • The job for which you are being sponsored is a genuine vacancy which meets the relevant skills threshold, mostly RQF6/degree level.
  • The job will pay you a salary that is the higher of the general salary threshold and the ‘going rate’ for your occupation (we expand on this below).
  • You can prove your competence in English at CEFR level B1 in all four disciplines, i.e. speaking, listening, reading and writing.
  • You have sufficient money to support yourself in the UK, (£1,270) unless your sponsor certifies that they will cover your maintenance. 
  • If the job you are applying for is in education, health, or social care and requires a criminal record certificate, that you have provided one.
  • If you are from a country where a tuberculosis test is required, you have provided a valid TB test certificate from a Home Office approved clinic.

Skill level requirements

To be eligible for sponsorship, a job must meet a skills level requirement AND appear on the list of approved jobs.

Skills level requirements for most new skilled workers will be RQF 6, i.e. degree level. The eligible jobs appear in Table 1 of Appendix Skilled Occupations of the Immigration Rules.

There are circumstances where the skill level requirement can be lower. These are:

1. 1. if your first certificate of sponsorship was issued before 22 July 2025 (these jobs can be found in Table 1a of Appendix Skilled Occupations); or
   2. if your job appears on the Immigration Salary List; or
   3. if your job appears on the Temporary Shortage List.

Minimum Salary requirements for a Skilled Worker Visa

If you're applying for the first time as a Skilled Worker, the minimum salary for the type of work you’ll be doing is whichever is the highest of:

1. 1. £41,700 per year;
   2. or the "going rate" for the type of work you’ll be doing.

The going rate is set out for each eligible job type in the Eligible SOC 2020 occupation codes which are listed in the Immigration Rules.

Minimum salaries are assessed on the basis of a 37.5 hour week. If you will be working more hours, you may need to be paid more.

The minimum salary threshold may be lower if you’re extending your skilled worker visa or if you're applying because you've changed employers.

If you received your first certificate of sponsorship after 4 April 2024 but before 22 July 2025

You can extend your Skilled Worker visa if you have continually held Skilled Worker visas since you got your first certificate of sponsorship.

If you got your first certificate of sponsorship before 4 April 2024

Under transitional arrangements that will stay in place until 4 April 2030, you can be paid the higher of £33,400 or the transitional going rate for your job if both of the following apply:

1. 1. you got your first certificate of sponsorship for a Tier 2 or Skilled Worker visa before 4 April 2024; and 
   2. you have continually held Skilled Worker visas since then.

You can also be paid a lower salary if:

your salary is at least £33,400 per year and you satisfy one of the following criteria:

1. 1. you’re under 26, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training; or
   2. you have a science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) PhD level qualification that is relevant to your job; or
   3. you have a postdoctoral position in science or higher education.

English language requirement for a UK Skilled Worker Visa

You will need to show that you have a good command of the English language to meet the requirements for Skilled Worker visa.

How the English language requirement can be met:

1. 1. be a national of a specified majority English speaking country; or
   2. hold a degree which was taught in English through a UK university have an overseas degree taught in English and in a majority English speaking country certified by ECCTIS; or
   3. passed an approved English language test at CEFR level B1 in all 4 components (reading, writing, speaking and listening). This is equivalent to a score of 4.0 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS); or
   4. have a GCSE, A level, Scottish NVQ level 4 or 5 in English language or English literature studied at a UK school commenced before the age of 18.

Temporary Shortage List

The Temporary Shortage List was introduced by the January 2025 changes. The TSL is limited to jobs which fall below the RQF 6 threshold (i.e. below degree level). Jobs sponsored under the TSL will be time-limited and subject to conditional sponsorship arrangements.

Skilled Workers who are sponsored via the Temporary Shortage List cannot bring their family dependants to the UK. 

Immigration Salary List

The Immigration Salary List (formerly the Shortage Occupations List) allows employers to sponsor skilled worker roles where the skills threshold or salary requirements would not otherwise be met. As part of the July 2025 changes, all roles currently on the Immigration Salary List are scheduled to expire by 31 December 2026, unless they are extended by the Government.

Changing employer on a Skilled Worker Visa

If you change your employer you will need a new Skilled Worker Visa.

You will also need a fresh Certificate of Sponsorship and Skilled Worker Visa if:

1. 1. your job changes to a different occupation code and you’re not in a graduate training programme; or
   2. you leave a job that’s on the immigration salary list for a job that is not on the list.

You can change employer at the skills level that applied when you received your first Certificate of Sponsorship, i.e. if you received your first CoS before 22 July 2025, you can change employer within the approved eligible jobs at RQF3-5.

Switching to a Skilled Worker Visa in the UK

If you are in the UK on a visa which lasts for more than 6 months, you may be able to switch into the Skilled Worker Visa.

You cannot switch into the Skilled Worker route if you are currently in the UK with a visa as a:

• • Visitor;
  • Short-term student;
  • Parent of a Child Student;
  • Seasonal Worker;
  • Domestic Worker in a Private Household; or
  • a person granted leave outside the Immigration Rules.

If you wish to switch to a skilled work visa as a Care Worker you must have been working for your sponsor for at least 3 months prior to the CoS being issued. This will only be possible for a transitional period until 22 July 2028 after which the role will no longer be eligible.

Apply for a Skilled Worker visa

If you apply for a skilled worker visa and you're not presently in the UK you must apply for a Skilled Worker Visa to enter the UK.

The process involves submission of an online application, uploading scans of specified evidence and attendance at a biometric appointment.

Permanent residence as a UK Skilled Worker - ILR

Once a Skilled Worker visa holder has completed 5 years continuous lawful stay In this category, they can apply for settlement provided that they are still required for the employment in question and that they are paid at or above the appropriate specified salary as defined by the Standard Occupation Codes.

Absences

Skilled workers must not exceed a maximum aggregated absence of 180 days in any 12 month rolling period throughout the qualifying 5 year Skilled Worker residence. 

If your absences exceed the permitted limits, you can still apply for an extension of permission with no maximum permitted stay in the Skilled Worker category.

Skilled Worker visa fees and processing times

Inside the UK

Super priority applications are processed in 1 day.

Priority applications are processed in 5-10 working days.

Standard applications vary but are about 6-8 weeks.

Less than 3 years costs

Skilled Worker visa - less than 3 years

Standard application £885

Priority application £500

Super-priority application - £1,000

More than 3 years costs

Skilled Worker visa - more than 3 years

Standard application - £1,751

Priority application - £500

Super-priority application - £1,000

Outside the UK

Some British visa application centres around have a ‘Priority Settlement Service’. This is an additional cost service that will place your application at the front of the processing queue. Use of this service may speed up the processing time for your application, however, the Home Office do not guarantee expedited treatment.

Costs outside the UK

Skilled Worker visa – under 3 years - £751

Skilled Worker visa – more than 3 years - £1,519

- Priority application - £500

- Super priority application - £1,000

Jobs on the Immigration Salary List

Applications where the job appears on the Immigration Salary List incur a reduced application fee which is the same whether applying from inside or outside the UK:

Skilled Worker visa (Immigration Salary List occupation) – under 3 years £590

Skilled Worker visa (Immigration Salary List occupation) more than 3 years £1,160

UK Skilled Worker Dependants

A Sponsored Skilled Worker can be accompanied by their spouse/civil partner/unmarried partner and dependent children under the age of 18, but this does not extend to all skilled workers.

If your job is on the Temporary Shortage List or Immigration Salary List and is at NQF 3-5, your dependents cannot apply to join you or stay in the UK unless you were employed in the UK and on a Skilled Worker visa before 22 July 2025. 

If you are the sole living parent responsible for your child, or if your child’s other parent is also sponsored for a job listed between RQF 3-5, you can only apply for permission for your child to stay in the UK.

If you’re a care worker or senior care worker

You can be accompanied by dependants if you were employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK and on a Skilled Worker visa before 11 March 2024 and one of the following is correct:

1. 1. you still hold a Skilled Worker visa; or
   2. you’re extending your Skilled Worker visa with your current employer; or
   3. you’re changing to a new job within the same occupation code whilst on a Skilled Worker visa; or
   4. you’re applying for a child born in the UK.

Each dependant must pay an IHS of £1035 per year in advance for each whole or part year of the visa.

Skilled worker family members will be granted permission to stay in the UK in line with the main applicant.

Looking for legal assistance?

RLegal Solicitors can provide legal assistance to apply for a Skilled Work visa, whether as an employer or as employee, and navigate you through the complex immigration laws and evidential requirements of the route.

Our solicitors have successfully assisted many businesses, including SME's to global corporations, and individuals through the immigration process for a Skilled Worker Visa for the UK, sometimes with complicated and challenging circumstances.

Established in 2002 our solicitors have decades of experience with lodging successful Skilled Worker visa applications to the UK, are recommended by the Legal 500 in the business immigration category, which has helped us to earn a reputation as London immigration specialists.

We are consistently reviewed at 5 stars for UK immigration visas. 

About the authors

David Robinson and Evan Remedios, the partners, have experience not only with Skilled Worker visas and sponsor licence, but in all immigration routes dating back to the early 1990s and have an outstanding track record of success.

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