Skilled Worker Visa

Key Overviews

• General salary floor is £41,700, with reduced thresholds for new entrants, health and care roles and certain PhD holders.
• English must be B2 from 8 January 2026.
• Role must be at RQF Level 6 or above for most applicants.
• Only RQF 6 sponsors can bring dependants.
• Settlement in five years. You can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after five years of continuous lawful residence on the Skilled Worker route, subject to the Life in the UK test and an English language check.

What Is a Skilled Worker Visa?

The Skilled Worker Visa replaced the Tier 2 (General) route in December 2020. It lets a person come to or stay in the UK to do an eligible job with an approved sponsor. The role must be genuine, at the correct skill level, and paid at or above the published salary thresholds.

The route is a points-based system. You need 70 points to qualify: 50 mandatory points for sponsorship, skill level and job offer, and 20 tradeable points from salary options. English language and the financial requirement are also mandatory, but they do not carry tradeable points.

This is a route to settlement. Most applicants can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after five continuous years on a Skilled Worker visa or certain other work routes. If you are still planning your next step, see our guide to ILR for Skilled Workers.

Skilled Worker Visa Requirements at a Glance

Use this checklist to confirm you are eligible before starting an application. The sections that follow expand on the most complex requirements.

• A genuine job offer from a UK employer that holds a valid sponsor licence
• A role at RQF Level 6 or above, or a narrowly defined lower-skilled role on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List
• A Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) assigned by your sponsor with a valid reference number
• A salary that meets the higher of £41,700 or the going rate for your occupation, subject to reduced thresholds where applicable
• English language at B2 across reading, writing, speaking and listening (effective 8 January 2026)
• £1,270 held in personal savings for at least 28 consecutive days before applying (unless your sponsor certifies maintenance)
• A Tuberculosis (TB) certificate if you are applying from a country on the Home Office TB screening list
• A clean immigration and criminal record, with full disclosure of any convictions
• Payment of the visa fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge

Most applicants spend the majority of their preparation time on the salary, skill level, English and sponsorship elements. These are expanded below.

Salary Thresholds in 2026

Salary is the most frequently misjudged part of a Skilled Worker application. You must meet two tests at the same time: a general floor, and the specific going rate for your occupation code. You must earn the higher of the two.

General Floor

The general minimum salary is £41,700 per year. This figure is a floor, not the test. The going rate for your occupation may be higher, in which case the going rate applies.

Going Rates

The Home Office publishes a going rate for every SOC 2020 occupation code. Going rates are set against real UK pay data and updated periodically. If your occupation’s going rate is £48,000 and the general floor is £41,700, you must be paid at least £48,000. If the going rate is £35,000 and the floor is £41,700, you must be paid at least £41,700.

Reduced Thresholds

Lower salary floors apply in defined circumstances:

• New entrants aged under 26, recent graduates, STEM PhD holders and postdoctoral researchers may qualify at £33,400, trading down to 70 to 90 per cent of the going rate.
• Roles on the Immigration Salary List can qualify at £33,400, with the full going rate.
• Eligible health and education roles paid against national pay scales can qualify at £25,000.
• Applicants with a Certificate of Sponsorship issued before 4 April 2024, who have held continuous Skilled Worker permission since, can continue under a £31,300 floor.

How Salary Is Counted

Gross annual salary is counted from guaranteed basic pay. Allowances, bonuses and commission are normally excluded unless they are guaranteed in writing and paid for the life of the visa. Accommodation, equity and non-cash benefits do not count towards the threshold.

Skill Level Explained

Most Skilled Worker roles must be at RQF Level 6 or above. RQF 6 is roughly degree level and covers professional, managerial and specialist positions. The Home Office does not test the job title. It tests the duties, responsibilities and the occupation code selected by the sponsor.

Medium-skilled roles at RQF Levels 3 to 5 are not eligible for new Skilled Worker applications unless one of the following applies:

• The occupation is on the Immigration Salary List
• The occupation is on the Temporary Shortage List and the CoS is issued before 31 December 2026
• The applicant held Skilled Worker permission before 22 July 2025 and is extending or changing employer under transitional rules

A sponsor who selects the wrong occupation code is a common cause of refusal. If your duties do not match the code, the Home Office will refuse the application and the sponsor may face compliance action.

English Language Requirement

From 8 January 2026, the English language threshold for Skilled Worker applicants is B2 on the CEFR scale. B2 is upper-intermediate. You must demonstrate B2 in all four components: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

You can meet the requirement by:

• Passing an approved Secure English Language Test (SELT) at B2, such as IELTS for UKVI, Trinity College London SELT or Pearson PTE Academic UKVI
• Holding a degree taught in English, with academic qualification and a UK ENIC statement of comparability where the degree is from outside the UK
• Being a national of a majority-English-speaking country listed in the Immigration Rules
• Having met the requirement in a previous successful UK visa application at the same or higher level

If you previously met B1 on a Skilled Worker visa granted before 8 January 2026, you will usually be able to continue on that basis for extensions. Most new applicants should plan for B2 from the outset.

Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)

A Certificate of Sponsorship is not a paper document. It is an electronic record assigned by your sponsor through the Home Office Sponsor Management System. It carries a unique reference number that you use in your visa application.

Key points to check before submitting:

• The sponsor’s licence is active and listed on the Home Office sponsor register
• The occupation code matches your actual duties
• The salary stated matches the offer letter and the thresholds above
• The start date is within three months of the visa application date
• The CoS has not already been used for a previous application

Your sponsor pays the CoS fee and the Immigration Skills Charge. 

How Long the Visa Lasts

A Skilled Worker Visa is granted for up to five years, tied to the length of employment on the CoS. You can extend in the UK for further periods without a cap, provided you continue to meet the requirements and your sponsor continues to employ you.

Time on the Skilled Worker route counts towards the five-year qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain. Time on certain other routes, such as Global Talent, Innovator Founder, T2 Minister of Religion and Scale-up, can also be combined.

Bringing Dependants

Eligible dependants are a partner (spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner of two years’ cohabitation) and children under 18. Each dependant applies separately and pays their own application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge.

From 22 July 2025, only Skilled Worker visa holders in RQF 6 and above roles can sponsor new dependants. Applicants on the Temporary Shortage List, Immigration Salary List (medium-skilled) or care worker routes cannot bring new dependants unless transitional protection applies.

Dependants must also show:

• A genuine and subsisting relationship (for partners)
• Sufficient funds to support themselves: £285 for a partner, £315 for the first child and £200 for each additional child, held alongside the main applicant’s £1,270
• English language at the required level for partners seeking settlement

Route to Settlement (ILR)

You can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after five years of continuous lawful residence on the Skilled Worker route or a qualifying combination of work routes. To qualify you must:

• Have held Skilled Worker permission (or a qualifying combination) for a continuous five-year period
• Still be sponsored in a genuine role paid at the applicable settlement salary threshold
• Have no more than 180 days absence from the UK in any rolling 12-month period
• Pass the Life in the UK test
• Meet the English language requirement at B1 (rising to B2 for applications on or after 26 March 2027)
• Have no adverse immigration or criminal history

ILR ends sponsorship. Once settled you can work, study or run a business in the UK without visa conditions, and you become eligible to apply for British citizenship after 12 months.

Switching Employers or Jobs

You can change employers on a Skilled Worker Visa, but you cannot simply resign and start a new role. The new employer must hold a valid sponsor licence and assign a fresh Certificate of Sponsorship. You then submit a change of employment application and wait for a decision before starting the new role.

Small duty changes with the same employer, and pay rises at or above the threshold, normally do not require a new application. A change of occupation code, material change in duties or a drop below the threshold usually does.

Avoid gaps between sponsors wherever possible. Unexplained gaps can break the five-year continuous residence needed for settlement.

How Whytecroft Ford Can Help

The Skilled Worker route is the most technical of the UK work visas. Small errors on the Certificate of Sponsorship, salary calculation or English evidence cause most refusals we see, and those refusals are expensive to reverse.

At Whytecroft Ford we are IAA-regulated immigration advisers. We assist with:

• Eligibility assessments and occupation code reviews
• Document preparation and English language evidence review
• Full application preparation and submission
• Dependant applications for partners and children
• Extensions, change of employment applications and settlement planning

To discuss your application, call +44 (0)208 757 5751, email info@whytecroftford.com or book a consultation.

Sources and Further Reading

• Skilled Worker Visa – GOV.UK
• Immigration Rules Appendix: Skilled Worker – GOV.UK
• ILR for Skilled Workers – Work Routes 2026