Skilled Worker changes 22 July 2025
Changes to the Skilled Worker skills threshold and salary thresholds
Changes to the Skilled Worker requirements, and updated Home Office guidance, were published on 22 July 2025. The changes are significant and are aimed at reducing numbers of visa applications. They are in effect a gradual return to the position before Brexit with a shorter list of only higher skilled roles being sponsorable.
Skills thresholds
With Europeans coming to the UK after the end of the Brexit transition period (31 December 2020) needing visas in the same way as those of other nationalities, various sectors of the UK economy (worried about being able to fill roles) had successfully lobbied the Home Office to significantly expand the list of sponsorable job codes.
In light of annually increasing Skilled Worker visa numbers, the government has now decided to reduce the list of sponsorable job codes again using Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) levels to classify Skilled Worker job codes as either skilled (RQF 6 – ‘PhD level’) or lower skilled (RQF 3 – 5).
PLEASE NOTE: ‘PhD level’ is just being used as a term for these job codes for higher skilled roles, it does not mean that in all cases a PhD/DPhil must have been specified as required in the job description, or that the applicant must hold a PhD/DPhil.
Most Skilled Worker visa applications within the collegiate University (96.7% of the applications since 2020) are for RQF 6 roles which can still be sponsored as before, as long as the relevant salary thresholds can be met.
Instead of simply removing lower skilled (RQF 3 – 5) roles from the Skilled Worker visa route, the changes are designed for employers/ sponsors to transition away from using visa holders for these roles, with Skilled Worker sponsorship still permitted where:
- A Skilled Worker visa holder was already working in a role under one of the RQF 3 – 5 job codes before the 22 July 2025 changes. They can extend their visa to continuing working in the same or a similar role, or apply for a new Skilled Worker visa to take up a new role under the same job code with a different employer/ sponsor;
OR
- A new Skilled Worker application is being made for a role under one of the RQF 3 – 5 job codes, but only if that code appears on a new Temporary Shortage List. While they can apply for a Skilled Worker visa, however, they will not be able to apply for Dependant visas for their partner and children.
Where a RQF 3 – 5 job code is not included in the Temporary Shortage List it is no longer possible to sponsor a new Skilled Worker application.
Temporary Shortage List
The Temporary Shortage List is not the same as the Immigration Salary List (previously called the Shortage Occupation List) so no ‘tradeable points’ salary reductions apply just based on a job code appearing on the Temporary Shortage List. The Temporary Shortage List only determines which RQF 3 – 5 job codes are sponsorable for new Skilled Worker applicants.
The Home Office have stressed that the Temporary Shortage List is temporary and intended to help with the transition to these roles no longer being sponsorable. The job codes have initially only been included in the list until 31 December 2026, but they could be removed earlier if the Home Office consider that not enough is being done in the relevant sectors to change to using the UK workforce for these types of roles instead.
178 (59.5%) of the Skilled Worker job codes have been classified as RQF level 3 – 5, and of these job codes 113 (63.5%) are not on the Temporary Shortage List.
Salary thresholds
The 22 July changes also included updates to the Skilled Worker salary thresholds with most increasing due to wage inflation across the UK economy. The salary threshold changes are based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data. As with previous salary threshold changes, SIT believes that a large proportion of the roles they see requiring a Skilled Worker visa should still be sponsorable but with much greater use of tradeable points.
In order for a role to be sponsorable the salary offered must meet whichever is higher of the ‘general’ salary threshold and the ‘going rate’ salary threshold for the job code the role falls under.
Reductions to these salary thresholds can be applied if the applicant can rely on ‘tradeable points’:
- as a ‘New Entrant’, if they are under 26 years old when submitting the Skilled Worker visa application, or if they are switching from a Student or Graduate visa. There is a four year ‘New Entrant’ limit, however, which also includes any time already spent under Graduate and Tier 2/ Skilled Worker visas and this can limit the length of the visa if ‘New Entrant’ points have to be relied on.
OR
- if they can rely on holding a PhD (or a PhD in a STEM subject) which is relevant to the role, but this option is not available under for some job codes.
Where a Skilled Worker visa is required, SIT needs copies of the applicant’s passports, qualifications, and any/all previous UK visas (as part of the documents provided with the Skilled Worker CoS application) in order to check if tradeable points, and resulting salary threshold reductions, can apply.
Following Skilled Worker changes in April 2024 higher thresholds apply to ‘new’ Skilled Worker applicants whose visas were granted from 4 April 2024, than ‘existing’ Skilled Worker visa holders whose visas were granted before 4 April 2024.
General thresholds
The general threshold for ‘existing’ Skilled Worker visa holders whose visas were granted before 4 April 2024, has now increased from £29,000 to £31,300.
The general threshold for ‘new’ Skilled Worker applicants whose visas were granted from 4 April 2024, has now increased from £38,700 to £41,700.
Going rate thresholds
As the increases are based on wage inflation which varies significantly across different sectors, and different jobs, across the UK economy, the changes to the going rate thresholds for each job code vary significantly. The same trends seen in previous changes to the going rate thresholds are continuing with some job codes with already high thresholds increasing further. This will probably require even more use of tradeable points, where possible, but may also result in cases where the applicant cannot rely on tradeable points and Skilled Worker sponsorship will not be possible. SIT can help explore if they could apply under some other visa route instead but, if not, you would have to revert to your second-choice candidate.
SIT will advise whether a role is sponsorable
If the chosen candidate for a role requires a visa, then SIT would be happy to advise on the Skilled Worker and other visa routes, if you can provide copies of their passport(s), qualifications or CV, and any/all visas they have held. Seeking advice from SIT once the selection has been completed if the chosen candidate requires a visa will be more efficient that seeking advice on roles before they are advertised.
As the requirements are now more complicated, SIT would recommend against mentioning in job descriptions whether or not the role may be sponsorable. If you receive queries about visa sponsorship from applicants/ candidates SIT would suggest explaining that details of the chosen candidate will be required before this can be determined, so advice and assistance will be provided when/if they are chosen for the role.
Where SIT have assessed a role and advised that it is not sponsorable we cannot try to change the role or change the job code we have stated is appropriate to make the role sponsorable – if Home Office thought we were trying to change a role, or pick a different code, to make a role sponsorable we would lose our sponsor licence, affecting all our visa holders.
