Skilled Worker visa

What the Skilled Worker visa is

A UK work visa tied to a specific employer who holds a sponsor licence. It is not permanent residence, and settlement is a separate application made later under its own rules.

The salary threshold

The general minimum is £41,700 a year, or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. The going rate is what catches people out: for many occupations it sits well above the general minimum, and it is the figure that decides eligibility.

A lower threshold of £33,400 exists for applicants who do not meet the standard requirement and do not work in healthcare or education. Healthcare and education roles follow national pay scales instead.

Settlement — what is law and what is not

This needs stating carefully, because the position is genuinely split and the industry is describing it as one thing.

The law today is that a Skilled Worker must usually have lived and worked in the UK for five years before applying to settle.

In law, with a date: the English language standard for settlement rises to A-level equivalent. The rules change was laid on 5 March 2026 and takes effect in March 2027. The higher standard has already applied to work visa applicants since January 2026.

Proposal only, not law: doubling the settlement period from five years to ten. The consultation closed on 12 February 2026 and no government response has been published. There is no commencement date and no announced transitional protection.

Anyone telling you the UK is now a ten-year route is quoting a proposal as though it were law. Anyone telling you nothing has changed is ignoring the English requirement. Both are wrong, and the difference matters if you are deciding this year.

The risk nobody prices in

Your permission depends on your employer keeping its sponsor licence. If the licence is revoked, your visa is curtailed and you have a limited window to find another sponsor or leave. That risk sits with you, not with the employer, and it is the structural difference between a work visa and permanent residence.

It is also why we do not present this as a migration route in the way we present Canada or Australia. Those end in a status that is yours. This ends in a status that is your employer's, until you convert it.

Who it still suits

Somebody with an offer in hand from a licensed sponsor, at or above the going rate, who wants to be in the UK and is willing to run the five-year clock. On those facts it is a good visa. It is simply not the thing it is often sold as.