Skilled Worker Visa Changes: What You Need to Know
The Skilled Worker route has changed several times in quick succession. This guide lists the changes by the date they took effect, and separates what is law from what has only been announced, such as earned settlement.
- Section
- Skilled Worker Visa
- Reading time
- 10 min
- Last checked
- 3 November 2026
- Source
- The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
- Rowan does not
- Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.
In short
- 22 July 2025: skill level rose to degree level (RQF 6); general threshold rose from £38,700 to £41,700; lower threshold £33,400.
- 8 January 2026: English rose from B1 to B2 for new applications. B1 still applies to an extension of a visa held before then.
- 26 March 2026: the required salary must be paid in each pay period, and Skilled Worker applications from Afghan nationals are refused.
- 26 March 2027: the settlement English requirement rises to B2 on this route.
- Earned settlement was announced on 2 November 2026: 10 years as the standard, 5 years at £50,271 or in listed public service jobs, 3 years at £125,141. It is not yet law.
The Skilled Worker route changed on 22 July 2025 (skill level up to degree level, general threshold up to £41,700), on 8 January 2026 (English up to B2 for new applications) and on 26 March 2026 (salary due in each pay period, and a visa brake affecting Afghan nationals). One further change is enacted but not yet in force: the settlement English requirement rises to B2 on 26 March 2027. The longer settlement qualifying period, called earned settlement, was announced on 2 November 2026 but is not yet in the Immigration Rules.
22 July 2025: the big one
This is the change that reshaped the route, and the reason older guides are misleading.
- Skill level rose to degree level (RQF 6). The floor had been RQF 3, roughly A level. Jobs GOV.UK now lists as “medium skilled” are only sponsorable if the code is on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List, if the job is prison officer (code 3314) on an extension or switch, or if you are extending and got your first certificate of sponsorship before 22 July 2025.
- The general salary threshold rose to £41,700 a year, from £38,700. The lower threshold is £33,400, and £37,500 for a non-STEM PhD.
- Care worker and senior care worker closed to applications from outside the UK. See our care worker guide.
- Medium-skilled jobs stopped bringing dependants. A partner or child can only apply where the worker has been continually employed in a medium-skilled job on a Skilled Worker visa since before 22 July 2025, or one of the narrow exceptions for children applies.
Our salary threshold guide and going rate guide cover how the two figures interact, and the job eligibility checker shows which codes are closed to new applicants.
8 January 2026: English at B2
A new Skilled Worker application now needs English at level B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, up from B1. The change came in through the statement of changes of 14 October 2025 (HC 1333).
If you held this visa before 8 January 2026 and are extending or updating it, the level is B1 and you do not need to prove it again. Switching from a Health and Care Worker visa also needs no fresh proof. Switching from any other visa needs B2. See our English language tests guide.
26 March 2026: pay periods, and the visa brake
- Salary in each pay period. The required salary must be paid in every pay period, at least monthly or as the contract specifies, and the pay in a period must equal or exceed the going rate for every hour worked in it. Averaging a shortfall across the year no longer works. Our salary calculation guide sets out the measurement periods.
- A visa brake. The statement of changes of 5 March 2026 (HC 1691) refuses Skilled Worker applications from Afghan nationals, and Student applications from nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan.
- A wider suitability change. The same statement made a suspended sentence of 12 months or more a mandatory ground of refusal across the rules.
26 March 2027: settlement English rises to B2
HC 1691 also raises the English requirement at settlement from B1 to B2 for the Skilled Worker, Scale-up, Global Talent and Long Residence routes, among others, from 26 March 2027. It is enacted but not yet in force, so it does not affect an application made before that date. Until then, GOV.UK says you do not need to prove English again when you settle on this route, because you did so when you applied for the visa.
Earned settlement: decided, not yet law
The 2025 immigration white paper set out a direction of travel, and a white paper is not law. Its most consequential item, extending the settlement qualifying period from 5 years to 10, went to a consultation. On 2 November 2026 the government published its decision (CP 1707). For Skilled Workers it says:
- 10 years is the standard qualifying period, with earnings of at least £12,571 in 5 of the 7 years before applying (page 12 and Table 1, page 42).
- 5 years for people who earned at least £50,271 in 3 of the last 5 years, or who worked for 5 years in one of the listed public service jobs in health and education. The list covers jobs such as doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers (pages 11 to 12 and Annex C). See our list of public service jobs.
- 3 years for people who earned at least £125,141 in 3 of the 4 years before applying (page 12).
- The 15-year path that was proposed for jobs below degree level was dropped. Workers in those jobs go on the 10-year path (page 38).
- People sponsored before April 2024 can extend their visas on their current salary terms until 2035, instead of 2030 (page 40).
- Care workers who entered or switched into the route before the May 2025 white paper keep a 5-year path if they meet the £25,000 salary, sponsorship and employment requirements (page 38). See our guide for care workers.
- Everyone must also meet minimum requirements, including B2 English, the Life in the UK test, no criminal record and no unpaid government debt (pages 4 to 5).
This is announced policy, not law. No statement of changes has been laid and the response gives no start date. The Home Secretary told the House of Commons on 2 November 2026 that the changes "will begin to be laid from the December immigration rules" and "will be implemented over the course of 2027". Until the rules change, settlement on the Skilled Worker route is available after 5 years in the UK. See our guide to earned settlement.
A change is law only when it appears in a statement of changes with a date. The Home Office publishes every one of them in a single collection on GOV.UK, and our guide to immigration rules changes follows them across all routes.
Earlier changes that still shape the route
- April 2024: the shortage occupation list was replaced by the Immigration Salary List. The going-rate discount went with it. A job on the list takes the lower salary floor of £33,400 and a lower application fee (£628 or £1,235), but the full going rate still has to be paid. This is the single most frequently repeated error about the route.
- 11 March 2024: care workers and senior care workers stopped being able to bring dependants, other than those continually employed in those codes since before that date.
- 4 April 2024: the date that separates the transitional salary rules at settlement. Someone whose first certificate of sponsorship predates it, and who has held Skilled Worker permission ever since, uses lower figures at settlement.
- 31 December 2024: a sponsor may no longer pass the licence fee, the administrative costs of the licence, or the certificate of sponsorship fee on to the worker.
- End of 2024: biometric residence permits stopped being issued. Immigration status is an eVisa in a UK Visas and Immigration account, proved with a share code that lasts 90 days.
Which rules apply
- A new application is decided under the rules in force when it is made.
- An existing visa is not changed by a later rule. A new threshold applies at the next application to extend, update or switch.
- Settlement under earned settlement. The government's response says that, unless transitional provisions are made, applications are ordinarily considered under the rules in force on the date of the decision (CP 1707, page 37). It names transitional arrangements only for specific groups, such as the care workers above.
- Transitional rules turn on dates: 4 April 2024 for salary at settlement, 22 July 2025 for medium-skilled jobs and dependants, 8 January 2026 for English.
The GOV.UK Skilled Worker pages state the rules as they stand today, and Appendix Skilled Occupations carries the codes and going rates.
Related guides
Questions and answers
What has changed on the Skilled Worker route?
Three dated changes matter most. On 22 July 2025 the skill level rose to degree level (RQF 6) and the general salary threshold rose from £38,700 to £41,700. On 8 January 2026 the English requirement for new applications rose from B1 to B2. On 26 March 2026 the required salary had to start being paid in each pay period, and a 'visa brake' began refusing Skilled Worker applications from Afghan nationals.
Has the salary threshold increased?
Yes. The general threshold has been £41,700 a year since 22 July 2025, up from £38,700. The lower threshold, which applies to new entrants, PhD holders and Immigration Salary List jobs, is £33,400. Healthcare and education jobs use national pay scales with a floor of £25,000, and prison officers have their own figure of £31,300.
Are jobs being removed from eligibility?
On 22 July 2025 every occupation below degree level came off the route unless the code is on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List. That closed a large number of codes to new applicants, including care workers and senior care workers. The lists themselves are reviewed, so codes move on and off them.
Is settlement moving from 5 years to 10?
The government announced on 2 November 2026 that 10 years will become the standard qualifying period, with 5 years for people who earned at least £50,271 in 3 of the last 5 years or worked in a listed public service job, and 3 years for people who earned at least £125,141 in 3 of the last 4 years. It is not yet law: no statement of changes has been laid, and until one takes effect settlement on this route is available after 5 years. The Home Secretary said the rules will begin to be laid from December 2026. A separate change that is already enacted takes the settlement English requirement to B2 from 26 March 2027.
This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.