Skilled Worker / Health and Care Worker

The Skilled Worker visa is a sponsored visa. Your visa can be sponsored for the length of your employment, up to 5 years. You can extend it as many times as you like, but after 5 years you may be eligible to apply to settle permanently in the UK.

The job and vacancy must be genuine, and the Home Office may check this. The Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker explains at paragraphs SW 5.4 and SW 5.5 that the Home Office caseworker assessing your application must not have reasonable grounds to believe that the job "does not exist, or is a sham, or has been created mainly so the applicant can apply [under the Skilled Worker route]" or that the job amounts to you working for a third party who is not the sponsor. 

The Skilled Worker visa is a points-based visa. To be eligible, you must score a minimum of 70 points in total (50 points toward mandatory or 'non-tradeable' criteria and 20 points toward 'tradeable' criteria).

Mandatory points requirements

Sponsorship (20 points)

• You must have a valid Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) for the job offered, from an employer who holds a sponsors licence, which must:

  • confirm your name, that you are being sponsored as a Skilled Worker, details of the job and the salary being offered, and PAYE details if HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) requires income tax and National Insurance for the sponsored job to be paid via PAYE; and
  • include a start date, stated by the sponsor, which is no more than 3 months after the date of application; and
  • not have been used in a previous visa application which was either granted or refused; and
  • not have been withdrawn from the Sponsor or cancelled by the Home Office

Job at an appropriate skill level (20 points)

• You must be sponsored for a job in an eligible occupation code as listed in Appendix Skilled Occupations of the Imigration Rules
• Your sponsor must choose an appropriate occupation code 
• You must also be awarded the 20 mandatory points under sponsorship as defined above

English language skills level (10 points)

• You must demonstrate that you have an English language level of at least B1 or  higher. You can evidence these skills by meeting one of the requirements listed in Appendix English Language of the Immigration Rules

Tradeable points requirements

In addition to scoring 50 points for the above criteria, you must also score 20 'tradeable' points based on your salary and other criteria if necessary and applicable (for example, relevant academic qualifications you hold, being sponsored to work in a shortage occupation or an eligible health or education occupation, or because you are a ‘new entrant' to the UK’s labour market)

*Please see more information under the 'Who is a 'new entrant'' section

There are several ways to meet the definition of 'new entrant' one of which is on the basis of recent graduate level study.  To qualify, you must meet the following conditions: 

• your most recent permission must have been as a Student (or Tier 4 Student)
• your permission must have expired less than 2 years before the date of application
• in that permission (or any previous permission as a Student or a Tier 4 (General) Student), you were sponsored to study any of the following:
  • a UK bachelor’s degree, a UK master’s degree or a UK PhD or other doctoral qualification 
  • a Postgraduate Certificate in Education or a Professional Graduate Diploma of Education
• you must be applying once you have completed the relevant course above or be studying a PhD and have completed at least 24 months’ study in the UK towards that PhD

Please note, applicants can be considered new entrants for a maximum of 4 years. This means that if you are applying under the Skilled Worker route for more than 4 years, or if granting the application would mean you would have more than 4 years’ permission in total (whether continuous or not) as a Tier 2 migrant and/or as a Skilled Worker, you cannot score tradeable points as a new entrant. You will need to score tradeable points in another way.

If you are applying in the UK and have been living here with a valid visa for at least 24 months, you do not need to provide evidence of your finances/maintenance. Additionally, if your employer can confirm on the Certificate of Sponsorship that they will cover your living costs during your first month in the UK, up to £1270, then you do not need to provide evidence of your finances/maintenance. Yoou must check this with your employer.

If you do not meet either of the above provisions, you must show evidence that you have held at least £1270 in your own name for at least 28 days ending no more than 31 days before the date you apply. The funds must have been held in your own name and cannot be in your parent's name.

If you are a Student switching to the Skilled worker route within the UK, your employer will not be liable for the Immigration Skills Charge.

If you are applying from outside the UK, you'll need to provide a criminal record certificate for certain jobs. 

If you've lived in more than one country, you'll need to provide a certificate from each country you've stayed in for 12 months or more since you were 18 years old.

Find out how to apply for criminal records checks

You can find further information about the Skilled worker route from the following sources:

Check if you are eligible for a Skilled Worker visa

Health and Care Worker visa

Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker 

Guidance for applicants 

Sponsor guidance 

Skilled Occupation Code list (SOC)