From 22 July 2025, a number of key changes to the UK visa sponsorship rules take effect.
The following is a general overview of these amendments. For advice on how these changes impact your organisation, contact our specialist UK immigration advisers.
Skilled Worker Visa: higher skill bar
From 22 July 2025, a job must normally be graded at Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) level 6 (equivalent to graduate-level) to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker route.
Over one hundred roles, (according to the Home Office, although industry analyses suggest around 180), mid-skill occupations that used to qualify at RQF 3–5 consequently no longer qualify, unless they appear on either the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List.
Appendix Skilled Occupations has also been restructured to separate eligible roles by skill level, with distinct tables now provided for occupations at RQF Level 6 and above, and for those at RQF Levels 3 to 5.
Employers should carefully review where a specific job appears within the revised structure, as the presence of a role in the Appendix does not automatically mean it qualifies for sponsorship. Role eligibility has to be assessed based on both skill level and other route-specific criteria.
Skilled Worker Visa: higher salary thresholds
From 22 July 2025, the UK has lifted the pay floor for new Skilled Worker sponsorships. The headline general threshold, Option A, has climbed from £38,700 to £41,700, while the PhD‑relevant band now starts at £37,500 and both STEM‑PhD roles and new entrants, as well as Immigration Salary List posts, must pay at least £33,400. Occupation‑specific going rates have been uprated in parallel, so sponsors must still reach whichever figure is higher when comparing the annual threshold with the relevant applicable 100 %, 90 %, 80 % or 70 % of the new going rate tables.
Alongside those increases, the Home Office has imposed a wage floor of £17.13 per hour for most applicants, calculated on no more than 48 paid hours a week. This hourly minimum applies to salary options from A to E, including ISL roles, and will override a lower annual figure if the two tests diverge. Only the transitional bands for continuing sub‑degree workers (Options F–J) and most Health and Care visa jobs use a lower £12.82 floor.
| Option | Applicable to | Minimum salary requirement from 22 July 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| A | Standard Skilled Worker (no discounts) | £41,700 and 100 % of the standard going rate. Hourly pay must also reach £17.13 (max 48 hrs/wk). |
| B | Relevant PhD (non‑STEM) | £37,500 and 90 % of the standard going rate. Hourly floor £17.13 applies. |
| C | STEM PhD | £33,400 and 80 % of the standard going rate. Hourly floor £17.13 applies. |
| D | Job on the Immigration Salary List (ISL) | £33,400 and 100 % of the standard going rate. Hourly floor £17.13 applies*. No other discounts can be combined. |
| E | New entrant (early‑career) | £33,400 and 70 % of the standard going rate. Hourly floor £17.13 applies. |
| F | Health & Care ASHE job or continuing employment – standard rate | £31,300 and 100 % of the lower going rate. No £17.13 hourly floor. |
| G | Health & Care ASHE job or continuing employment – relevant PhD (non‑STEM) | £28,200 and 90 % of the lower going rate. No £17.13 hourly floor. |
| H | Health & Care ASHE job or continuing employment – STEM PhD | £25,000 and 80 % of the lower going rate. No £17.13 hourly floor. |
| I | Health & Care ASHE job or continuing employment – ISL role | £25,000 and 100 % of the lower going rate. No £17.13 hourly floor. No extra discounts allowed. |
| J | Health & Care ASHE job or continuing employment – new entrant | £25,000 and 70 % of the lower going rate. No £17.13 hourly floor. |
| K | Listed health or education occupation (continuous sponsorship since before 22 Jul 2025) | £25,000 and 100 % of the going rate or the relevant national payscale rate. |
* Exception for care worker ISL codes 6135/6136, though now closed to new overseas hires, they rely on separate transitional rules.
Under limited transitional provisions, workers first sponsored before 4 April 2024 may still rely on Options F–J, which keep a lower general floor of £31,300 until 4 April 2030. Options F–J continue to require 100 / 90 / 80 / 70 % of the new going rate, as shown in the Rules.
Read our comprehensive guide to Skilled Worker minimum salary rules here >>
New Temporary Shortage & Immigration Salary lists
Two interim lists are now effective, keeping a small number of sub‑graduate jobs open for sponsorship until the end of 2026: an expanded Immigration Salary List (ISL) and a time-limited Temporary Shortage List (TSL). From 22 July 2025, a role below RQF 6 can now be sponsored only if it appears on one of these lists. Both lists are scheduled to expire at the end of 2026, or sooner if the Home Office decides, and newly-sponsored workers under the TSL and ISL roles at RQF 3-5 cannot bring dependants.
The ISL is effectively an expanded successor to the old Shortage Occupation List. It contains jobs that the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has confirmed are in genuine national shortage, such as laboratory technicians, bricklayers and skilled dancers. Sponsorship is allowed at RQF 3‑5 and on a reduced salary benchmark, because the Rules treat every ISL role as benefiting from “a reduced skills and salary threshold”. However, each entry shows a firm removal date of 31 December 2026. If a Certificate of Sponsorship is issued after the removal date, the concession is lost.
The time‑limited TSL is a one‑off political carve‑out. The featured occupations, such as IT support technicians and logistics managers, were chosen by HM Treasury and the Department for Business to support the government’s Modern Industrial Strategy. A CoS must be assigned by 31 December 2026. After this deadline, the roles may either become eligible under RQF 6 or drop off entirely from eligibility.
Note that care workers and senior care workers (SOC 6135 and 6136) do appear on the Immigration Salary List with a removal date of 22 July 2028, but entry clearance sponsorship in those codes closes on 22 July 2025.
Dependants curbed for lower-skilled roles
Applicants newly sponsored on or after 22 July 2025 in any RQF 3‑5 job on the ISL or TSL cannot bring dependants. Note that the restriction is tied to the skill level of the ISL/TSL role, not the list itself. Family members who already hold leave are unaffected. Roles at RQF 6 or above are unaffected, provided they meet the normal family-route maintenance rules.
Care worker route closes to new overseas recruits
Entry clearance applications for care workers and senior care workers (occupation codes 6135 and 6136) are closed from 22 July 2025.
In-country “switchers” can still be sponsored until 22 July 2028, provided they have been on the sponsor’s UK payroll for at least three months before the CoS is issued.
The in‑country switch concession ends on 22 July 2028.
GBM & Scale Up Visas: higher salary thresholds
Under the Global Business Mobility umbrella, from 22 July 2025 a Senior or Specialist Worker or UK Expansion Worker must earn at least £52,500 a year, up from £48,500, while the Scale-up visa threshold rises from £36,300 to £39,100.
For the Graduate Trainee strand, the floor climbs to £27,300, replacing the previous £25,410 and triggering matched uplifts to the “70% of going‑rate” tables.
GBM categories still apply the long‑standing rule that only the first 48 paid hours a week count towards the annualised salary.
The rebuilt Appendix Skilled Occupations now lists only roles assessed at RQF level 6 or above as automatically eligible for GBM. Sub‑graduate codes, including medical and dental technicians, teaching assistants and all NHS Agenda‑for‑Change Bands 1‑4, are removed and therefore cannot be used for new GBM or Scale up sponsorship.
However, a new Table 2b offers transitional cover for 15 occupation codes that have just been downgraded below RQF 6 (for example logistics managers, CAD technicians and database administrators). Employers may continue to sponsor only those workers who already held GBM leave before 4 April 2024, and only until 4 April 2030; fresh recruits in these codes are now barred.
Need assistance?
These changes affect what are arguably the more complex aspects of the UK visa sponsorship regime: skill and salary levels. Employers will need to consider the new rules not only when sponsoring new recruits, but also when managing existing migrants who later extend, switch routes or apply for settlement.
For example, for current Skilled Worker holders whose Certificate of Sponsorship was assigned before 22 July 2025, the job can remain at its original sub‑degree SOC code until 22 July 2028 under the Home Office’s “continuing‑employment” concessions; it does not have to be upgraded to RQF 6, although the post must now meet the transitional salary bands and the lower £12.82 hourly floor. New CoS issued from 22 July 2025 must, by contrast, show a role classified at RQF 6 (or be on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List) and meet the higher salary thresholds, including the £17.13 hourly minimum.
Skilled Workers who will apply for settlement after five years must be paid at least the full updated going rate (or discounted percentage) that applies on the date of their ILR application. That often means planning incremental pay rises well in advance.
As such, under the new rules, strategic workforce planning, including role design, salary structuring and talent pipeline development, will now be critical to maintaining access to global talent.
Given the scale and immediacy of the changes taking effect, contact our advisers to understand how the new rules impact your organisation’s ability to sponsor overseas workers, particularly in roles below RQF Level 6 or when applying the revised salary thresholds.
Author
Founder and Managing Director Anne Morris is a fully qualified solicitor and trusted adviser to large corporates through to SMEs, providing strategic immigration and global mobility advice to support employers with UK operations to meet their workforce needs through corporate immigration.
She is a recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a legal expert and delivers Board-level advice on business migration and compliance risk management as well as overseeing the firm’s development of new client propositions and delivery of cost and time efficient processing of applications.
Anne is an active public speaker, immigration commentator, and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals
