The Immigration Salary List is to be removed and will be replaced by a Temporary Shortage List for certain sub-degree occupations under the UK’s work visa sponsorship regime.
What is changing?
In May 2025, the UK Government released its immigration white paper, Restoring Control Over the Immigration System, introducing significant reforms aimed at reducing net migration and reshaping the labour market. A central change is the abolition of the Immigration Salary List (ISL), which currently allows employers to sponsor foreign workers in designated shortage occupations at reduced salary thresholds.
Replacing the ISL is the Temporary Shortage List (TSL), a more stringent and time-limited mechanism targeting sub-degree level roles (RQF Levels 3–5), such as skilled trades and technician positions.
Inclusion on the TSL will require sectors to present comprehensive, government-approved workforce strategies demonstrating efforts to train and recruit domestic workers, reduce reliance on overseas labour and ensure fair working conditions.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) will oversee the TSL, advising the Home Secretary on which occupations qualify, the duration of their inclusion and any visa caps or conditions.
Notably, visas under the TSL may impose additional restrictions, such as limitations on dependants and higher English language requirements, aligning with the government’s broader integration objectives.
When will the changes take effect?
While the white paper sets the framework for these changes, specific implementation dates have not been confirmed. The MAC is expected to provide advice on the TSL and revised salary thresholds in the autumn of 2025. Subsequent legislative changes and updates to the Immigration Rules will follow, with the first changes anticipated before January 2026.
For occupations below RQF Level 6 (sub-degree level), the TSL will determine eligibility for the Skilled Worker route. In the interim, the TSL will include occupations that the MAC has recently considered to be in shortage or are crucial to the UK’s industrial strategy.
Implications for employers
For employers, the new Temporary Shortage List represents a more restrictive and conditional framework for accessing lower-skilled international labour, raising several practical implications.
The abolition of the ISL removes the option to sponsor workers at discounted salary rates for shortage occupations. Employers must now meet the full standard salary threshold for most roles under the Skilled Worker route, unless the role is included on the TSL. This means that roles previously eligible for reduced pay thresholds will now require higher salaries to remain eligible for sponsorship, unless they qualify for inclusion on the new list.
Unlike the ISL, which remained relatively stable, the TSL is intended to be dynamic and responsive. The TSL will be reviewed more regularly than the ISL—likely annually or in response to labour market shifts.
Occupations included will be subject to time limits and conditional visa terms. Employers must monitor MAC updates and Home Office communications to stay ahead of changes and adjust recruitment strategies accordingly.
Occupations may also be added or removed more frequently based on sector-specific evidence and MAC reviews. This will inevitably introduce uncertainty for employers and their workforce planning, since a role eligible for sponsorship today may no longer qualify in a future recruitment cycle, making long-term workforce planning more difficult.
Employers may also need to participate in, or align with, industry-led workforce strategies to secure inclusion of certain roles on the TSL. Such strategies must demonstrate efforts to upskill the domestic workforce and reduce dependency on migration. Employers who fail to contribute to or comply with these plans may lose access to the TSL route altogether.
Need assistance?
The TSL will effectively introduce more stringent controls and less predictability in the visa sponsorship system. Employers will need to budget for higher salary costs, build contingency into recruitment timelines to avoid disruption from list changes and engage early in industry workforce planning.
For specialist guidance for your organisation, speak to our UK business immigration experts.
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
