UK Skilled Worker Visa Requirements- All You Need to Know

Lucky Beng
3 min readSep 30, 2021

No doubt the United Kingdom has enormous employment opportunities for foreign workers. The UK skilled worker visa allows you to stay there for up to 5-year.

Moreover, foreigner workers having visas under the skilled worker category may extend its validity or apply for permanent residence in the UK.

Most importantly, British immigration has replaced Tier-2 General work visas with skilled worker visas (UK SW visa).

So, the foreign workers from any country may get the SW visa. However, they must have job offers from approved employers in the UK and the job must be on an eligible occupation list.

Furthermore, if you are doing a job in healthcare or Education, and your profession is on the UK shortage occupation list, you may get some extra benefits.

Advantages

The United Kingdom offers 27 types of employment visas, some are long term and the rest are short-term work visa categories. So, the UK skilled work visa is one of the most popular category because of its core benefits:

SW visas are extendable for multiple-times.

Stay in England for up to 5-year with or without family.

Bring your partner and depend on the England.

Visa holder’s spouse can work.

Become British resident (PR) after five years.

UK’s SW visa allows to work, live or study there.

SW visa holders may travel outside the UK and return.

Less visa fee for healthcare and Education workers and their families.

Selection Criteria

In order to qualify for the United Kingdom’s skilled worker visa, meet the eligibility criteria, for instance:

Have a sponsored Job Offer,

Score at least 70 points in the points-based system.

Your British employer must be approved by the UK government.

A ‘certificate of sponsorship’ you need to get from the employer.

An offered Job must be on an eligible occupation list in the UK.

At least level-B1 is compulsory to prove your English proficiency.

Education must be Bachelor’s degree (A-level/RQF level 3).

Minimum salary threshold should be £25,600/year or £10.10/hour or according to the job you are going to do in the UK.

Qualifying Points System

In fact, the UK sets one of the easiest and achievable points systems for the skilled worker. So, in order to be eligible for the UK skilled worker visa, you must have 70 qualifying points.

Eligible Occupations

Only those whose jobs are on the list of eligible occupations are eligible for the UK Skilled Worker Visa. In addition, each profession has a four-digit code. Thus, if you are applying for SW visa, make sure your job is eligible and appearing on the official list.

In Demand occupations

There are many occupations that are highly in demand in the UK. Therefore, the UK government issues a list of skills that are short in the country.

So, if your profession is also included in the skills shortage list, your chances of success may be higher to get a UK skilled worker visa. The visa application fee will be less if your job is listed in shortage occupation in the UK.

How to find the UK employers who sponsor jobs?

You can easily find out about the British/Scottish employers on various online platforms by using 3 methods. You can apply for a vacant position if the employer is sponsoring foreign workers. For example:

Read Full details about UK Skilled Worker Visa

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