Skilled Worker Change of Employment

Skilled Worker visa holders will need to make an application to the Home Office to update their visa in the event of specific changes relating to their employment.

Relevant changes in employment include:

When does a Skilled Worker need to notify the Home Office?

If the worker is taking on a new job for a new employer, they will need to apply for a new Skilled Worker visa, and go through the application process to verify that their new employer is a licensed sponsor and eligible to employ them.

This means evidencing to the Home Office that they meet all of the Skilled Worker requirements.

No requirement to notify the Home Office

Sponsored workers generally do not need to inform the Home Office in the following circumstances:

• They continue to be sponsored by the same employer, the new position is in the same occupational code, and they are not switching from a position that is on the shortage occupation list to one that is not.
• The amount of base pay has increased.
• The same occupation code as that assigned by the prior sponsor, and the change of employer or sponsor is covered by TUPE agreements or equivalent protection.
• Their pay was reduced or stopped during absences of less than 4 weeks in a calendar year.
• The worker missed more than four weeks of work in a calendar year resulting in an unpaid absence or a pay reduction where the absence was due to one of the following: statutory parental leave, shared parental leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, sick leave, responding to a humanitarian or environmental crisis on a national or international scale, provided the sponsor approved the absence for that reason, or participating in legally sanctioned activities.

Skilled worker requirements

The Skilled Worker visa requirements must continue to be met when a sponsored worker is looking to change employers. These include having:

• a job offer from an approved employer;
• a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from the employer;
• the job named on the certificate is at a suitable skill level and features on the list of Home Office eligible occupations;
• the salary meets a minimum requirement for that kind of job; and
• proof of knowledge of the English language.

Eligibility

To retain sponsored status, the worker will need to find employment with a licensed sponsor. Only employers that are licensed by the UK government can issue Certificates of Sponsorship.

They also need to confirm that the job is eligible for a Skilled Worker visa. The UK Home Office has published a list of eligible jobs, together with their occupation codes, on the gov.uk website.

The Office for National Statistics occupation coding tool can be used to look up a particular job title and find its occupation code.

Once you know the occupation codes, you have to check the ‘table of eligible jobs’. Only those codes in the table are eligible for the Skilled Worker visa.

Once you know that your job is eligible for the Skilled Worker visa, your employer can issue you with a Certificate of Sponsorship. You will have to supply your Certificate of Sponsorship when you make the Skilled Worker visa application. Employers must write the occupation code on the CoS and specify the duration of the job offer.

Salary requirements

There are specific salary requirements in relation to eligible jobs in the Skilled Worker visa scheme.

Currently, the general rule is that the worker must be paid at least £26,200 or the ‘going-rate’ for the job, whichever is the higher. Each occupation code has its own ‘going-rate’ and these are published by the Home Office. From Spring 2024, the Skilled Worker minimum salary will be increasing to £38,700 per year.

If your new job is in the healthcare or education sectors then the going rate is based on the national pay scales in those sectors.

There are qualifications to the salary requirements in certain circumstances and as long as the worker will be earning at least £20,960. The worker can be paid between 70% and 90% of the going rate for their job if:

• the job is on the shortage occupation list;
• the worker is under 26, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training;
• the worker has a science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) PhD level qualification that is relevant to the job; or
• the worker has a post-doctoral position in science or higher education.

It should be noted that where a worker has a relevant PhD level qualification in any other subject apart from the STEM subjects, then their salary must be at least £23,580.

It is also important to note that in the case of items (b) and (d) above, the total amount of time that a worker on a Skilled Worker visa in these categories can stay in the UK is 4 years, and this includes time the worker has already spent in the UK on a Tier 2 visa.

Other considerations

If the worker already has a Skilled Worker visa, then they will have already had to prove their knowledge of English and submitted the required documents (for example, ID, bank statements, certificates). The rules state that workers will only need to submit this documentary evidence again if you have been in the UK for less than one year.

What are the timescales?

You can apply to update your visa up to three months before the intended start date of your new job. While you are waiting for the application to be processed, you can carry on working in your current job and / or work out your notice period.

If your current Tier 2 visa is near to its expiry then you must make sure that you submit your application to switch to the Skilled Worker visa before the Tier 2 visa expires.

You are not allowed to travel outside the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, Ireland and the Isle of Man while your application is pending. If you do travel outside these places while before you have received the decision on your application, the application will be withdrawn unilaterally by the UK Home Office.

You are not allowed to start your new job with a new employer until you have received confirmation that your application has been approved.

How much does it cost to update my visa?

The cost of the Skilled Worker visa for the applicant depends on whether the certificate of sponsorship has been issued for under or over three years and whether the job is on the shortage occupation list:

Applying from within the UK:

• Visa for up to 3 years – £719 per applicant
• Visa for more than 3 years – £1,420 per applicant

Applying from overseas:

• Visa for up to 3 years – £827 per applicant
• Visa for more than 3 years – £1,500 per applicant

Shortage occupations:

• Visa for up to 3 years – £551 per applicant
• Visa for more than 3 years – £1,084 per applicant

 
On top of this, the applicant will have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, which is payable at the time of making your application for the full number of years stated on the certificate of sponsorship.

Losing a sponsored job

Losing a sponsored job, whether the worker was dismissed from their employment for a number of reasons including redundancy or reorganisation, or may themselves have opted to resign, will have an impact on the individual’s leave to remain in the UK, since their worker visa was dependant on having sponsored employment.

The visa holder who loses their job can still look for another eligible job and apply for a Skilled Worker visa with a different sponsor in a qualifying role.

There are also other visa types that the visa holder could consider, if finding an eligible job is not possible, such as a family visa.

However, if the visa holder is not eligible for any other type of visa and cannot find another eligible job, the law states that they will have to leave the UK within 60 days of being notified by the UK Home Office, or the expiry of their visa, whichever is the shorter. There is no grace period. Once the 60 days are up the visa holder has to leave, or they will be considered to be in the UK illegally.

If the visa holder does stay on in the UK illegally, it is highly likely that they will automatically be refused a visa if they apply to come to the UK in the future and / or that they will be deported from the UK.

Need assistance?

We are specialists in UK business immigration, with substantial experience and recognised expertise in advising employers and workers on UK employment sponsorship, sponsor licence applications and management, and Skilled Worker visa applications. For specialist immigration advice to support your talent mobility and business operations, contact us.

Skilled worker change of employment FAQs

Last updated: 8 December 2023