Eligibility · Published 2026-08-08 · Updated 2026-08-08 · 12 min read

Skilled Worker Skill Level: Which Jobs Still Qualify

Quick answer

The Skilled Worker route has a skill test as well as a salary test. Since 22 July 2025 the skill threshold has sat at RQF level 6, roughly degree level, and the Home Office described the change as "a reduction of around 180 eligible occupations". Existing Skilled Workers were given transitional protection from the skill rise; there were no transitional arrangements for salary. Some occupations below RQF 6 keep access through the Temporary Shortage List, which brings no salary discount, no dependants, and currently runs to 31 December 2026. Eligibility follows the occupation code that matches the job's actual duties, not the job title on the advert.

Key takeaways

• Two separate tests decide whether a role can be sponsored: skill level and

salary. Both must pass.

• RQF level 6 is roughly bachelor's degree level in the England, Wales and

Northern Ireland framework.

• Around 180 occupations left the eligible list when the threshold rose on

22 July 2025.

• Existing Skilled Workers were protected from the skill rise. Nobody was

protected from the salary rise.

• The Temporary Shortage List grants access for certain lower-skilled

occupations. It grants nothing else — no salary discount, no dependants.

• The occupation code follows the duties. A "Senior Engineer" title does not

choose the code; the work does.

• A sponsor licence is permission to sponsor, not a promise to sponsor any role

or any person.

The two-test structure most explainers skip

People search for "Skilled Worker salary threshold" far more than they search for skill level, and that imbalance produces a predictable mistake: a candidate checks the salary, sees the number clears, and assumes the role qualifies.

It does not follow. The route asks two independent questions about the job:

A role can pay £70,000 and still fail the skill test if the occupation is not on the eligible list. A role can be squarely on the list and fail on salary. Both outcomes are common, and only one of them is widely understood.

What changed on 22 July 2025

The Home Office raised the Skilled Worker skill threshold to RQF level 6. Its own explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes describes the effect as "a reduction of around 180 eligible occupations" Source: GOV.UK — Explanatory memorandum to HC 997, 1 July 2025.

That is the whole change in one line, and it is worth reading twice. The route did not get harder in a general, atmospheric way. A specific set of occupations stopped being eligible on a specific date.

What RQF 6 means

RQF is the Regulated Qualifications Framework used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Level 6 sits at bachelor's degree standard. Scotland uses its own framework, and the immigration rules map across.

Two clarifications that save a lot of worry:

• The level describes the occupation, not you. The question is the standard

of the job, as classified in the occupation coding system. It is not a requirement that a specific applicant holds a degree.

• It is not about your employer's opinion of the role. Classification is

based on published occupation definitions, not on how senior the team considers the position.

Who was protected

The memorandum is explicit on transitional arrangements, and the two halves point in opposite directions:

• Existing Skilled Workers were exempt from the skill threshold rise.
• There were no transitional arrangements for salary.

Verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026. In plain terms: someone already in the route did not lose eligibility because their occupation dropped off the list, but nobody was insulated from the salary changes.

The Temporary Shortage List

What it does

The Temporary Shortage List covers occupations at RQF levels 3 to 5 that the government considers important to the Industrial Strategy. Being on it grants access to the route for those occupations Source: GOV.UK — Temporary Shortage List: Stage 1 report.

What it does not do

This is where most confusion lives. The published position is unambiguous:

• No salary discounts. Being on the list does not lower any threshold.
• No dependants. Dependants are not permitted on the list's occupations.
• Not permanent. The list, and the expanded Immigration Salary List, run to

31 December 2026.

The Migration Advisory Committee's final recommendations were due in July 2026. Verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026.

Why the end date matters to you now

If you are planning a job search that will complete in 2027, the shape of the list at that point is not knowable today. That is not pessimism, it is the published position: a temporary list with a stated end date.

The sensible planning response is not to guess. It is to check GOV.UK again before you commit to a route that depends on it, and to keep a dated note of what the rules said when you made your plan. Our guide to the Immigration Salary List works through how the two lists differ and what each actually grants.

Occupation codes: the thing everything hangs on

The code decides, and the duties decide the code

Every sponsored role is assigned an occupation code. That code determines whether the occupation is eligible and which going rate applies.

The code follows the duties actually performed, not the job title. This matters in both directions:

• An inflated title does not lift a role into a higher-paying code.
• A modest title does not stop a genuinely senior role from being coded

accordingly.

Employers know this, because assigning the wrong code is a compliance problem for them, not for you. It also means that an ad's title is a weak signal about eligibility, and the duties list in the ad is a much stronger one.

How to read an ad for its likely code

1. Ignore the title. Read the responsibilities.
2. Ask what the role does for most of a week.
3. Match that against occupation definitions rather than against your own

sense of seniority.

1. Look up the going rate for the code you land on.
2. Compare the ad's salary with the going rate and the general threshold.

Our going rates guide covers how the rates are published and the 37.5-hour basis they assume.

The general salary numbers, for completeness

The standard threshold is £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. Defined groups have a lower floor from £33,400 — including new entrants, applicants under 26, students and recent graduates at 70% of the going rate, STEM PhD holders at 80%, and Immigration Salary List roles Source: GOV.UK — Skilled Worker visa: when you can be paid less. A relevant non-STEM PhD attracts 90% of the going rate with a £37,500 floor. Verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026. The detail sits in our salary thresholds guide.

Three worked examples

The roles and salaries below are invented to show how the two tests interact.

A role that passes both tests

An advert for a data engineer in Bristol at £52,000. The duties are software and data engineering, which sits comfortably above the RQF 6 threshold. The salary clears the £41,700 general floor, so the remaining question is the going rate for the specific code. If the going rate is below £52,000, both tests pass, and the next question is whether the employer holds a licence.

A role that fails on skill despite good pay

An advert for a senior team leader in a distribution centre at £46,000. The pay is comfortably over the general floor. But if the duties classify to an occupation that fell below the threshold when it rose on 22 July 2025, the salary is irrelevant — the occupation is not eligible, and a higher offer would not change that. This is the case people most often misread, because everything visible in the advert looks fine.

A role on the Temporary Shortage List

An advert for a technician role classified at RQF level 4 that appears on the Temporary Shortage List. Access to the route exists. What does not exist is any salary relief: the applicable thresholds apply in full, dependants are not permitted on the list's occupations, and the list itself runs to 31 December 2026. A candidate weighing this needs to read all three of those facts together, not just the first one.

What the three cases have in common

In each example the order of checks does the work. Skill level first, because it is binary and cannot be negotiated. Salary second, because it is arithmetic. Employer licence third, because there is no point checking a register entry for a role that cannot be sponsored regardless.

Reversing that order — starting with the employer, as most people do — costs time on roles that were never going to work.

What to do if an occupation left the list

Being told an occupation is no longer eligible is a hard read, and the useful responses are narrower than the internet suggests.

Check the code before you accept the conclusion

A surprising number of "my job is no longer eligible" conclusions are based on the wrong code. Roles sit at boundaries; duties drift over years; the title on the contract may be a decade old. Re-read the actual duties against occupation definitions before treating the door as closed.

Look at adjacent, still-eligible codes honestly

If your real experience maps onto an eligible occupation, that is a legitimate target for your search. If it does not, describing it as though it does is not a strategy — it is a misrepresentation, and the employer carries the compliance consequences. Do not do it, and be wary of any adviser who suggests it.

Read the Temporary Shortage List carefully

If the occupation appears there, access exists but with no salary relief and no dependants, and with an end date of 31 December 2026.

Consider whether a different route fits

There are routes outside Skilled Worker with their own rules and their own tests. Which ones might apply to an individual is exactly the kind of case-specific question this page cannot answer. GOV.UK's adviser finder is the place to take it, and it carries a warning worth repeating: you cannot get your money back if an adviser is not regulated Source: GOV.UK — Find an immigration adviser.

Common misreadings, corrected

How to check all of this yourself, free

1. Open the GOV.UK Skilled Worker pages and read the eligibility section.
2. Find the occupation that matches the duties, and note its code.
3. Look up that code in the published going rates table.
4. Compare with the ad's salary and with the general threshold.
5. Check whether the employer is on the Register of Licensed Sponsors: Workers

Source: GOV.UK — Register of licensed sponsors: workers. Our copy of the file, published as of 5 August 2026, holds 126,248 organisations.

1. Write down today's date next to what you found.

Nothing in that list costs money. If an employer's name does not appear, work through our guide to employers that seem missing from the register before concluding anything — most absences are search problems.

What the rules cannot tell you

The skill and salary tests describe whether a role can be sponsored. They say nothing about whether it will be. That second question depends on the employer's own decision: budget, timing, whether the duties are internally approved for sponsorship, and whether anyone in the business owns the process.

The register shows a licence. A licence is permission to sponsor, not a promise to sponsor any role or any person. Every eligibility check you run narrows the field; none of them creates an offer.

The bottom line

Skilled Worker eligibility is a two-part test, and the part people skip is the one that changed most recently. The threshold has sat at RQF level 6 since 22 July 2025, removing around 180 occupations, with existing Skilled Workers protected from that rise and nobody protected from the salary rise. The Temporary Shortage List keeps some lower-skilled occupations in the route without any salary relief, until 31 December 2026.

Check the code before the salary, check the salary before the employer, and check the employer on the official register. Then write the date next to your answer, because this is an area that moves.

This page is information, not immigration advice. This site is not affiliated with the Home Office or GOV.UK. Rules change; check the GOV.UK pages linked below, and speak to an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority or a regulated solicitor about your own circumstances.

Sources

1. Explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 997 — GOV.UK
2. Temporary Shortage List: Stage 1 report — GOV.UK
3. Skilled Worker visa: your job — GOV.UK
4. Skilled Worker visa: when you can be paid less — GOV.UK
5. Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes — GOV.UK
6. Skilled Worker visa: Immigration Salary List — GOV.UK
7. Register of licensed sponsors: workers — GOV.UK
8. Find an immigration adviser — GOV.UK

Frequently asked questions

What is the Skilled Worker skill level requirement?

Since 22 July 2025 the threshold has sat at RQF level 6, roughly degree level in the England, Wales and Northern Ireland qualifications framework.

How many occupations were removed?

The Home Office's explanatory memorandum describes the change as "a reduction of around 180 eligible occupations".

Do I personally need a degree?

The skill level classifies the occupation, not the applicant. It is a statement about the standard of the job rather than a qualification requirement on the individual.

Were existing Skilled Workers affected?

Existing Skilled Workers were given transitional protection from the skill threshold rise. There were no transitional arrangements for salary.

What is the Temporary Shortage List?

A list of occupations at RQF levels 3 to 5 considered important to the Industrial Strategy. It grants route access for those occupations and runs to 31 December 2026.

Does the Temporary Shortage List lower the salary I need?

No. The published position is that it brings no salary discounts, and dependants are not permitted on its occupations.

What happens after 31 December 2026?

The Temporary Shortage List and the expanded Immigration Salary List are set to end on that date. The Migration Advisory Committee's final recommendations were due in July 2026. Check GOV.UK for the current position before planning around it.

Who decides my occupation code?

The sponsor assigns it, but the code has to match the duties the role actually involves. Miscoding is a compliance issue for the sponsor.

Can a job title change make a role eligible?

No. Titles do not drive classification; duties do. Renaming a role does not move it between occupation codes.

What is the general salary threshold?

£41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher, with lower floors from £33,400 for defined groups. Verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026.

If the occupation is eligible, is the employer required to sponsor?

No. Eligibility describes the role. Whether an employer sponsors is a separate commercial decision that no published source records.

My occupation left the list. Is there anything I can do?

Start by confirming the code is right, since boundary cases are common. Beyond that, whether another route fits an individual is a case-specific question for a regulated adviser rather than a website.

Does the register tell me whether my occupation qualifies?

No. The register covers organisations and the routes their licences cover. It holds nothing about occupations or salaries.

Where is the authoritative list?

On GOV.UK's Skilled Worker visa pages and the published going rates table, both linked in the sources below. Anything else, including this page, is a summary of those.

Sources