UK work visas explained: which route fits you?

Work down the questions in order and stop at the first yes. Several routes can fit the same person; when that happens, compare how long each lasts and whether it counts towards settlement.

• Are you British or Irish, or do you hold EU Settlement Scheme status? You need no visa to work.
• Are you finishing a UK degree on a Student visa? Look at the Graduate visa first. See working in the UK after graduation.
• Are you 18–30 (or 18–35 for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea) from a participating country? The Youth Mobility Scheme gives up to 24 months with no job offer.
• Did you graduate in the last 5 years from a university on the Global Universities List? The High Potential Individual visa gives 2 years (3 with a PhD) to work or look for work.
• Are you a leader or potential leader in research, arts and culture or digital technology? Global Talent needs no employer sponsor.
• Do you have an offer as a doctor, nurse or other eligible health or social care professional? Use the Health and Care Worker visa.
• Do you have an offer from a licensed sponsor, for a higher-skilled job paying at least £41,700 or the going rate? Use the Skilled Worker visa.

If none fits yet, the gap is usually the offer or the salary, not the paperwork. Our guide to finding a UK job as a foreigner covers how to find employers that can sponsor.

Three things must line up. The employer must be a Home Office-licensed sponsor (check the register of licensed sponsors) and give you a certificate of sponsorship. The occupation must be eligible: since 22 July 2025, jobs classed as medium skilled only qualify if they are on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List, or under transitional rules for people sponsored before that date. And the salary must meet the threshold.

The salary test is whichever is higher: £41,700 a year or the going rate for your occupation code. Going rates are based on a 37.5-hour week and pro-rated for other hours. They can sit well above the general threshold: £54,700 for programmers and software development professionals, £49,200 for chartered and certified accountants and £46,800 for mechanical engineers. Find your code in the Home Office’s eligible occupations list before you negotiate.

Some applicants may be paid less, with a floor of £33,400: new entrants (under 26, or switching from a Student or Graduate visa, at 70% of the going rate, for a maximum of 4 years), STEM PhD holders (80%), jobs on the Immigration Salary List and some postdoctoral roles. Non-STEM PhD holders can use 90% of the going rate, with a £37,500 floor.

• English: new applicants need CEFR level B2, unless they are from one of the listed majority English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the USA.
• Timing: you can apply up to 3 months before your start date. Decisions usually take 3 weeks from outside the UK and 8 weeks from inside.
• Length: up to 5 years before you need to extend.

You pay the application fee: from outside the UK, £819 for up to 3 years or £1,618 for longer; from inside, £943 or £1,865. Jobs on the Immigration Salary List pay less: £628 or £1,235. You also pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, usually £1,035 for each year of the visa, for yourself and each dependant. On a 5-year visa from abroad that is £1,618 plus £5,175 of surcharge per adult, before any family. You may also need to show £1,270 in savings, held for 28 days in a row.

Your employer pays the certificate of sponsorship and the Immigration Skills Charge: £1,320 for the first 12 months for a medium or large sponsor, or £480 for a small or charitable one, plus half that for each further 6 months. The Home Office says a sponsor’s licence may be revoked if it asks the worker to pay the charge. Your own fee and surcharge are yours to pay unless the employer agrees otherwise, so ask before you sign.

This is a cheaper version of the Skilled Worker visa for qualified doctors, nurses, health professionals and adult social care professionals in eligible roles with an approved UK employer. The salary is usually at least £25,000, but may be higher for your occupation. The fee is £324 for up to 3 years or £628 for longer. You and your family do not pay the healthcare surcharge. Decisions usually take 3 weeks.

One important change: the route for care workers and senior care workers closed to new applications from overseas on 22 July 2025. Those occupation codes are now only available to people already in the UK who are extending, updating or switching. If an agency abroad offers you a sponsored care job, treat it as a red flag. The government’s guidance also states an agency should never charge you a recruitment fee. For registration with UK regulators, see qualification recognition.

• Youth Mobility Scheme: up to 24 months for 18–35 year olds from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea, and 18–30 year olds from Andorra, Iceland, Japan, Monaco, San Marino and Uruguay, among others. Hong Kong and Taiwan use a ballot, and India has its own Young Professionals Scheme. Fee £340, savings £2,530, surcharge £776 a year. You cannot apply with dependent children under 18.
• High Potential Individual: for graduates of universities on the Global Universities List (UK universities are not eligible) awarded in the last 5 years. Fee £880, surcharge £1,035 a year, savings £1,270. It cannot be extended, does not count towards settlement, has a yearly cap on applications, and is closed to anyone who has already had a Graduate visa.
• Global Talent: for leaders or potential leaders in academia or research, arts and culture, or digital technology, with an endorsement (£561, then £205 for the visa) or an eligible prestigious prize (£766). A job offer is not among the eligibility conditions. It lasts up to 5 years at a time, and settlement is possible after 3 or 5 years depending on your field.
• Graduate visa: for people completing a UK degree. It lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026 and 18 months from 1 January 2027 (3 years for PhDs). Details in our international students guide.

All four let you take most jobs, which makes you far easier to hire than a candidate who needs sponsorship from day one. None of them is on the Home Office’s list of visas you cannot switch from, so if an employer later wants to keep you, you can usually apply for a Skilled Worker visa from inside the UK.

Irish citizens need no permission to live or work in the UK under the Common Travel Area. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who lived in the UK by 31 December 2020 were able to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme; if you hold settled or pre-settled status, you can work. If you arrived after that date without status, you are treated like any other foreign national and need a visa such as Skilled Worker, Youth Mobility or Global Talent before you start work.

A Skilled Worker visa is tied to the sponsor and job on your certificate. You cannot change jobs or employer unless you apply to update your visa, which means your new employer must be a licensed sponsor and assign a new certificate before you switch.

Partners and children can usually join you as dependants and may work in most jobs. The exceptions matter: if your job is medium skilled, new dependants can generally only come if you have been continually sponsored in a medium-skilled job since before 22 July 2025. Care workers face a similar rule dated 11 March 2024.

Skilled Worker holders can currently apply to settle after 5 years. The government consulted from November 2025 to February 2026 on an “earned settlement” model under which settlement would no longer be granted automatically after a fixed period. When we checked, the outcome had not been published. Check GOV.UK before relying on a 5-year timeline.