Skilled Worker visa: certificate of sponsorship before 4 April 2024

If your certificate of sponsorship for a first Tier 2 or Skilled Worker visa was issued before 4 April 2024, and you have held Skilled Worker visas without a break since, GOV.UK says you can be paid the higher of £31,300 or the lower going rate when you extend or update. This only applies to applications made before 4 April 2030.

Who gets the lower salary rules?

The lower salary rules apply if both of these are true (GOV.UK):

• you got your certificate of sponsorship for your first Tier 2 or Skilled Worker visa before 4 April 2024
• you have held one or more Skilled Worker visas without a break since then

If both are true, you can be paid whichever is higher of £31,300 or the lower going rate for your occupation code. This applies when you apply to:

• extend your visa (see extending)
• update your visa (see changing job or employer)

The lower rules only apply to applications made before 4 April 2030. They will be updated regularly. Your salary will still need to rise in line with the updated going rates each time you apply.

The going rate is a set pay figure for a job’s occupation code. Each occupation code has its own yearly going rate. See going rates.

Can I be paid less than £31,300?

GOV.UK says you can be paid between 70% and 90% of the lower going rate if both of these are true:

• your salary is at least £25,000 a year
• you meet one of the groups below

The groups are:

• you are under 26, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training
• you have a science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) PhD level qualification that is relevant to your job (a relevant PhD level qualification in any other subject needs a salary of at least £28,200)
• you have a postdoctoral position in science or higher education

Group	What GOV.UK says
Job on the immigration salary list	At least £25,000 or the job’s full going rate, whichever is higher
Under 26, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training	At least 70% of the lower going rate, and a salary of at least £25,000
Relevant STEM PhD	At least 80% of the lower going rate, and a salary of at least £25,000
Relevant PhD in any other subject	At least 90% of the lower going rate, and a salary of at least £28,200
Postdoctoral position in science or higher education	At least 70% of the lower going rate, and a salary of at least £25,000

If you are in the under 26 group or the postdoctoral group, your total stay in the UK cannot be more than 4 years. This includes any time you already spent in the UK on a Tier 2 (General) or Graduate visa.

See new entrant and when you can be paid less for the standard-rate versions of these discounts. Some healthcare and education jobs have different salary rules (see health and education rates).

What do the Immigration Rules say about these options?

The lower salary figures are in options F to J of the points table, after SW 4.4. Each option gives 20 points.

Option	What you need	Minimum salary
F	The going rate for the SOC 2020 occupation code	£31,300 a year
G	A PhD in a subject relevant to the job, and 90% of the going rate	£28,200 a year
H	A PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job, and 80% of the going rate	£25,000 a year
I	A job on the Immigration Salary List, and the going rate	£25,000 a year
J	A new entrant at the start of their career, and 70% of the going rate	£25,000 a year

For each option, your salary must be at least the minimum shown and at least the going rate figure shown. The standard options A to E are £41,700, £37,500, £33,400, £33,400 and £33,400. Compare them on the tradeable points and salary thresholds pages.

You can only get points from options F to J if one of these is true (SW 4.2(b)):

• you are being sponsored for a Health and Care ASHE salary job
• you apply before 4 April 2030, you were granted permission as a Skilled Worker under the rules in place before 4 April 2024, and you have had permission as a Skilled Worker without a break since then. A period of overstaying is ignored where the Exceptions for overstayers section of Part Suitability applies.

There is one more rule for option F (SW 4.2(d)). It allows option F for a job in SOC 3314 if both of these are true:

• the certificate of sponsorship was issued before 1 January 2028
• its end date is not more than three years after the start date

A Health and Care ASHE salary job is a job in SOC 1171, 1231, 1232, 2113, 2114, 3111, 3211, 3212, 6135 or 6136. You must be sponsored, employed or engaged by one of the types of employer the rule lists, such as an NHS Trust or an organisation registered with the Care Quality Commission (SW A1.1). The health and care worker visa guide lists the same codes.

Which occupation tables apply?

Options F to J use going rates from Tables 2, 2aa and 2a of Appendix Skilled Occupations (SW 6.1(e) and SW 6.1(f)).

Table	Who can be sponsored (as the table notes say)
Table 2	Codes skilled to RQF level 6 or above, with going rates from the 25th percentile of Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data. The rate is the higher of that figure and £12.82 an hour
Table 2aa	Codes skilled to RQF level 3-5 (6135 is skilled to RQF level 2). Only people granted permission under the rules in place before 22 July 2025, with permission since without a break. The exceptions are where option I or the Temporary Shortage List in SW 6.1A applies
Table 2a	Codes reassessed as below RQF level 3. Only where you apply before 4 April 2030, were granted permission under the rules in place before 4 April 2024, have had permission since without a break, and are applying to work for the same sponsor as in your most recent permission

RQF means the Regulated Qualifications Framework. It shows the level of a qualification.

Table 2a lists these codes: 3214, 6116, 6232, 6250, 7115, 7125, 7129, 8115 and 9252.

Tables 2aa and 2a are not eligible for the Global Business Mobility or Scale-up routes.

Table 2 says going rates are per year and are based on a 37.5-hour working week. They must be pro-rated for other working patterns. Only the going rate column of Table 2 applies to Skilled Worker settlement applications. See the Appendix Skilled Occupations guide and going rates.

What are the Tier 2 (General) transitional rules?

Separate transitional rules apply if you were granted permission as a Tier 2 (General) Migrant and have had permission as a Skilled Worker without a break since (SW 14.5). If you apply before 1 December 2026, your salary may include guaranteed allowances such as London weighting, with the same sponsor.

A table of replacement going rates for certain SOC 2010 codes also applies to applications before 1 December 2026. The extending page shows that table.

How does this link to settlement?

Row C of the settlement salary table uses the SW 4.2(b) conditions with a £31,300 salary (SW 24.3). See settlement.