The government has announced big changes to the Skilled Worker route for later this month, with salary hikes and cuts to jobs eligible for sponsorship.

Huge changes will hit the Skilled Worker route on 22 July 2025, under changes unveiled by the government yesterday. The headline changes, outlined in a government press release, Statement of Changes, and an accompanying Explanatory Memorandum, include the following:

1. Increases to the minimum salary across the board, including, but not limited to:

• An increase from £38,700pa to £41,700pa for the general threshold for standard visas.
• An increase to the New Entrant level of salary from £30,960pa to £33,400pa.
• Increases to those already on the Skilled Worker route since before 4 April 2024 when they come to renew their permission.

2. Closure of the social care worker route to all new applicants outside the UK.

3. Massive reductions in the number of jobs eligible for sponsorship, by raising the qualification level of the job from RQF 3 to RQF 6 – meaning well over 100 categories of job will no longer be eligible for sponsorship. Exactly how many is not yet clear. In its press release the government said 111 occupations would be cut as a result of the changes, while the Statement of Changes says 180 jobs. Regardless of the exact figure, this change will undoubtedly affect thousands of lives.

4. Short-term reprieve for some jobs deemed too low for sponsorship, but with no long-term guarantees and workers unable to sponsor their family. Around 70 jobs that would otherwise have been cut from the list of eligible roles will instead be shifted over to a new ‘Temporary Shortage List’. Of particular note:

• The Temporary Shortage List (TSL) is only set to run until December 2026 for now – the government has said it will review the list then and has also said it may even end the list sooner if necessary. However, it seems clear that where someone is sponsored for a TSL role that later disappears from the list, that person will be unable to renew their visa.
• People sponsored for a TSL role from 22 July onwards will not be able to sponsor their partners or children to enter or remain in the UK. However, workers who already hold sponsorship for a role that switches over to the TSL route on 22 July, should still be able to sponsor family members after that date.
• The full list of roles being shifted into the TSL can be seen at pages 5-7 of the Statement of Changes, and includes jobs such as designers, HR professionals, data analysts, advertising and marketing professionals, and business sales executives among many others.

5. Some changes to impact those already on the Skilled Worker route. In addition to increasing the salary threshold for those already on Skilled Worker routes at the point of renewal, the government has said the arrangements for those already in the UK with jobs below RQF 6 – allowing them to renew their visas and change jobs – “will not be in place indefinitely and will be reviewed in due course”. This ominous remark appears in the Explanatory Memorandum, without any further detail and it’s not yet clear whether this could eventually prevent those in these roles from renewing their visas or obtaining settlement in the future.

The new provisions, which were partly trailed in the recent Immigration White Paper, will be introduced by way of a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules – effectively meaning they will come into force without any debate or consideration by parliament.

The press release announcing the changes also warned of further developments by the end of the year, including tougher English language requirements, hikes to the fees employers pay to sponsor foreign employees and, slightly alarmingly, the unveiling to parliament of a “new family policy framework”. The fact that the government plans to run this latter past parliament rather than simply introducing new provisions by way of a Statement of Changes suggests it’s planning sweeping reforms to the current system used by British citizens to bring loved ones to the UK.

For now, the latest changes will have a massive impact on all areas of the UK economy. The Temporary Shortage List has been created precisely because these roles are the ones UK employers are already struggling to fill – yet at the same time the government is making a move to the UK as unattractive as possible for people qualified to do those very jobs: by refusing to offer any long-term guarantees and by preventing them bringing family members with them. While those who have already made their home in the UK may choose to stick around, the upcoming changes will undoubtedly scare off thousands of others who could otherwise have made a vital contribution to the UK economy.