Skilled Worker

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STOP PRESS: Significant changes will be made to the Skilled Worker route for applications with a CoS issued on and after 22 July 2025, further to Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 997. For full details, see News Analysis: Statement of changes in Immigration Rules, HC 997—analysis. HC 997 constitutes the first tranche of changes that had been announced by the Immigration White Paper ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’, which was published on 12 May 2025. See Practice Note:Immigration White Paper 2025—summary, tracker and resources .

The Skilled Worker route enables UK employers with an appropriate sponsor licence to recruit or continue to employ skilled non-British or Irish citizens in a specific job. It is the most popular route of entry and stay for work purposes. It is also open to multinational employers to sponsor existing non-British or Irish citizen employees of an overseas-linked entity under Skilled Worker even if they would meet the requirements for the Global Business Mobility—Senior or Specialist Worker or Graduate Trainee routes (which cater specifically for intra-company transfers). In many cases the eligibility requirements are less restrictive, and

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Latest Immigration News

Home Office Sponsor Guidance updated for HC 997, new cooling-off periods and eVisa transformation

The Home Office has issued updated Sponsor Guidance on 22 July 2025, further to the changes to sponsored work routes that come into force on that date under Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 997. There are not extensive changes to the three primary guidance documents, or Appendix D, beyond those consequential to the Statement, other than the imposition of new 24-month cooling-off periods for licence applications in certain circumstances, and revised information relating to the eVisa transformation. Also issued are various revised occupation lists/guidance relating to the Skilled Worker route, which may assist with navigating the HC 997 changes. For details, see below.

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