FAQ’s – UK Skilled Worker Visas
What is a Skilled Worker Visa to the United Kingdom?
As most countries do, the UK experiences a lack of suitably skilled workers in a large number of occupations.
To make up for this shortfall, the UK has instituted a system whereby employers may sponsor foreign applicants with the requisite and applicable skills to fill the vacancies that they are unable to with only UK nationals.
The occupations to which this applies appears on an official list of Eligible Skilled Occupations published and regularly updated by the UK government.
There are many hundreds of these eligible occupations. Some of these are in such critical shortage, that they are placed in a specific subgroup of the eligible skilled occupation list, called the Shortage Occupation List. Examples of the occupations on the latter list include most Healthcare & Care Giver jobs, as well as several jobs in Education, and other sectors.
To attract sufficient numbers of applicants for the Shortage Occupations, certain concessions had applied to these positions in the past, but these are currently under review by the UK government and will be changing in the near future.
Countries in the United Kingdom that the Skilled Worker Visa applies to.
England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Channel Islands are an exception, and different criteria apply to them as they mostly work on a visa system of seasonal employment.
Note that the southern part of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, is a separate country not part of the UK, with its own, completely different visa criteria.
Can I apply for a Skilled Worker Visa to travel to the UK to look for work?
The short answer is no, you cannot.
One must specifically apply for eligible positions advertised by UK employers that are licensed to sponsor foreign skilled workers.
Once one’s job application has been successful and an offer of employment has been made and accepted, the employer has to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to be assigned to you.
Only once the assignment has been approved and the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) has been issued, can one proceed to apply for the Skilled Worker Visa on the basis of said CoS. The visa would be valid for only that specific job, and for a specified length of time.
This last has a few implications:
If one’s employment was to end for whatever reason, the Certificate of Sponsorship will be withdrawn, and the visa associated with that CoS becomes invalid.
The same visa can therefore not be used to acquire another position in the UK.
The process of acquiring an eligible job, CoS and another Skilled Worker Visa will have to be repeated.
As a point of clarity – although it is called a Certificate of Sponsorship, the meaning is actually that of certifying employment, and not necessarily that the employer will be sponsoring the cost of your visa application and relocation (see “How much does it cost” section).
What tests do I need to do before applying for the Skilled Worker Visa?
Depending on one’s nationality and graduate status, and with very few exceptions, one has to:
prove one’s English language knowledge,
and provide Tuberculosis (TB) test results.
These tests can only be done at specific and assigned service providers, and proving one’s knowledge of English must be by means of only very specific tests to certain standards.
Our in-house visa consultant will provide all the necessary details and be more than happy to clarify whether any of the exceptions applies to you.
How much does it cost to acquire a UK Skilled Worker Visa?
The cost of the complete process may consist of the following and could therefore be quite substantial:
TB Test Fee
English Test Fee
Immigration Health Surcharge
Visa Application Fee
Visa Application Centre Appointment Fee
Travel/Flight Cost
Although some employers will expect you to cover all of this yourself, others realise this might be prohibitive, and depending on the individual employer, differing payment assistance is provided.
Examples of this assistance include:
The major expenses (IHS, Application Fee, Travel/Flight Cost) are covered in full and no repayment is required by the employee.
Parts (IHS, Application Fee) of the major expenses are covered in full and part repayment thereof is required by the employee.
Parts (IHS, Application Fee) of the major expenses are covered in full and full repayment thereof is required by the employee.
Your friendly recruiter will always brief you comprehensively about what the particular client that you are applying to will be covering.
How long does the process of applying for a Skilled Worker Visa take?
Depending on how expeditiously the various appointments are obtained, and how quickly one’s Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned and issued, it may normally take anywhere from six to eight weeks.
The time for the actual visa application to be processed once submitted, is stated by the UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) to be fifteen working days (i.e. three weeks), but this may also vary somewhat.
Can my dependents join me in the UK whilst I’m employed on a Skilled Worker Visa?
Yes. With certain, very few exceptions, the UK does allow dependents of Skilled Worker Visa holders to join them in the UK.
However, the dependents are not automatically added to one’s visa – they each have to individually apply for a Skilled Worker Dependent Visa.
Certain eligibility criteria apply, but generally speaking, unmarried partners, spouses and dependent minors will be considered for this visa.
Your application for a Skilled Worker Visa is part of the service that our recruitment agency supplies through our in-house visa consultant. The applications for your dependents’ visas are however treated as an additional separate service, available from our consultant at a nominal fee.