UK Skilled Worker Visa: The Complete Guide

1. What is the Skilled Worker visa?

The Skilled Worker visa is the UK's main work immigration route. It replaced the old Tier 2 (General) visa in December 2020 and allows you to live and work in the UK for a licensed employer that sponsors your job. It is the visa used by the vast majority of international professionals hired into the UK — from software engineers in London to nurses in Manchester.

Three things make this route different from most European work visas. First, you cannot apply on your own: a UK employer with a sponsor licence must issue you a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) before you can even start the application. Second, your job must meet both a minimum skill level and a minimum salary. Third, the visa is tied to your sponsor — if you change employers, your new employer must sponsor you and you must apply to update your visa.

For Brazilians and other non-EU nationals, this is usually the most realistic route into the UK job market — the UK has no equivalent of Germany's job-seeker visa for most professions, so the job offer comes first, then the visa. If you are still comparing destinations, see our complete Brazil → UK route guide.

2. Eligibility: the five requirements

To qualify for a Skilled Worker visa you must meet all of the following:

3. Sponsorship and the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)

The Certificate of Sponsorship is not a paper certificate — it is an electronic record with a reference number that your employer assigns to you through the Home Office system. You need the CoS reference number to submit your visa application, and it must have been issued no more than 3 months before you apply.

What the CoS contains

• Your job title, SOC occupation code and a description of duties
• Your gross annual salary and weekly working hours
• Employment start date (your visa cannot begin later than 28 days after this)
• Whether the sponsor certifies your maintenance funds

Defined vs undefined CoS

If you are applying from outside the UK, your employer requests a defined CoS, which the Home Office normally approves within 1 business day (longer if they run checks). Applicants already inside the UK switching from another visa receive an undefined CoS from the sponsor's annual allocation.

How to find sponsors

• Filter job boards for visa sponsorship: UKHired, LinkedIn (search "visa sponsorship"), Find a Job (DWP)
• Cross-check any employer against the official sponsor register before investing time
• Target sectors with chronic shortages: health & care, engineering, IT, teaching (physics/maths), construction professionals

4. Salary rules: threshold, going rate and discounts

Salary is where most Skilled Worker applications succeed or fail. You must be paid the highest of: the general salary threshold, the "going rate" for your specific occupation code, and the hourly minimum. The general threshold jumped from £26,200 to £38,700 in April 2024 and was raised again in 2025 (to £41,700 for most new applicants) — always check the current figure on gov.uk before negotiating an offer.

The "going rate" is a per-occupation minimum derived from UK salary data and published in the Immigration Rules. A senior software developer, for example, has a much higher going rate than the general threshold, so the SOC code your employer picks matters enormously.

5. Documents you need

Prepare these before you start the online application:

• Certificate of Sponsorship reference number — from your employer
• Valid passport — with at least one blank page
• Proof of English — SELT result, or Ecctis confirmation of an English-taught degree
• Proof of maintenance funds — bank statements showing £1,270 for 28 days (skip if sponsor certifies maintenance)
• Criminal record certificate — only for jobs involving vulnerable people (teachers, healthcare, social care)
• TB test certificate — only if you have lived in a listed country for the last 6 months (Brazil and most of Latin America are not on the list; much of Asia and Africa is — check the list)
• Certified translations — any document not in English or Welsh needs a certified translation

Unlike Germany or Portugal, the UK does not require apostilles on standard civil documents for the visa application itself, but bring apostilled birth/marriage certificates anyway — you will need them later for renting, schools and the NHS. Sort this out before departure using our pre-departure checklist.

6. How to apply, step by step

1. Receive your CoS reference number from your employer (valid for 3 months).
2. Complete the online application at gov.uk. You will create a UKVI account, answer questions about your history and enter the CoS number.
3. Pay the fees — application fee + Immigration Health Surcharge (see section 7). Payment is online by card.
4. Prove your identity — most applicants with a biometric chip passport (including Brazilians) can use the "UK Immigration: ID Check" smartphone app. Otherwise, book an appointment at a VFS Global visa application centre (in Brazil: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife).
5. Upload your documents to the UKVI portal.
6. Wait for the decision — the service standard is 3 weeks for applications made outside the UK and 8 weeks inside the UK. Priority (about 5 working days) and super priority (next working day) services are available in most countries for an extra fee.
7. Receive your eVisa — the UK has moved to digital immigration status. You prove your right to work and rent via a share code from your UKVI account instead of a physical BRP card.

7. Costs and fees: the full picture

The UK is one of the most expensive countries in the world for work visas. Budget for the whole package, not just the application fee:

Example: a 3-year visa for one person costs roughly £700–800 (application) + £3,105 (IHS) = ~£3,800–4,000 upfront. A family of four on a 5-year visa can exceed £25,000 in government fees alone. Many employers reimburse some or all of these costs — always ask during the offer negotiation. Plan the currency side of this with the IC360 Finance pillar and set an FX alert for GBP.

The one silver lining: the IHS gives you full NHS access from day one — no private health insurance needed, no waiting period.

8. Bringing your family

Your partner and children under 18 can apply as dependants, either together with you or later:

• Partner — married, civil partnership, or living together in a relationship for at least 2 years (provide joint bills, lease, photos, correspondence as evidence)
• Children under 18 — including children born in the UK after you arrive
• Each dependant pays their own application fee and IHS
• Dependant partners receive full work rights — any job, no sponsorship needed (a major advantage over the US H-4 or German family reunion in practice)
• Children attend state schools free of charge

Moving with family is as much an emotional project as a bureaucratic one — the IC360 Psychology pillar covers partner career transition and children's adaptation.

9. The route to settlement (ILR) and citizenship

The Skilled Worker visa is a settlement route. The classic timeline:

1. Years 0–5: hold Skilled Worker status continuously (extensions/changes of employer are fine), with no more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period.
2. Year 5: apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) — you must still be employed at the required salary, pass the Life in the UK test and meet English B1.
3. Year 6: 12 months after ILR, apply for British citizenship by naturalisation. The UK accepts dual citizenship, and Brazil does too — you keep your Brazilian passport.

10. Common rejection reasons (and how to avoid them)

• Salary below the applicable minimum — the #1 refusal reason since the 2024 threshold increase. Fix: check both the general threshold and your SOC code's going rate before the CoS is issued.
• Wrong SOC code — if the Home Office believes the job description does not genuinely match the occupation code (e.g., an admin role dressed up as a manager), the application fails the "genuine vacancy" test.
• English evidence not accepted — only UKVI-approved SELT tests count; a standard IELTS Academic (non-UKVI) certificate is a common and painful mistake.
• Maintenance funds held less than 28 days — or dipping below £1,270 even for one day during the window.
• Sponsor licence problems — if your employer's licence is suspended or revoked while your application is pending, it will be refused through no fault of yours. Established sponsors are lower-risk.
• Previous immigration history — overstays, refused visas or deception in any country must be declared; inconsistencies are treated as deception (10-year ban risk). Always answer history questions truthfully.
• Missing TB certificate or criminal record certificate where required.

If refused, you normally cannot appeal, but there is no ban on reapplying with a corrected application — and the CoS can usually be reused if still valid, or reissued by the sponsor.

11. Official resources

• gov.uk — Skilled Worker visa (official hub)
• Eligible occupations and going rates
• Register of licensed sponsors
• Immigration Health Surcharge
• TB test country list
• Life in the UK test (for ILR)
• Contact UKVI

Once your visa is approved, switch from "getting in" to "settling in": our UK Country Path walks you through the NI number, NHS registration, banking and your first 7 days, and the IC360 community connects you with people on the same route.