For many years, the Home Office have operated the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) but in April of this year, this was replaced by the Immigration Salary List (ISL). If a UK business wishes to sponsor a migrant worker, then it will need to pay a salary of at least £38,700 gross per annum or the salary noted in the Home Office occupation code, whichever is higher. However, if the job is listed on the Home Office’s ISL, then an application for a visa under the Skilled Worker route can still be made despite the salary being below the general threshold of £38,700. The major advantage is that positions on the ISL can benefit from a salary discount of 20% which then brings the minimum salary down to £30,960 for a 37.5-hour week. If the weekly hours are more, then the salary would need to be prorated accordingly. However, the salary still will need to be at least £30,960 or the level set out in the ISL code, whichever is higher.

Different rules apply for positions which are eligible for a Health and Care Worker Visa as such positions contained in the ISL are subject to a £29,000 gross per annum general salary threshold, but this can be reduced even further to an absolute minimum of £23,200 gross per annum, but this is dependent upon the occupation code’s specific thresholds.

It is also worth bearing in mind that a salary discount of 30% can apply when an employer is sponsoring an application for a migrant who is under the age of 26 and also recent graduates who are starting out on their career journey, provided the salary is at least £30,960.

Previously, the Shortage Occupation List contained many jobs and when the Home Office moved across to the ISL, the list of occupations eligible for a salary discount were very significantly reduced. The SOL contained many tech related roles such as software developers and programmers but all of these positions have been removed. The ISL is not set in stone and is likely to be reviewed by the Home Office from time to time. The move towards the ISL has really meant that the Home Office has moved away from focusing solely on specific occupations but moving the focus instead on salary thresholds as the main criteria for Skilled Worker Visa sponsorship. The Home Office position is that its new approach aims to attract highly skilled workers to the UK economy aiming to ensure that positions requiring high levels of skill and experience are filled by migrants earning competitive salaries. What with all the changes, employers looking to offer sponsorship are now having to review their salary structures to make sure that they accord with the new provisions. In reality however, this could mean that employers are having to offer higher salaries to attract the required level of talent. It is also worth remembering that the new ISL provisions generally affect new visa applications going forwards and migrants who are already sponsored in accordance with the previous SOL regulations should not be directly impacted but employers would be well advised to be aware of the new ISL regime to ensure that any future visa sponsorship meets the new eligibility criteria.

The Home Office have very much changed the landscape for employers who are looking to sponsor migrant workers from outside the UK. Visa sponsorship fees can be very high and as seen above, the salary thresholds have been increased. With all of these changes, employers are having to think hard whether they wish to go down the road of sponsoring migrant workers, but we are still finding that there is a strong appetite amongst UK businesses to do so as they are facing severe skills shortages affecting their businesses and strategies for growth.

For advice on this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact Sohan Sidhu.