Rule changes
- Since 8 October 2026: a new condition for applicants already holding permission on another basis.
Looking for a retirement visa? The UK doesn't run one — its routes are built around a job offer, a recognized talent endorsement, or a UK degree. See other countries' guides
Working in the United Kingdom: do you qualify?
Work, care, study, and talent routes into one of the world's largest economies, each with its own sponsor and eligibility rules.
When rules change mid-way, the date your application is filed is what often decides which rules apply to you. Where are you right now?
Two ways in, and United Kingdom checks them differently
An employer, a government nomination or an approved body puts its name behind the application.
- Health and Care Worker Visa£1,270
- Skilled Worker Visa£41,700
You qualify on your own record — skills, points or capital — with no sponsor standing behind you.
- Global Talent Visa
- Graduate Visa
- Innovator Founder Visa
The conditions behind the routes above
Your degree, work experience or occupation has to clear a bar set for that specific route.
An employer, a government nomination, or an approved endorsing body has to stand behind the route.
Pick a route, see the real commitment
Every official figure below is what Immimaps has verified for that route against United Kingdom's official programme rules — not a marketing minimum. Service fees are what independent firms publish for the route, shown only once five or more are on file.
For people already recognized, or on a clear path to recognition, as leaders in academia, research, arts and culture, or digital technology.
No sponsor needed — open to international students who've just completed a UK degree, for a fixed post-study period.
A dedicated route for health and social care roles, with its own lower salary thresholds reflecting sector pay.
For founders with an endorsed business idea — there's no fixed investment amount, but the endorsing body has to judge the funding realistic.
The main employer-sponsored route — needs a job offer from a licensed sponsor meeting the route's salary and skill-level bar.
The applicant must be the sponsor's parent, grandparent, adult son or daughter, or adult brother or sister (ADR 4.1), evidenced by birth or adoption certificates or other satisfactory evidence.
£29,000 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
UK-residence evidence, required only for the s.3(2)/s.3(5) routes (not applicable to automatic s.2 citizenship, s.4C, Form UKF, or s.4L). Proof that the qualifying parent(s) were in the UK for the relevant 3-year period with no more than 270 days' total absence, and, for s.3(5), that the child was physically in the UK exactly 3 years before the date the Home Office receives the application.
£1,270 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
Required only at the settlement stage, not for the initial grant of permission to stay. CEFR B1 (speaking and listening) for settlement applications made before 26 March 2027; CEFR B2 from that date, unless an exemption under Appendix English Language applies (PL 16.1-16.2).
£2,530 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
What each route costs, stage by stage
Added up from the official figures on file for each route — split into money spent for good, money locked and returned later, and money shown but never transferred. Not a modelled estimate.
Global Talent Visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £766, paid to the government for the initial application.
Graduate Visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £937, paid to the government for the initial application.
Health and Care Worker Visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £324 – £628, paid to the government for the initial application.
- Shown, never leaves you£1,270 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
Innovator Founder Visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £1,357 – £1,693, paid to the government for the initial application.
- Shown, never leaves you£1,270 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
Skilled Worker Visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £819 – £1,865, paid to the government for the initial application.
- Shown, never leaves you£41,700 shown as proof of means every year — nothing is transferred.
- Shown, never leaves you£1,270 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
United Kingdom Adult Dependent Relative Visa▾
At application
- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £452 – £3,635, paid to the government for the initial application.
United Kingdom — Appendix FM Partner Visa (Spouse / Civil Partner / Unmarried Partner / Fiancé(e) of a British Citizen or Settled Person)▾
At application
- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £2,064, paid to the government for the initial application.
- Shown, never leaves you£29,000 shown as proof of means every year — nothing is transferred.
2 ways to qualify — shown: the cheapest. Alternatives: £29,000 (shown) / £88,500.
United Kingdom — British Citizenship by Descent and Registration (Ancestry Claims: BNA 1981 s.2, s.3, s.4C, s.4F–s.4L)▾
At application
Decision — reported: 6 months.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £1,000 – £1,670, paid to the government for the initial application.
2 ways to qualify — shown: the cheapest. Alternatives: £1,000 (shown) / £1,540.
United Kingdom — High Potential Individual visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for good£252 fee — spent, not held.
- Spent for good£880 fee — spent, not held.
- Shown, never leaves you£1,270 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
Government fees not on file for this route.
United Kingdom — Private Life Route (Immigration Rules Appendix Private Life)▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 year.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £1,407, paid to the government for the initial application.
United Kingdom — Youth Mobility Scheme visa▾
At application
Decision — reported: 1 month.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: £340, paid to the government for the initial application.
- Shown, never leaves you£2,530 shown as proof of means — nothing is transferred.
At renewal
Renewal — reported: 1 year.- Spent for good£776 fee — spent, not held.
The order Health and Care Worker Visa follows
- 2025-07-22The general salary threshold for the Skilled Worker visa rose to £41,700 per year (or the job's 'going rate', whichever is higher), alongside a return to a higher required skill level, as part of a wider July 2025 overhaul of sponsored work routes. source
Strategy Path takes your occupation, your situation and whether you have an employer, and lays the route out step by step — cost, milestone and wait on each leg.
This page sets out the published rules. It does not read your documents or check your figures: advice on your own application should come from an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, or a regulated lawyer.
To check that an adviser is registered, use the Immigration Advice Authority's adviser finder.
Verify them on the official register before you sign anything. Registration confirms a licence — it does not by itself guarantee good advice.
- Immigration Advice Authority — adviser register — Confirm the adviser or firm is registered at the level your matter needs — levels limit what work they may do.
- Register of licensed sponsors: workers (GOV.UK) — If a job offer is behind your route, confirm the employer appears on the current sponsor register before you rely on the offer.
Every official figure on this page is checked against United Kingdom's official immigration sources. Service fees are what independent firms publish for a route — not an official figure, and never any one firm's price. Immimaps does not publish success rates, approval odds or any probability score — here or anywhere else.
Don’t take a life-changing move on someone else’s word.
Immimaps is not an agency and takes no placement fees. We show the real figures on every route, show the working, and tell you what it actually costs.
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