Skilled Worker Visa - new entrants
Understand the 'new entrant' requirements under the Skilled Worker Visa route.
New entrants
To meet the ‘new entrant’ criteria, an applicant must meet one of the following requirements:
- the applicant is under the age of 26 on the date they will apply for entry clearance or permission to stay
- the job offer is a postdoctoral position in any of the following occupation codes:
- 2111 Chemical scientists
- 2112 Biological scientists and biochemists
- 2113 Physical scientists
- 2114 Social and humanities scientists
- 2119 Natural and social science professionals not elsewhere classified
- 2311 Higher education teaching professionals
- the job offer is in a UK-regulated profession and the applicant is working towards a recognised professional qualification for that profession
- the applicant is working towards full registration or chartered status with the relevant professional body for the job they are being sponsored for
- the application is being made in the UK and the applicant’s most recent permission was as a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) Migrant
- the applicant is a recent UK graduate, or is about to graduate, and meets the additional requirements below
Additional requirements for recent graduates
To qualify as a new entrant on the basis of recent graduate-level study, an applicant must meet all of the following conditions:
- the applicant’s most recent permission must have been as a Student (or Tier 4 (General) Student)
- that permission must have expired less than 2 years before the date of application
- in that permission (or any previous permission as a Student or a Tier 4 (General) Student), the applicant was sponsored to study any of the following:
- a UK bachelor’s degree
- a UK master’s degree
- a UK PhD or other doctoral qualification
- a Postgraduate Certificate in Education
- a Professional Graduate Diploma of Education
- the applicant:
- has completed the relevant course mentioned above
- is applying no more than 3 months before they are expected to complete the relevant course above; or
- is studying a PhD and has completed at least 12 months’ study in the UK towards that PhD
The applicant must be studying, or have studied, one of the courses listed above – equivalent-level qualifications are not acceptable.
Maximum period a worker can be sponsored as a new entrant
An applicant will not qualify as a new entrant if granting their application would mean their combined permission as a Skilled Worker, Tier 2 Migrant and/or Graduate, would exceed 4 years in total.