The United Kingdom has published its official list of occupations that can qualify for the Skilled Worker visa, showing the jobs overseas workers may be sponsored to perform under the UK’s work visa system.
The Home Office’s latest Immigration Rules, updated on August 3, 2026, use the UK’s Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020 system to identify eligible occupations and their applicable salary rates. The official table is organised by four-digit occupation codes and classifies jobs according to their skill level.
Applicants are required to identify the correct occupation code for the job they have been offered before checking whether it qualifies for the Skilled Worker route. The government warns that eligibility is based on the actual duties of the job and not simply the job title.
Higher-skilled occupations
The higher-skilled category includes a wide range of professional, managerial, engineering, technology, healthcare, education and legal occupations.
Examples on the official list include:
- Chief executives and senior officials
- Production managers and directors in manufacturing
- Production managers and directors in construction
- Production managers and directors in mining and energy
- Financial managers and directors
- Marketing, sales and advertising directors
- Human resource managers and directors
- Information technology directors
- Health services and public health managers and directors
- Mechanical engineers
- Civil engineers
- Electrical engineers
- Electronics engineers
- Production and process engineers
- Aerospace engineers
- Engineering project managers and project engineers
- IT project managers
- IT managers
- IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
- Programmers and software development professionals
- Cyber security professionals
- IT network professionals
- Web design professionals
- Graphic and multimedia designers
- Veterinarians
- Higher education teaching professionals
- Teachers of English as a foreign language
- Education managers
- Barristers and judges
- Solicitors and lawyers
- Legal professionals, including some paralegal roles
These occupations are among the SOC 2020 codes classified as higher skilled and eligible under the Skilled Worker route, subject to the other visa requirements.
Healthcare occupations
The eligible occupations also include a number of healthcare professions, although the exact rules and salary arrangements vary by occupation.
Examples include:
- Registered nurses
- Registered mental health nurses
- Registered children’s nurses
- Other registered nursing professionals
- Veterinarians
- Pharmacists
- Optometrists
- Dental practitioners
- Medical radiographers
- Paramedics
- Podiatrists
- Biochemists and biomedical scientists
- Physical scientists
- Health services and public health managers
Some healthcare and education jobs have different salary arrangements because their going rates are linked to national pay scales.
Medium-skilled occupations
The official system also contains medium-skilled occupations, but being classified as medium skilled does not automatically mean a new applicant can obtain a Skilled Worker visa.
Under the current rules, medium-skilled jobs generally need to meet additional requirements, such as being included on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List, unless another transitional provision applies.
Examples of occupations appearing in the relevant tables include:
- Nursing auxiliaries and assistants
- Ambulance staff, excluding paramedics
- Dental nurses
- Houseparents and residential wardens
- Care workers and home carers
- Senior care workers
- Farmers and certain agricultural occupations
- Horticultural trades
- Gardeners and landscape gardeners
- Groundsmen and greenkeepers
- Sheet metal workers
- Welders
- Pipe fitters
- Tool makers and tool fitters
- Metal-working production and maintenance fitters
However, the conditions attached to these occupations are important. For example, care workers and senior care workers have specific sponsorship restrictions, and care-worker eligibility in England is subject to requirements concerning the sponsor’s registration with the Care Quality Commission.
Temporary Shortage List
The UK also maintains a Temporary Shortage List containing certain medium-skilled occupations that can qualify under specific conditions. The current list includes roles such as:
- Managers in logistics
- Directors in consultancy services
- Laboratory technicians
- Electrical and electronics technicians
- Engineering technicians
- Building and civil engineering technicians
- Quality assurance technicians
- Planning, process and production technicians
- CAD, drawing and architectural technicians
- IT operations technicians
- IT user support technicians
- Database administrators and web content technicians
- Authors, writers and translators
- Dancers and choreographers
- Photographers, audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators
The Temporary Shortage List has its own conditions and sponsorship deadlines, so applicants should check the applicable rules rather than relying only on the job title.
Salary requirements
Having an occupation on the eligible list does not automatically guarantee a Skilled Worker visa.
Applicants normally need a job offer from a UK employer approved by the Home Office and must meet the applicable salary requirement. The standard salary threshold is currently £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. Some applicants and certain healthcare or education roles may qualify under different salary rules.
The going rate is different for each occupation and is generally based on a 37.5-hour working week, with the figure adjusted for different working patterns.
How to check if your job qualifies
Applicants who cannot find their exact job title on the list should search for similar job titles or, preferably, identify the correct four-digit SOC 2020 occupation code.
The government also advises applicants to make sure the occupation code accurately reflects the actual duties they will perform. A job title alone is not enough to establish eligibility.
The complete official occupation table contains the occupation codes, job types, related job titles and applicable eligibility information. It was updated by the Home Office on August 3, 2026.
Source: UK Home Office / GOV.UK
