NHS Skilled Worker Visa Salary Requirements by Pay Band

The Agenda for Change framework runs from Band 1 (the lowest, now largely phased out) up to Band 9, which covers very senior directors and executives. Each band has a starting pay point and an upper point, and staff typically progress through the band over several years. In 2024–25, Band 5 — the entry band for registered nurses, midwives, and many allied health professionals — starts at approximately £29,970 and rises to around £36,483 at the top of the band.

Bands 6 and above generally start to approach or exceed £37,000–£40,000, while Band 7 (specialist nurses, team leaders, advanced practitioners) typically starts above £46,000. Bands 8 and 9 are managerial and director-level grades, comfortably exceeding the £38,700 general threshold at even their entry points.

For most workers on Bands 1 to 4 — healthcare assistants, administrative staff, porters, catering workers — the starting salaries fall well below £38,700. These roles may be eligible under specific health and care worker rules if the employer is a CQC-regulated provider, or they may simply not qualify for the Skilled Worker route at all.

The standard Skilled Worker visa salary threshold is the higher of £38,700 or the going rate for the occupation code. However, the government operates a separate health and care visa sub-route within the Skilled Worker route. Under this sub-route, eligible health and care occupations — including registered nurses (SOC code 2231) — are assessed against a different threshold: the going rate for that specific occupation, not the £38,700 general threshold.

For registered nurses, the going rate set by the Migration Advisory Committee is approximately £29,970, which aligns with the Band 5 starting salary. This means a nurse offered a Band 5 role starting at £29,970 can still be sponsored, provided the employer is eligible (NHS trust, NHS foundation trust, or an independent healthcare provider regulated by the CQC, CIW, or equivalent).

It is important to understand that this lower going rate applies only to specific eligible roles. If you are a healthcare assistant on Band 3 (roughly £24,000–£25,000), you would need to check whether your specific job title and SOC code are listed as eligible health and care occupations — not all support roles are included.

Registered nurses and many allied health professions — including radiographers, occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists — use the Health and Care Worker visa route rather than the standard Skilled Worker route. For these roles, the applicable salary threshold is the occupation-specific going rate for their SOC code, set at the 25th percentile of salaries for that occupation. This going rate is already below the general Skilled Worker threshold of £41,700, which is why nurses sponsored at NHS Agenda for Change Band 5 pay can qualify without needing to reach the general threshold.

The old Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which allowed employers to pay 80% of the going rate, was abolished on 4 April 2024. That going rate discount no longer exists. The current Immigration Salary List (ISL) lowers the general salary floor to £33,400 for eligible roles — but roles must still meet the full occupation-specific going rate, whichever is higher. Registered nurses (SOC 2231) are not on the ISL; their threshold is the occupation-specific going rate under the H&CW route.

An absolute minimum salary floor of £25,000 applies across all Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker applications. Going rates are reviewed periodically and were last updated in July 2025 — always verify the current going rate for your specific SOC code at gov.uk before relying on any figures.

Consider a registered nurse offered a Band 5 position at an NHS trust in Leeds at a starting salary of £29,970. The general Skilled Worker threshold is £38,700 — so at first glance this looks like it would fail. But because the role falls under the health and care visa sub-route (SOC code 2231, registered nurse), the relevant threshold is the going rate for that occupation, which is approximately £29,970. The salary meets the going rate exactly, so the application can proceed.

The employer (an NHS foundation trust) holds a sponsor licence. They assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to the nurse. The nurse then applies for the Skilled Worker visa, checking the 'health and care visa' box in the application to ensure the correct fee structure and processing rules apply. The health and care visa also carries a reduced visa fee and, critically, an exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge — a significant financial saving.

This worked example illustrates why it is so important to understand which sub-route you are applying under. A nurse who incorrectly applies under the standard Skilled Worker route rather than the health and care sub-route could face a higher fee, or — if a caseworker assesses the application against the general £38,700 threshold — a potential refusal.

The best starting point is to identify your occupation code (SOC code) and look up the going rate set for that code in the latest Home Office policy guidance. If your code is listed as a health and care occupation, your salary threshold will be the going rate for that code — not £38,700. You can use the VisaAtlas SOC Code Intelligence tool to identify which code applies to your job title and review the thresholds in one place.

Once you have confirmed your eligibility, the next step is to identify NHS trusts or private healthcare employers that are actively sponsoring staff. Not every trust sponsors equally — some have issued hundreds of Certificates of Sponsorship in the past year, while others have barely used their licence. Find NHS sponsorship roles on VisaAtlas to see healthcare employers with recent CoS activity in your region.

Always verify the current rules on gov.uk before making any application decisions, as salary thresholds, the Immigration Salary List, and the Temporary Shortage List are updated by the Home Office and the Migration Advisory Committee on a rolling basis.