Under the Tier 2 visa program, the UK welcomes qualified professionals to work in the country to maintain its competitive edge. Workers whose professions are on the Tier 2 Shortage Occupation List are eligible to apply for this program to be employed permanently in the UK. The list features several well-liked careers, including engineering, education, banking, IT, and healthcare. AIS Overseas can assist you in positioning yourself to obtain a work visa in the UK and capitalizing on the talent deficit in the country.
A skilled worker visa, formerly known as the Tier 2 visa, is required for skilled workers who need to enter the UK. If skilled employment in the UK has been offered to you, you can apply for this visa. The minimum wage required for this visa is £25,600, which may be the "going rate" or the occupation's specific income criterion.
The UK work visas are classified into 4 main groups
Let’s have a look at the Top in-demand occupations in the UK.
Given how quickly the technology sector is evolving, companies who want to stay ahead of the curve find that having IT and tech expertise is essential. The top skills in demand in the UK are listed below.
Programming Languages
Java Script makes use of Front End Technologies. These languages are widely used by organizations to simplify cross-system activities.
DevOps
DevOps is one of the fastest-growing In-Demand digital skills in the UK.
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
In the UK, this is also an in-demand IT skill. This skill covers jobs such as:
Cloud Computing
The requirement for processing power and data storage has led to the rise in popularity of cloud computing as a commercial solution and a rapidly expanding sector in recent years.
Cybersecurity
This IT talent is extremely popular in the UK because of the increase in cybersecurity assaults in recent years.
CRM
Over 7.2 million professionals worldwide have CRM capabilities, a 14% rise from the previous year.
Job Title | Average starting salary |
Dev Ops Engineer | £40,000 |
Software Engineer | £35,000 |
Python Developer | £35,000 |
Data Scientist | £31,000 |
Software Developer | £27,000 |
Cyber Security Specialist | £25,000 |
Mobile Application Developer | £20,000 |
Industry | Count of Companies |
Information Technology | 4,074 |
Retail | 2,714 |
Manufacturing | 2,372 |
Management | 2,362 |
Hospitality | 2,064 |
HR & Admin | 2,024 |
BFSI | 1,505 |
Engineering (Construction) | 807 |
Industry | Count |
IT | 5,641 |
BFSI | 2,651 |
Engineering | 1,264 |
Healthcare | 2,712 |
Hospitality | 983 |
Sales & Marketing | 1,247 |
Education | 2,629 |
Automotive | 435 |
Oil & Gas | 488 |
FMCG | 321 |
Accounting | 510 |
Restaurants | 1,411 |
Pharmaceuticals | 415 |
Chemicals | 159 |
Construction | 1,141 |
Biotechnology | 311 |
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | 954 |
Telecommunications | 250 |
Non-Profit/Volunteering | 883 |
Machinery | 655 |
Industry | Designation | Most Common Skills | Top Hiring Locations | Remote Jobs Availibility |
Information Technology | Machine Learning Engineer | Deep Learning, TensorFlow, Machine Learning, Python | London, Cambridge, Edinburgh | 18.10% |
Data Scientist | ||||
Software Engineer | ||||
Data Engineer | ||||
Site Reliability Engineer | Terraform, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) | London, Edinburgh, Newcastle upon Tyne | 41.30% | |
DevOps Consultant | ||||
System Administrator | ||||
Salesforce Administrator | Salesforce.com Administration, Salesforce.com Implementation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | London, Leeds, Sheffield | 28.20% | |
Salesforce Consultant | ||||
Customer Relationship Management Analyst | ||||
Business Analyst | ||||
Computer Vision Engineer | Computer Vision, OpenCV, Image Processing | London, Edinburgh, Cambridge | 26.50% | |
Software Engineer | ||||
Machine Learning Engineer | ||||
Data Engineer |
Aache, Spark, Hadoop, Python (Programming Language) |
London, Edinburgh, Manchester | 27.40% | |
Data Analyst | ||||
Business Intelligence Developer | ||||
Back End Developer | Go (Programming Language), Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS) | London, Manchester, Glasgow | 43.80% | |
Full Stack Engineer | ||||
Web Developer | ||||
Procurement | Import Specialist | Freight Forwarding, Customs Regulations, International Logistics | London, Felixstowe, Manchester, Dover | 3.40% |
Import Manager | ||||
Import Clerk | ||||
Freight Forwarder | ||||
Import Export Specialist | ||||
Sales & Marketing | Business Development Representative | Product Management, Product Strategy, Agile Methodologies | London, Glasgow, Oxford | 21.10% |
Strategy Associate | ||||
Vice President of Products | ||||
Director of Product Management, Vice President of Product Strategy, Chief Product Officer, Head of Product, Product Team Manager | ||||
Human Resource | Chief Human Resources Officer | Succession Planning, Culture Change, Talent Management, Employee Engagement, | London, Belfast, Manchester | 13.70% |
Talent Management, Chief People Officer, Vice President of Human Resources, Director of HR Operations | ||||
Diversity and Inclusion Manager | ||||
Talent Acquisition Specialist | Recruiting, Sourcing, Interviewing | Greater Manchester, Leeds | 23.00% | |
Talent Management, Chief People Officer, Director of HR Operations, Vice President of Human Resources | ||||
Education | Career Counsellor | Coaching, Career Development, Training Delivery | London, Birmingham, Manchester | 20.60% |
Career Advisor | ||||
Writing/ Publishing & Media Communications | Content Designer | User Experience (UX), Content Strategy, Web Content Writing | London, Edinburgh, Manchester | 21.60% |
Content Coordinator, Brand Designer | ||||
Copywriter, Editor, Content Manager | ||||
Pharma/ Healthcare | Laboratory Operations Manager | Life Sciences, Molecular Biology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) | Glasgow, London, Manchester | 2.00% |
Laboratory Supervisor | ||||
Laboratory Assistant | ||||
Medical Laboratory Scientist | ||||
Laboratory Operations Manager | ||||
Environmental Science/ Health & Safety | Sustainability Manager | Sustainable Development, BREEAM, Sustainability Reporting, Environmental Awareness | London, Manchester, Bristol | 8.30% |
Public Health Officer | ||||
Project Manager, | ||||
Public Health Specialist |
Industry | Employment number |
Supermarkets in the UK | 1,288,724 |
Hospitals in the UK | 852,944 |
Charities in the UK | 836,335 |
Temporary-Employment Placement Agencies in the UK | 708,703 |
General Secondary Education in the UK | 695,038 |
RANK | NAME | REVENUES ($M) |
1 | Walmart | $5,59,151 |
2 | Amazon | $3,86,064 |
3 | Apple | $2,74,515 |
4 | CVS Health | $2,68,706 |
5 | UnitedHealth Group | $2,57,141 |
6 | Berkshire Hathaway | $2,45,510 |
7 | McKesson | $2,31,051 |
8 | Amerisource Bergen | $1,89,893.90 |
9 | Alphabet | $1,82,527 |
10 | Exxon Mobil | $1,81,502 |
Skilled workers can advance careers in the UK with the help of the Skilled Worker visa. According to the U.K. Skilled Worker, a person may stay for up to 5 years. A minimum of 70 points is required for candidates to be eligible for the Skilled Worker Visa, which is a points-based visa. Points are given out according to:
You can then apply for the Skilled Worker Visa if you meet these requirements.
The following professionals are eligible for the Tier 2 visa under these categories:
After being granted a skilled worker visa, you are eligible to:
Three months before to starting employment in the UK, you can apply for this visa. The sponsorship certificate you will receive from your UK employer will include the start date.
Three weeks after submitting your application, you will receive the decision regarding your visa. More occupations will now be included in the Shortage Occupation List by the UK government, which should shorten the processing time for many applicants.
This visa allows you to stay for a maximum of 5 years. The length of your employment contract determines how long a work visa is valid. You can stay longer if you have yet to go over the allotted time for your kind of visa. You must submit your application for an extension online or in person at a premium UK visa service centre.
With a Tier 2 visa, your maximum stay is 5 years and 14 days, or for the period specified on your sponsorship certificate plus an additional month, whichever is shorter.
The documents required for the UK Tier 2 Visa include:
Children and spouses of individuals who entered the nation on a skilled worker visa or who applied for one are eligible for the skilled worker dependent visa.
The following persons are eligible for a Skilled Worker dependent visa:
Spouses and partners should have a sincere partnership and plan to live together for the duration of their stay in the country.
Maintenance funds: Dependents of Skilled Workers are not eligible for public funds in general; instead, they must show in their application that they have access to sufficient cash for their time in the UK, and if they have dependents, that each of them has an extra £ 630 available.
Age: At the time of arrival in the United Kingdom or the issuance of the visa, the principal applicant and any dependents must be at least eighteen years old.
Other requirements: You cannot have been granted leave as the parent of a Tier 4 student (child) on or after April 2015, nor have you held a UK student visa in the past or a short-term study visa.
In addition, you will need to meet the requirements for general admission. You need to have a clean record of immigration, free of overstaying cases. Your spouse's or relative's visa must expire, and you must not plan to remain in the UK after that time.
Application process:
If you have a Skilled Worker dependent visa, you can:
You are not eligible to work as a public servant, a dentist, a medical intern, or a professional sports instructor.
Applications for Tier 2 visas are assessed using the UK's point-based system. To be eligible for the visa, one needs to have at least 70 points. With a job offer and an employer sponsorship certificate, you can earn 30 points. If your profession appears on the list of skills in shortage, you can earn an additional thirty points. It should not be too difficult to obtain the remaining points needed to qualify with these 60.
Finding an employer in the United Kingdom who can sponsor a Tier 2 visa
Locating one will be simple thanks to the publicly accessible "Register of Sponsors Licensed Under the Points-based System." This includes a list of all the companies authorized to sponsor foreign workers.
AIS is the perfect choice to unlock cross-border opportunities. Reach out to us right now!
Contact us to learn how you can launch your career in the UK.
The Skilled Worker visa is required for skilled workers who want to relocate to the UK. If a skilled employment in the UK has been offered to you, you can apply for this visa. The minimum wage required for this visa is £25,600, which may be the "going rate" or the occupation's specific income criterion.
Additionally, you have to have received an offer from the UK-licensed sponsor for a COS-Certificate of Sponsorship. The list of licensed sponsors for skilled workers will contain their names. Your field of expertise and the activities of your sponsored organization must align.
If you apply for a UK skilled worker visa from outside the country, you should hear back about your application in three weeks. A maximum of three months before your scheduled start date of employment in the UK, you may submit an application. The specific date will be mentioned on your Sponsorship Certificate.
For this visa, the salary requirements are £25,600, which can also be the "going rate" or specific salary requirement for the occupation.
There are 3 major steps involved in applying for the UK Skilled Worker Visa:
Step # 1: Sponsorship licence
The employer undertakes the first stage. They will apply directly for a sponsorship licence to the UKVI – UK Visas and Immigration and will be accordingly assessed.
Step # 2: Certificate of Sponsorship
The application for COS – The authorized sponsor files a Certificate of Sponsorship for the position they wish to fill with a non-resident employee. After the COS is assigned, the immigrant may apply for a work visa.
Step # 3: Applying for the Skilled Worker Visa
In the last round, the potential employee will submit the visa application. This is along with their distinct COS number and proof that they meet the prerequisites for a skilled worker visa.
The application fee depends upon the length of time you intend to work in the UK and the inclusion of your job on the list of skills in scarcity.
Apart from the application fees you will have to pay a health surcharge for each year of your stay of £624 per year
An employment offer from a licensed company that is able to sponsor foreign workers is required.
Both your eligibility for the visa and your ability to do the work for which you will be hired will be confirmed by the employer or sponsor. Upon their satisfaction, you will receive a sponsorship certificate that you can use to apply for a visa.
For an additional £500, you can obtain your visa decision in 5 days if you choose this priority option. In order to receive a judgment, you can alternatively choose to pay £800 for the super priority service.
You can:
You cannot:
European Union (EU) nationals will now receive the same treatment as citizens of other countries with the introduction of the Skilled Worker visa. People from EU nations were entitled to work in the UK as long as the UK remained a member of the EU. They will no longer have this privilege as a result of Brexit and will need to apply for a work visa just like everyone else.
PhD holders will not be given precedence. To be eligible within the specified parameters, which include particular abilities, qualifications, wages, and vocations, a candidate must, however, receive a score of 70 points.
IELTS is not required. Either the UK NARIC report for the Bachelor's or Master's degree, or the IELTS for UKVI (General) with a minimum score of 4 bands in all four modules, must satisfy the English language criteria for the visa.
Yes, the dependent spouse can work full-time.
Yes, education will be free for children under 18 years of age just like UK citizens or PR holders.
No. They have to pay the fees as per the NHS charges.
The duration of the visa application is three years or longer (up to a maximum of 5 years).
They can apply for FLR after five years and for ILR after 2 more years.
Candidates may be paid 80% of their regular pay if their position is on the shortage occupation list for that particular region of the UK. This will allow them to be eligible for the UK skilled worker visa.
In the UK, there is a distinct shortage jobs list for the healthcare and education sectors.
In certain circumstances, a candidate may still be qualified even if their pay is less than £25,600 or the industry standard for their position.
It is possible for a candidate to be paid between 70% and 90% of the average salary for their position and yet be eligible for a skilled worker visa. As long as they make at least £20,480 annually, work in a field where there is a shortage, or have a STEM PhD that is applicable to their line of work, etc.
You are able to work on a second job in addition to the one you have been sponsored for. If you have the necessary official authorization, you can also pursue your studies while on the visa.
The application fee depends on how many years you plan to work in the United Kingdom, and whether your job is on the skill shortage list.
Other than the application fees you will have to pay a health surcharge of 624 pounds when you apply, which will be refunded if your application is rejected. You should also have proof that you have enough funds to support yourself which is 1,270 pounds.