Electrician visa: the shortage list, the threshold and the hours
Electricians and electrical fitters (code 5241) can be sponsored on certificates issued before 31 December 2026, for at least £41,700 a year of guaranteed basic pay.
Electrician salary check
Minimum salary for this job
£41,700
Your salary of £43,000 meets it, with £1,300 to spare.
| Points option A | £41,700 floor |
| Going rate (full time) | £38,800 |
| Going rate per hour | £19.90 |
| Your pay per hour | £22.05 |
| Visa fee, up to 3 years (outside the UK) | £819 |
| Health surcharge, 3 years | £3,105 |
On the Temporary Shortage List: certificate of sponsorship must be issued before 31 December 2026.
Temporary Shortage List: the certificate of sponsorship must be issued before 31 December 2026; dependants cannot join you on this list unless you were already in a medium skilled job before 22 July 2025.
Threshold in each situation
| Standard rate | £41,700 |
| New entrant (under 26, recent student or graduate, in training) | £33,400 |
Calculated in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere. Not legal advice; not affiliated with the Home Office.
Published by Radif Partners · How we calculate · Home Office fees of 8 October 2026, rules checked 13 October 2026
Electricians are one of the skilled trades that the July 2025 reform moved below the Skilled Worker skill threshold: code 5241, electricians and electrical fitters, is now in Table 1a, the medium skilled list. It stays open to new applicants because it is on the Temporary Shortage List of Appendix Skilled Worker, for certificates of sponsorship issued before 31 December 2026. The going rate is £38,800 for a 37.5-hour week, below the general threshold, so a full-time electrician needs £41,700 of guaranteed basic pay. Long weeks change the arithmetic: the going rate grows with the hours, up to £51,733.33 for 50 hours, while only the first 48 hours of pay count towards the threshold. Overtime, call-out and shift premiums are excluded. The examples under the code (electric vehicle charging point installers, electro-mechanical technicians, installation and maintenance electricians, smart energy experts and solar panel installers) show that installation work in renewables is covered too.
Electrical trades: which are open
| Code | New applicants | Going rate (37.5 h) |
|---|---|---|
| 5241 Electricians and electrical fitters | Temporary Shortage List, until 31 December 2026 | £38,800 |
| 5246 Electrical service and maintenance mechanics and repairers | existing workers only | £39,700 |
| 5249 Electrical and electronic trades not elsewhere classified | Temporary Shortage List, until 31 December 2026 | £45,800 |
| 5250 Skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades supervisors | existing workers only | £42,400 |
| 3112 Electrical and electronics technicians | Temporary Shortage List, until 31 December 2026 | £39,300 |
| 2123 Electrical engineers | open | £58,700 |
| 5231 Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians | Temporary Shortage List, until 31 December 2026 | £35,500 |
Electrical engineers (2123) are a degree-level code, permanently open, at a going rate of £58,700. Electrical service and maintenance mechanics (5246) and trades supervisors (5250) are medium skilled but not on the shortage list: only workers already sponsored in them before 22 July 2025 can stay in them. Vehicle electricians belong to 5231, also on the list. The code must fit the duties, so an employer cannot move a maintenance mechanic into 5241 to use the list.
Hours, overtime and the threshold
Site work often means long contracted weeks. The rules treat them in two opposite ways. The going rate is pro-rated to the weekly hours on the certificate, without limit: at 45 hours a week it becomes £46,560, still below the £41,700 floor, so the floor remains the test (£46,560). The salary, on the other hand, counts only for the first 48 hours: on a 50-hour contract, the caseworker looks at 48/50 of the pay. And it must be guaranteed basic pay, paid in every pay period at no less than the going rate for the hours worked; overtime, call-outs and bonuses never count.
Take a contract of 50 hours a week paid £44,000 a year. The going rate for those hours is £51,733.33 and the floor £41,700; the pay counted is 48/50 of the salary, £42,240, which clears both. The same pay spread over 60 hours would count only £35,200 and fail.
A worker on a fixed day rate should make sure the contract states the hours and an annual salary that meets both tests once the extra hours are stripped out. The checker above does that calculation when you enter the weekly hours.
Before and after the deadline
The Temporary Shortage List is time-limited: a certificate assigned on or before 31 December 2026 can be used, after it the code closes to new recruits unless the Home Office extends it. Workers recruited through the list cannot bring dependants on the same route, and the new entrant rate (£33,400) is available to apprentices and those under 26 who qualify. Employers in the trade pay the usual costs: £525 per certificate and the immigration skills charge, £1,440 for three years at a small firm. The Temporary Shortage List page lists every code with the same deadline.