New entrant salary rate on the Skilled Worker visa
New entrants can be paid 70 % of the going rate, never below £33,400, instead of the usual £41,700. Pick "new entrant" in the checker to see your lower threshold.
New entrant threshold for your code and hours
Minimum salary for this job
£38,600
Your salary of £39,000 meets it, with £400 to spare.
| Points option E | £33,400 floor · 70% of the rate |
| Going rate (full time) | £55,100 |
| Going rate per hour | £28.26 |
| Your pay per hour | £20 |
| Visa fee, up to 3 years (outside the UK) | £819 |
| Health surcharge, 3 years | £3,105 |
Higher skilled occupation (Table 1): eligible.
Your total stay on these discounted rates (including Graduate visa time) is limited to 4 years.
Threshold in each situation
| Standard rate | £55,100 |
| New entrant (under 26, recent student or graduate, in training) | £38,600 |
| PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job | £44,100 |
| PhD in another subject relevant to the job | £49,600 |
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
The new entrant rate is option E of Appendix Skilled Worker. It lets an employer sponsor you at 70 % of the going rate for your occupation code, pro-rated to your hours, as long as the salary is at least £33,400 a year. You qualify if one condition is met on the date you apply: you are under 26; your most recent permission was as a Student on a UK bachelor's, master's or doctoral course (or PGCE or PGDE) that you have finished or are about to finish, or expired less than two years ago; your most recent permission was a Graduate visa, current or expired less than two years ago; or the job is in a regulated profession or leads to full registration or chartered status that you are working towards. Your combined permission as a Skilled Worker, Graduate and Tier 2 migrant cannot exceed 4 years when granted this way. For a statistician (code 2433) the threshold drops from £55,100 to £38,600.
Six ways to count as a new entrant
Rule SW 12.2 lists the routes into option E. Only one needs to apply, and it is checked on the date of your application, not the date the job starts:
- Age. You are under 26 on the day you apply. Turning 26 the week after does not matter for that application.
- Student. Your last permission (ignoring any visit) was as a Student sponsored for a UK bachelor's, master's, PhD or other doctorate, a PGCE or a PGDE. You have completed it, are applying within three months of the expected end, or have done at least 12 months of a UK PhD. An expired Student permission must have ended less than two years before you apply.
- Graduate. Your last permission was a Graduate visa, still running or expired less than two years ago.
- Regulated profession. The job is in a UK regulated profession and you are working towards the recognised UK qualification for it.
- Registration or chartership. You are working towards full registration or chartered status with the professional body for the job.
- Postdoctoral post. The job is a postdoctoral position in one of 8 science and higher education codes; the PhD page covers it.
The Student and Graduate conditions look at your most recent permission. If you moved from a Graduate visa to another route in between, the link is broken, even if you studied in the UK.
What the threshold becomes
The going rate for your code is multiplied by 70 % and compared with the £33,400 floor; the higher figure is your threshold. Appendix Skilled Occupations prints the 70 % column for every code, already rounded and lifted to the floor where needed. For codes with modest going rates the floor decides, which is why two rows below land on the same figure.
| Code and occupation | Standard threshold | New entrant threshold | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2433 Actuaries, economists and statisticians | £55,100 | £38,600 | £16,500 |
| 1131 Financial managers and directors | £75,100 | £52,600 | £22,500 |
| 2136 IT quality and testing professionals | £41,700 | £33,400 | £8,300 |
| 2115 Social and humanities scientists | £41,700 | £33,400 | £8,300 |
| 2124 Electronics engineers | £52,000 | £36,400 | £15,600 |
Hours still move the going rate part of the test. A new entrant statistician on 30 hours a week needs £33,400, because the pro-rated 70 % figure falls under the floor and the floor itself is not pro-rated. Only guaranteed basic pay counts, exactly as on the standard rate.
The 4-year clock and what comes after
SW 12.3 caps the time: granting the application must not take your combined permission as a Skilled Worker, Graduate and Tier 2 migrant past 4 years, whether or not the periods were continuous. Time on a Graduate visa therefore uses up part of the allowance before you even start. A certificate that would run past the allowance cannot be granted on this option, so its length has to fit what remains.
When the allowance runs out, your next application is judged on the standard rate: £41,700 or the full going rate, whichever is higher, for most codes. Plan the pay rise before the extension rather than after it. The same applies at settlement, where Appendix Skilled Occupations says only the full going rate column counts, so a salary that still sits at 70 % after five years will not support indefinite leave on its own. For Graduate visa holders the timing is set out on the Graduate to Skilled Worker page, and the rule text is in GOV.UK: when you can be paid less.