SOC codes for the Skilled Worker visa: find yours and check it
Every Skilled Worker job is filed under one of 412 four-digit SOC 2020 codes. Only 91 are open without conditions; search by job title above to see where yours sits.
Search a job title and check its occupation code
Minimum salary for this job
£41,700
Your salary of £42,000 meets it, with £300 to spare.
| Points option A | £41,700 floor |
| Going rate (full time) | £34,800 |
| Going rate per hour | £17.85 |
| Your pay per hour | £21.54 |
| Visa fee, up to 3 years (outside the UK) | £819 |
| Health surcharge, 3 years | £3,105 |
Higher skilled occupation (Table 1): eligible.
Threshold in each situation
| Standard rate | £41,700 |
| New entrant (under 26, recent student or graduate, in training) | £33,400 |
| PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job | £33,400 |
| PhD in another subject relevant to the job | £37,500 |
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 occupation code, or SOC code, is the four-digit number from the Standard Occupational Classification 2020 that your sponsor writes on the certificate of sponsorship. It decides almost everything about a Skilled Worker application: whether the job is eligible at all, which going rate applies, whether PhD points or the Immigration Salary List can be used, and whether your family can join you. Appendix Skilled Occupations sorts the 412 codes into tables: 91 higher skilled codes open to anyone, 170 medium skilled codes open only through a shortage list or to people already sponsored, 30 health and education codes paid on national scales, 8 further health and education codes kept for existing workers, and 113 codes that cannot be sponsored. The sponsor picks the code, but rule SW 6.2 lets a caseworker refuse when a less appropriate code was chosen to dodge a higher going rate or an ineligible code. The search above shows each code's table and going rate.
Match the duties, not the job title
A code describes what you do all day. Titles are loose: one employer's "tester" is another's "quality engineer", and the classification places them by the tasks and skill level of the work. GOV.UK points people to the CASCOT coding tool from the University of Warwick, which suggests SOC 2020 codes for a job title, and then to the eligibility table to check each candidate. Not every title is in CASCOT, so try neighbouring titles and read the examples listed under each code.
Neighbouring codes can land in different tables. IT quality and testing professionals (code 2136) sit in Table 1, while IT operations technicians (code 3131), whose examples include quality assurance testers and network administrators, sit in Table 1a, open to new applicants only while the code is on the Temporary Shortage List. Information technology professionals not elsewhere classified (code 2139), the home of DevOps engineers and IT consultants, is in Table 1. Construction shows the same split: bricklayers (code 5313) are on the Immigration Salary List, while construction operatives not elsewhere classified (code 8159), which covers demolition workers and cable layers, are in Table 6.
The five tables at a glance
| Table | Codes | What it means for a new applicant |
|---|---|---|
| Table 1 | 91 | Higher skilled (degree level, RQF 6 and above). Eligible; going rate on the median, threshold usually the higher of that rate and £41,700. |
| Table 1a | 170 | Medium skilled (RQF 3 to 5). Only through the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List, or for workers sponsored since before 22 July 2025. |
| Table 3 | 30 | Health and education jobs. Eligible; going rate from the national pay scale, floor £25,000. |
| Table 3a | 8 | Further health and education jobs, kept for workers sponsored since before 22 July 2025. |
| Table 6 | 113 | Not eligible for the Skilled Worker route. |
The eligible tables decide more than access. A worker in a Table 1a code who joins through a shortage list cannot bring a partner or children under the current rules, because dependants are tied to jobs in Tables 1, 2 or 3. Care worker codes 6135 and 6136 sit in Table 1a but are closed to applications from abroad altogether. Some codes are only partly eligible: a handful of entries list the precise job titles that qualify inside a code and leave the rest in Table 6.
When the code chosen is the wrong one
Rule SW 6.2 says the sponsor must choose an appropriate code, and the caseworker must not have reasonable grounds to believe a less appropriate one was picked because the right code:
- is not eligible for the Skilled Worker route;
- has a higher going rate than the salary offered;
- is not on the Immigration Salary List, while the application claims list points;
- is not eligible for PhD points, while the application claims them.
To test this, SW 6.3 lets the caseworker look at whether the sponsor has shown a genuine need for the job as described, whether you have the skills and experience for it, the sponsor's record of paying sponsored workers properly, and any extra information. In practice the job description on the certificate has to read like the code it claims. A shortfall on the code is a refusal, not a correction, and the certificate cannot be reused after a refusal.
Codes that cannot be sponsored
Table 6 holds 113 codes. Among them: cooks (5435), receptionists (4216), hairdressers and barbers (6221), heavy and large goods vehicle drivers (8211) and sales and retail assistants (7111). If your work honestly fits one of these, no salary changes the answer on this route; the Skilled Worker overview lists the routes that do not need an eligible occupation. Once you have a code, the going rates table gives its rate and the threshold page adjusts it to your hours.