Teacher visa: the pay scale you must be paid on
A qualified secondary or primary teacher needs at least £31,650 in most of England, £38,766 in Inner London, never less than £25,000.
Teacher salary check: choose the role and area
Minimum salary for this job
£25,000
Your salary of £36,000 meets it, with £11,000 to spare.
| Points option K | £25,000 floor |
| Going rate (full time) | £21,731 |
| Going rate per hour | £11.14 |
| Your pay per hour | £18.46 |
| Visa fee, up to 3 years (outside the UK) | £819 |
| Health surcharge, 3 years | none if Health and Care visa |
Health or education occupation: going rate from the national pay scale (Table 3).
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
School teachers are sponsored on the Skilled Worker route under education codes such as 2313 (secondary) and 2314 (primary), which sit in Table 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations. For these jobs the going rate is not one figure but the national pay scale for the role and the place: Table 5 of the appendix gives £31,650 for a qualified teacher in England outside London and its fringe, £36,413 in Outer London, £38,766 in Inner London, £40,305 in Scotland and £32,433 in Wales. The salary must reach the rate of the role and also the floor of £25,000, which is why an unqualified teacher in England, on a scale of £21,731, still needs the floor. The general threshold of £41,700 does not apply to these listed education jobs. Teachers apply for the standard Skilled Worker visa, not the cheaper Health and Care visa, so the family pays the full fee and surcharge.
The rates of Table 5
| Role | England, rest | London Fringe | Outer London | Inner London | Scotland | Wales | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unqualified teachers / Probationers | £21,731 | £23,140 | £25,758 | £27,252 | £33,594 | £21,812 | – |
| Qualified teachers | £31,650 | £33,075 | £36,413 | £38,766 | £40,305 | £32,433 | £30,000 |
| Chartered teachers | – | – | – | – | £52,158 | – | – |
| Principal teachers | – | – | – | – | £55,155 | – | – |
| Leadership group | £49,781 | £51,151 | £53,731 | £59,186 | – | £50,653 | £47,241 |
| Leading practitioner | £50,025 | £51,403 | £53,994 | £59,478 | – | £50,902 | – |
| Head teacher | £56,316 | £57,693 | £60,266 | £65,731 | £62,556 | £57,304 | £53,309 |
A dash means the role does not exist in that pay system: chartered and principal teachers are Scottish grades, leading practitioners an English and Welsh one. The checker above takes the role, the nation and, for England, the London area; for a part-time post it pro-rates the rate to the hours on the certificate, while the £25,000 floor stays whole.
Which teaching codes use the scales
| Code | Table | Going rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2313 Secondary education teaching professionals | Table 3 | Table 5 (teachers’ scales) |
| 2314 Primary education teaching professionals | Table 3 | Table 5 (teachers’ scales) |
| 2315 Nursery education teaching professionals | Table 3 | Table 5 (teachers’ scales) |
| 2316 Special and additional needs education teaching professionals | Table 3 | Table 5 (teachers’ scales) |
| 2321 Head teachers and principals | Table 3 | Table 5 (teachers’ scales) |
| 2312 Further education teaching professionals | Table 3 | national scales listed in the code |
Nursery, special needs and head teachers follow the same Table 5. Further education lecturers (2312) have their own rates per nation, written into the code, from the unqualified lecturer rate of the English colleges' scales to the management grades. University lecturers are not here: higher education teaching professionals (2311) are a Table 1 code with an ordinary going rate, and eligible for the postdoctoral and PhD discounts.
Worked examples
A qualified secondary teacher offered £35,000 for a full-time post in Manchester meets the rest-of-England rate of £31,650. The same offer in an Inner London school falls £3,766 short of £38,766. A Scottish post starts higher again, at £40,305 for a qualified teacher, because Scotland's scale is the one used there. A primary teacher on a 0.6 contract (22.5 hours) in the rest of England must be paid at least £25,000: the pro-rated scale is lower than that, so the floor applies.
What the school has to do
The school or trust needs a sponsor licence, and the certificate states the role, which decides the row of the table: a post offered as a qualified teacher must be paid at least the qualified rate of its area, whatever the person's previous salary abroad. Teachers from outside the UK who apply from abroad also need a criminal record certificate from each country they lived in, as GOV.UK lists education among the jobs that require it. English can be proved by a degree taught in English or a test at level B2.
Costs are those of the standard route: £819 for up to three years from abroad and £1,035 a year of surcharge per person, so £14,142 for a teacher with a partner and two children on a three-year visa. The school pays the certificate (£525) and the immigration skills charge. The dependants page and the cost calculator detail the family side.