Does Your UK Job Offer Meet the Skilled Worker Salary Threshold? A Guide for Nigerian Applicants

You've got a job offer from a UK employer willing to sponsor you. The salary sounds reasonable in Naira terms — but does it actually clear the bar the Home Office sets for a Skilled Worker visa? This is one of the most common points of confusion for Nigerian applicants, because the answer isn't a single number, it's "whichever of two numbers is higher" — and most people only check one of them.

The two thresholds you must clear

To qualify on salary grounds, your job offer generally needs to meet both of the following: the general salary threshold, currently £41,700 per year, and the "going rate" for your specific occupation, which is set separately for each Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. Whichever of these two figures is higher becomes your actual threshold. A software developer's going rate might sit below £41,700, meaning the general threshold applies. A senior civil engineer's going rate might sit above it, meaning the higher, occupation-specific figure applies instead.

Why the going rate catches people out

Nigerian applicants often assume that clearing £41,700 is enough on its own. It isn't. If your occupation's going rate is £45,000, a job offer of £42,000 clears the general threshold but still falls short — and your sponsor's Certificate of Sponsorship would be refused or challenged. Always ask your prospective employer for the exact SOC code they intend to use for your role, then check that specific code's going rate on the official gov.uk going rates table before treating any salary figure as confirmed.

Lower thresholds do exist — but only in specific circumstances

Not every applicant needs to clear £41,700. A reduced threshold of £33,400 per year can apply where your occupation sits on the Immigration Salary List (ISL) — a shorter, actively reviewed list of occupations facing genuine recruitment difficulty, which replaced the old Shortage Occupation List in April 2024. Where a role qualifies via the ISL, the salary is generally set at around 80% of the route's usual minimum, but still can't fall below both £33,400 and the occupation's own going rate — so this is a discount on the general threshold, not a discount on the going rate itself.

PhD-related reductions

If your role genuinely requires a PhD relevant to the job, a further reduced threshold — commonly cited around £37,500 — can apply, reflecting that highly specialised academic roles don't always pay to the same scale as broader commercial positions. This only applies where the PhD is directly relevant to the specific job being sponsored, not simply because the applicant happens to hold one.

The skill level requirement changed in 2025 — check this too

Salary isn't the only bar. Since 22 July 2025, jobs sponsored under the Skilled Worker route generally need to sit at RQF level 6 or above — broadly, graduate level — reversing an earlier, lower threshold that had applied since 2020. Roles below RQF 6 can still be sponsored only in narrower circumstances: where the worker already holds Skilled Worker permission in the same SOC code ("continuing employment"), or where the occupation appears on the Immigration Salary List or the newer Temporary Shortage List. If your job offer is for a role that doesn't clearly sit at graduate level, it's worth confirming with your prospective employer that the occupation is still sponsorable at all under the current rules, before you get too far into planning your move.

A worked example

Say you've been offered a role as a data analyst (a common SOC code for Nigerian tech and finance professionals moving to the UK) at £43,000 a year. If the going rate for that specific SOC code is £39,000, your £43,000 offer clears both the general threshold (£41,700) and the going rate — you're comfortably eligible on salary grounds. But if the same employer offered £40,500 instead, you'd fail the general threshold even though it clears the going rate, because £41,700 is the higher of the two figures in this example.

Part-time and pro-rated roles

If you're offered a part-time role, the salary threshold is generally applied pro-rata to the hours you'll actually work, not the full-time equivalent — but this needs to be calculated correctly by your sponsor on the Certificate of Sponsorship, and errors here are a common cause of refused applications. If your offer is anything other than a standard full-time contract, ask your employer's HR or immigration team to confirm explicitly how the pro-rating has been calculated before you rely on the headline salary figure.

Allowances, bonuses and benefits generally don't count

A frequent misunderstanding among Nigerian applicants comparing UK offers to how Nigerian compensation packages are often structured: guaranteed basic salary is what typically counts toward the threshold, not discretionary bonuses, allowances, accommodation, or benefits in kind. If your offer letter bundles a lower basic salary with generous "allowances," don't assume the combined figure is what the Home Office will consider — ask your employer to confirm which specific elements of your package count as guaranteed gross annual salary for sponsorship purposes.

What happens if your offer falls short

If your current offer doesn't clear the relevant threshold, you have a few realistic options: negotiate a higher salary with your prospective employer (sponsors sometimes have more flexibility than the initial offer suggests, especially for genuinely hard-to-fill roles), check whether the specific occupation might qualify under the Immigration Salary List for a reduced threshold, or wait and reapply once your experience or qualifications support a stronger salary negotiation. What you shouldn't do is accept a role you're not confident meets the threshold and hope it goes unnoticed — sponsors carry real compliance obligations, and a Certificate of Sponsorship issued against an ineligible salary can be refused or later scrutinised.

Check your specific offer

Because thresholds vary so much by SOC code, the safest approach is always to check your specific occupation and salary combination directly, rather than relying on general figures. Use our Skilled Worker Salary Threshold Checker to see whether your job offer is likely to clear the bar before you make any big decisions about relocating.

Building this into your job search from the start

Rather than treating the threshold check as a final hurdle right before applying, it's worth building it into how you evaluate job opportunities from the very beginning of your search. When a recruiter or employer first raises a role with you, ask early about the intended SOC code and salary band, rather than waiting until an offer letter is drafted. This saves everyone time, avoids the disappointment of an offer that was never realistically going to clear the threshold, and lets you negotiate with clear knowledge of exactly what figure you actually need, rather than guessing at a number that sounds reasonable in isolation.

Frequently asked questions

Does the salary threshold apply to job offers from small businesses the same way as large employers?
Yes — the threshold and going rate rules apply based on the occupation and route, not the size of the sponsoring employer.

Can my employer raise my salary after I start to help me qualify, if my initial offer falls short?
No — the salary used for your Certificate of Sponsorship needs to meet the threshold at the point of application, not at some later date.

Is the £41,700 general threshold the same for every visa length?
The annual rate is generally the same regardless of visa length, though the total amount you're paid over the visa period will naturally scale with how many years you're sponsored for.

Do salary thresholds differ for applicants already in the UK on another visa switching to Skilled Worker?
The salary and going rate rules themselves are generally the same; what can differ is the application fee and process, so confirm both aspects with your sponsor.

How often does the general salary threshold change?
It's reviewed periodically by the Home Office rather than on a fixed annual schedule, so always check the current gov.uk figure rather than relying on a figure from an older source.