UK Skilled Worker Visa Salary Threshold 2026: What Kenyan Professionals Need to Earn

On July 22, 2025, the UK raised the general Skilled Worker salary threshold to £41,700. For most Kenyan professionals — nurses, software developers, civil engineers, secondary teachers — the relevant figure is not this general threshold but the occupation-specific "going rate" for their SOC code, which in several key sectors is considerably higher.

If your employer is offering you less than both the general threshold and the going rate for your role, the Certificate of Sponsorship will not clear and your application will be refused.

How the Dual Threshold Works

Every Skilled Worker applicant must meet two salary tests:

1. The general threshold: £41,700 per year gross
2. The going rate for their specific SOC 2020 occupation code

Your salary must meet whichever of these two figures is higher. The going rate data comes from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and is published on the Immigration Salary List. The offer in your Certificate of Sponsorship must match the going rate exactly — bonuses, allowances, and overtime do not count toward this figure.

Going Rates for Occupations Common Among Kenyan Applicants

For NHS nurses, the standard going rate aligns with the Agenda for Change Band 5 pay point. Registered Nurses are on the Immigration Salary List (ISL), which means they benefit from a lower threshold than the general £41,700 — but the salary must still reach at least £29,000 minimum under Health and Care Worker rules.

The New Entrant Route: Lower Threshold for Early-Career Kenyans

Kenyan professionals who qualify as "new entrants" can apply at 70% of the standard going rate. You qualify as a new entrant if:

• You are under 26 years old at the date of application
• You are switching from a Student visa and completed your degree within the last 2 years
• You are working toward a recognised professional qualification (such as progressing through NMC registration stages)

For a software developer, the new entrant rate is £34,580 instead of £49,400 — a significant difference that opens the route to recent Kenyan graduates. However, this status is not renewable indefinitely. After four years on the new entrant rate, you must be earning the full going rate to extend your visa or apply for settlement. Many Kenyans who arrive on new entrant terms face a salary cliff at the extension stage.

Healthcare Exception: The Immigration Salary List

Registered Nurses and several allied health professions sit on the Immigration Salary List (ISL), which provides a protected threshold lower than the general £41,700 floor. This is why a Band 5 nurse at £31,049 can still be sponsored even though that salary sits below the general threshold. If a healthcare role is removed from the ISL, sponsors must immediately re-assess whether their offered salaries remain compliant.

What "Going Rate" Does Not Include

A common employer error — and a refusal trigger — is padding the salary figure with:

• On-call allowances
• Night shift supplements
• Bonuses or overtime
• Non-cash benefits

The going rate in the CoS must reflect the guaranteed base salary only. If your NHS Trust includes on-call supplements in the headline figure and the base salary is below the going rate, UKVI will refuse the application.

Checking Your SOC Code Before You Accept the Offer

The occupational code on your Certificate of Sponsorship determines your going rate. Before accepting a job offer, ask your employer which SOC 2020 code they intend to use and verify it against the current Immigration Salary List on GOV.UK. Errors in SOC codes — sometimes assigned by HR teams who mismatch job titles to codes — are a source of preventable refusals.

The Kenya to UK Skilled Worker Guide includes a SOC code reference section with the going rates relevant to the professions where Kenyan applicants are most concentrated, plus a checklist for verifying the salary on your CoS before submitting the visa application.

See more United Kingdom guides →