UK Skilled Worker Visa for Indian IT Professionals: TCS, Infosys, Wipro and the Scrutiny Problem

Indian IT professionals account for the largest share of UK Skilled Worker visas among all nationalities. In the year ending December 2024, Indian nationals received 22% of all UK work visas — a higher share than any other country. But the same period saw total grants to Indians drop by 50%, and work visa refusal rates hold steady at 12%. The increase in scrutiny is real, and it disproportionately affects IT professionals sponsored by Indian consulting firms.

If you work for TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, HCL, or any Indian IT services firm with a UK client deployment model, you need to understand what the Home Office is looking for — and why your application gets additional examination that direct hires at UK-based employers do not face.

Why Indian IT Consulting Firms Face Extra Scrutiny

The UK Skilled Worker route was designed for direct employment relationships: one employer, one employee, one set of duties. Indian IT consulting firms operate on a different model. They sponsor employees in India, deploy them to UK client sites under commercial contracts, and that client — not the sponsor — effectively directs the day-to-day work.

The Home Office's concern is the "staffing agency" problem. If the sponsor is simply a vehicle for placing workers at third-party clients without a genuine employment relationship, the visa route is being used outside its intent. From 2026, caseworker guidance explicitly addresses this: the sponsoring employer must demonstrate that it retains genuine supervisory control, that the role is a real job within the sponsoring organisation, and that the worker is not effectively "hired out" to a client under a body-shopping arrangement.

This does not mean Indian IT consulting firms cannot sponsor workers. Many do, legitimately and successfully. But the documentation burden is higher.

What TCS, Infosys, and Wipro Sponsorships Look Like in Practice

These firms typically use two routes: the Skilled Worker visa (SWV) and the Global Business Mobility (GBM) Senior or Specialist Worker route. The choice of route matters enormously for the worker's long-term settlement prospects.

Skilled Worker visa: Leads to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) after five years. Requires B2 English. Requires the employer to pay the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) — £1,320 per year for large employers. The salary must meet the going rate for the assigned SOC code.

GBM Senior or Specialist Worker: Leads to nothing. There is no ILR pathway on this route. No English test. No ISC for the employer. Faster processing, lower corporate cost.

Many HR teams at Indian IT firms default to GBM because it is cheaper and faster. The worker, wanting to build a life in the UK, gets a visa that does not count toward settlement. This is the "ICT trap" — named after the old Intra-Company Transfer route that GBM replaced.

If your employer is offering you a GBM visa, ask directly: does this lead to ILR? The answer is no. Ask what it would take to get a Skilled Worker visa instead. Sometimes the only obstacle is the ISC cost, and that is a negotiable ask.

The Genuine Vacancy Test: What Caseworkers Look For

For IT professionals being sponsored by Indian firms, the genuine vacancy test involves several practical checks:

Does the role have a real job description? A vague description like "Software Developer — assigned to client projects" is a red flag. The CoS should state specific duties, the technology stack, project context, and the reporting line within the sponsoring company, not the client.

Who controls your working conditions? The sponsor must set your salary, direct your work, manage your performance reviews, and have authority to reassign you. If the answer to any of these questions is "the client does," the sponsorship structure may be non-compliant.

Is the salary in line with the SOC code going rate? For IT professionals, the going rate for SOC 2134 (Programmers and Software Development Professionals) is £54,700 per year. SOC 2137 (Software Engineers) is £45,600. Offers below these figures fail regardless of which firm is sponsoring.

Has the sponsor's licence been audited recently? The Home Office conducts compliance audits of sponsor licence holders. Firms with large sponsorship volumes — which includes all the major Indian IT consultancies — are audited more frequently. A firm under active audit may have its applications held or scrutinised more closely. You cannot find out whether your employer is under audit, but delays beyond eight weeks on a straightforward application sometimes indicate it.

What This Means for Your Application

If you are being transferred to the UK by an Indian IT firm:

Confirm the visa route in writing. Get the HR team to confirm whether your sponsorship will be under the Skilled Worker route (which leads to ILR) or the GBM route (which does not). If they are offering GBM, understand this limits your settlement options.

Review your SOC code and salary before the CoS is issued. Once the Certificate of Sponsorship is issued, changing the salary or SOC code requires cancellation and reissuance, which can delay your application by weeks. Review the going rate for your SOC code before that document is created.

Check the genuine vacancy documentation. Your employer should be able to show you the evidence they will submit with the sponsorship. This includes a job description that maps to the SOC code, an organisational chart showing your reporting line within the sponsoring company, and client contract details that demonstrate the genuine employment relationship.

Do not assume your employer's previous approval history means your application will be straightforward. Caseworker scrutiny is applied per application. A firm that has sponsored 5,000 workers in the past can still have an individual application refused if the specific evidence package for that role is inadequate.

The India to UK Skilled Worker Guide includes the documentation checklist for IT consulting sponsorships, the going rate table for the most common IT SOC codes, and guidance on how to raise the Skilled Worker vs GBM route question with your HR team before the process begins.

See more United Kingdom guides →