Visa access for 82 UK jobs expires this December
Key Points
- The Migration Advisory Committee will issue final recommendations on 82 mid-skilled occupations under the Skilled Worker route, with interim arrangements expiring 31 December 2026.
- Minister Mike Tapp confirmed the report is due shortly in a written answer dated 4 June 2026.
- Only 7,572 visas were issued for the 82 shortlisted roles in the year to September 2025, including 344 for engineering technicians and 311 for welders.
- Skilled Worker grants to main applicants peaked at 200,000 in 2023 before falling in 2024.
- The general salary threshold rose to £41,700 in July 2025, with no salary discounts proposed for Temporary Shortage List roles.
The Migration Advisory Committee is due to deliver its final recommendations on which mid-skilled occupations will retain access to the Skilled Worker visa route, with the 82 jobs currently under review facing a 31 December 2026 deadline when interim arrangements expire.
Home Office minister Mike Tapp confirmed the timing in a written answer on Thursday (4 June), responding to Conservative MP for Fylde Andrew Snowden, who had asked what discussions the Home Secretary had held with the committee on future changes to the Skilled Worker occupation list beyond 2026.
Tapp said the government commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee last year to review salary requirements and the Temporary Shortage List, and that the report on the list is due shortly.
He added that the committee is an independent advisory body and that regular meetings take place between its officials and the Home Office.
What the review covers
The Home Secretary commissioned the committee on 2 July 2025 to review salary thresholds for work visas and to design and populate a new Temporary Shortage List, which gives time-limited access to the Skilled Worker route for occupations at skill levels RQF 3 to 5 that would otherwise be ineligible.
Stage 1 of the review, published October 2025, shortlisted 82 occupations to proceed to Stage 2 for deeper testing, with Stage 2 running to July 2026.
The interim arrangements remain in force for now but are due to expire on 31 December 2026.
The list entries are due to lapse by that date unless extended, according to immigration firm DavidsonMorris, which notes that the committee has been asked to recommend a permanent framework and decide which occupations should remain eligible and how salary thresholds for mid-skill roles will be set from 2027 onwards.
How many visas the affected jobs receive
The numbers issued for the occupations under review are already low. In the 12 months to September 2025, just 7,572 Skilled Worker visas were issued for the 82 roles the committee judged “potentially crucial” to the Industrial Strategy, the Work Rights Centre found.
That total included 344 visas for engineering technicians, 311 for welders and 240 for data analysts.
The wider route has contracted sharply. Skilled Worker grants to main applicants peaked at 200,000 in 2023, of which 72% were health and care workers, before falling in 2024 following the previous government’s crackdown on care-sector sponsorship and higher salary thresholds, the Migration Observatory reported.
Salary and language rules tighten
The general salary threshold for the Skilled Worker route rose to £41,700 in July 2025 from £38,700 and the committee has recommended no salary discounts for jobs on the Temporary Shortage List, including no new entrant discount.
The English language requirement for the Skilled Worker route increased to level B2 from 8 January 2026.
On the question of visa volumes, Tapp pointed Snowden to the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release in a separate written answer, stating that grants of Skilled Worker visa applications are published in the detailed entry clearance dataset, with figures running from January 2005 to the end of March 2026.
