Sponsorship salary checker
Compare an NHS or health job offer with the salary rule the Immigration Rules publish for its occupation code, band or grade, nation and hours.
What the published rule says · 2237 Band 5, England
Meets the published rule
£30,000 is at or above the £29,970 the rule works out to for this job at 37.5 hours a week.
How the figure is worked out
- Going rate as published£29,970 (37.5-hour week)
- Pro-rated to 37.5 hours£29,970 × 37.5 ÷ 37.5, rounded up to the next pound£29,970
- Option K salary floorA yearly amount, not pro-rated for part-time hours£25,000
- Required: the higher of the two£29,970
- Offered salary£30,000
- Margin£30
The rule applied
Points option K (Appendix Skilled Worker SW 4.2 and SW 13.1); going rate from Appendix Skilled Occupations Table 4.
“The applicant is being sponsored for a job in a listed health or education occupation and their salary equals or exceeds both: £25,000 per year; and the going rate for the SOC 2020 occupation code.”
Appendix Skilled Worker (version of 8 October 2026 (HC 584)) · Appendix Skilled Occupations (version of 11 November 2025 (HC 1333))
Going rates and rules as published in the Immigration Rules, checked on 21 October 2026. The rules change with each statement of changes. Meeting a salary figure is only one requirement: the sponsor, the occupation code, English and the other rules must also be met, and the Home Office decides. See our UK guide for this profession.
Method
How it works
- Step 1
Choose the job
The occupation code decides which table the going rate comes from: Table 4 for Agenda for Change jobs, Table 3 for doctors and dentists. - Step 2
Band and nation
Each nation has its own going rates. Pick the band or grade on the job offer. - Step 3
Pro-rate the hours
The going rate is scaled to your weekly hours. The £25,000 floor is not. - Step 4
Compare
Your basic salary against the higher of the two, with the gap and the rule text.
Worked examples
Three offers checked against the rule
Band 5 staff nurse, England, full time
- Going rate: £29,970 at 37.5 hours
- Floor: £25,000
- Required: £29,970
- Offer: £32,073 (2026/27 Band 5 entry point)
Meets the published rule
Band 5 nurse, England, 22.5 hours
- Going rate pro-rated: £29,970 × 22.5 ÷ 37.5 = £17,982
- Floor: £25,000 (not pro-rated)
- Required: £25,000
- Offer: £19,244
Below the published rule by £5,756
Foundation year 1 doctor, England, 48 hours
- Going rate: £36,616 at 40 hours
- Pro-rated: × 48 ÷ 40 = £43,940
- Required: £43,940
- Offer: £36,616 basic
Below the published rule by £7,324
The doctor example shows why hours matter: a basic salary equal to the 40-hour rate falls short when the contract is for more hours, because the going rate is pro-rated up as well as down.
Table 4
Agenda for Change going rates by nation
| Band | England | Scotland | Wales | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Band 3 | £24,071 | £26,869 | £24,433 | £22,816 |
| Band 4 | £26,530 | £29,116 | £26,928 | £25,147 |
| Band 5 | £29,970 | £31,892 | £30,420 | £28,407 |
| Band 6 | £37,338 | £39,912 | £37,898 | £35,392 |
| Band 7 | £46,148 | £48,788 | £46,840 | £43,742 |
| Band 8a | £53,755 | £60,126 | £54,550 | £50,952 |
| Band 8b | £62,215 | £70,986 | £63,150 | £58,972 |
| Band 8c | £74,290 | £83,837 | £75,405 | £70,417 |
| Band 8d | £88,168 | £99,534 | £89,491 | £83,571 |
| Band 9 | £105,385 | £117,732 | £106,967 | £99,891 |
Except for code 6131, Band 3 and Band 4 rows apply only to people granted Skilled Worker permission before 22 July 2025. Compare with current NHS pay in the NHS pay band explorer.
Explained
What the published rules say
A Health and Care Worker visa is a Skilled Worker visa, so its salary rules are in Appendix Skilled Worker (version of 8 October 2026 (HC 584)). Your licensed sponsor chooses an occupation code and records the salary and hours on your certificate of sponsorship. For the codes in Tables 3 and 3a of Appendix Skilled Occupations, the going rate comes from a national pay scale and points option K applies: at least £25,000 a year and at least the going rate.
For Agenda for Change jobs the going rate is the band rate in Table 4 for the nation where the job is. Doctors (2211, 2212) and dentists (2253) have grade rates in Table 3, each stated on a set number of weekly hours. Salary means guaranteed basic gross pay: SW 14.2 excludes overtime, shift pay, allowances and one-off payments.
The salary is one requirement among several, and applying later to settle, known as indefinite leave to remain, has its own requirements. For the full route, read our Health and Care Worker visa guide and add up the fees with the visa cost calculator.
Not covered: codes whose going rates come from survey data (Tables 1 and 2), such as biomedical scientists (2113) and pharmacy technicians (3212), and care workers (6135, 6136). For those, see the going rates tables in Appendix Skilled Occupations.
FAQ
Questions about visa salary rules
For jobs paid on a national pay scale, such as NHS nursing, allied health, doctors and dentists, the rules use points option K: the salary must be at least £25,000 a year and at least the going rate for the job's occupation code, band or grade. The £41,700 figure on GOV.UK is the general Skilled Worker threshold, which these jobs do not use.
Table 4 of Appendix Skilled Occupations lists Band 5 at £29,970 in England, £31,892 in Scotland, £30,420 in Wales and £28,407 in Northern Ireland, for a 37.5-hour week (37 hours in Scotland). The same band rates apply to every listed code paid on Agenda for Change, including 2231 to 2237.
Table 4 still uses older Agenda for Change scales. NHS Employers' 2026/27 Band 5 entry point in England is £32,073, above the £29,970 going rate, so an NHS offer at a band's current entry point is above that band's going rate in the table.
The going rate is pro-rated to the weekly hours the sponsor states, but the £25,000 floor is a yearly amount and is not. At 22.5 hours a week a Band 5 going rate in England works out to £17,982, so the £25,000 floor is the figure to meet.
Table 3 lists grade rates on a 40-hour week. In England: F1 £36,616, F2 £42,008, ST/CT1 to 2 £49,909, specialty doctor £59,175 and consultant £105,504. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rows, all in the checker.
Appendix Skilled Worker SW 13.2 and 13.3 allow nurses and midwives (codes 2231 to 2237) to be paid at least the Band 3 rate in Table 4 for up to 8 months if they have passed the NMC English requirement and the CBT, and will sit the OSCE within 3 months of the job start date. The sponsor must confirm it will stop sponsoring them if they are not registered within 8 months.
No. The new entrant options (E and J, 70% of the going rate) apply to jobs whose going rates come from Tables 1 and 2. Jobs on national pay scales use option K, which has no new entrant rate.
Except for healthcare assistants (6131), Table 4 says Band 3 and Band 4 jobs can only be sponsored for people granted Skilled Worker permission under the rules in place before 22 July 2025 who have held it continuously since. Bands 1 and 2 cannot be sponsored. This is what the rules say, not advice on your case.
Sources
Where the figures come from
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