Architects and UK immigration law - RIBA

What do architects need to know about Skilled Worker visas?

The UK government has dramatically raised minimum salary thresholds for foreign workers seeking to work in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa, potentially making it more difficult for practices to hire architects from abroad.

This minimum salary threshold is one of the headlines from a large list of legislative updates and changes, which came into effect on 4 April 2024.

Foreign workers seeking Skilled Worker visas will need to be paid a minimum of £38,700 – nearly 50% up on the previous threshold of £26,200 - or the government-determined ‘going rate’ for occupations, whichever is higher. For architects (who have a Standard Occupational Code (SOC) 2451), the minimum ‘going rate’ salary has been raised to £45,900 from 4 April 2024.

This is the minimum annual salary based on a 37.5 hour week, which can be prorated for other working patterns, such as 40 hours a week.

While architects and architectural technicians are skilled roles, allowing them still to be employed by practices that have a sponsorship license, both are no longer on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which allows employers to pay 80% of the going rate.

Architects were added to the SOL in October 2020, post-Brexit and following RIBA lobbying. But as part of the recent immigration changes the SOL has been replaced by an Interim Immigration Salary List (which will be reviewed later this year) with a greatly reduced number of just 23 eligible occupations.

Practices may need to consider opting for SOC 2452 (chartered architectural technologists, planning officers and consultants) with a going rate of £36,600 or SOC 3120 (CAD, drawing and architectural technicians) with a going rate of £31,200, if the applicant is not a UK qualified architect and is training to become an architect and be added to the ARB register.