1. Temporary Shortage List Overview
On 12 May 2025, the government published an Immigration White Paper entitled 'Restoring Control over the Immigration System', which set out a collection of new changes to the UK Skilled Worker visa route. As part of these reforms, the government announced it would be raising the skills and salary thresholds for Skilled Worker visa applicants. These changes were duly brought into force on 22 July 2025 by the Statement of Changes HC 997, published on 01 July 2025.
This article will focus on the UK's Temporary Shortage List, a new list of lower-skilled occupations which will continue to be eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship, despite the new and higher skills thresholds introduced for Skilled Workers in July 2025.
We will look at the change to the skills threshold for Skilled Workers, what the List means for sponsoring Skilled Workers, and the future of the List in the UK.
You may also wish to refer to our previous article UK to Tighten Immigration Rules: Highlights from the 2025 White Paper.
2. New Skills Requirement for Skilled Worker Visa Applicants
There are various requirements that you have to meet in order to be sponsored as a Skilled Worker. One of those requirements is that your job needs to be sufficiently skilled. The government uses the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) to categorise qualifications based on their difficulty level. The RQF has 9 qualification levels, the lowest of which is 'Entry Level' and the highest, Level 8. A doctorate, for example, would fall under Level 8 RQF.
Before July 2025, the skill level required for a Skilled Worker was RQF Level 3 or above. Prior to 2020, the skill level for Skilled Worker occupations had been RQF Level 6, but it had been reduced to RQF Level 3 in 2020 'to help businesses adapt to the ending of free movement between the UK and EU', according to the Explanatory Memorandum published with the most recent Statement of Changes.
The government has now lifted the skills threshold for Skilled Workers back to RQF Level 6, a change which, according to the 2025 Immigration White Paper, was prompted by the 'growth in sponsored work visas, and concerns about exploitation of overseas recruits'.
Therefore, people who wish to be sponsored as a Skilled Worker in the future (and who do not already have a Skilled Worker visa) will need to be sponsored in a role which is at RQF Level 6 or above. This means that there are a number of occupations which will no longer be eligible for sponsorship, as they will no longer meet the skills requirement.
3. How Lower-Skilled Roles Qualify for Sponsorship After July 2025
If you already have a Skilled Worker visa, the changes to the rules include some transitional provisions for Skilled Worker vid holders which allow you to continue to be sponsored in an occupation which is below RQF Level 6. For example, if you were previously granted permission as a Skilled Worker under the rules in place before 22 July 2025, and you have held continuous permission since then, you may be sponsored in an occupation from a list of codes which are lower than RQF Level 6.
The Statement of Changes also introduced interim measures, including the Temporary Shortage List, to allow new entrants to the Skilled Worker route to be sponsored in roles which are a lower skill level than RQF Level 6.
4. Understanding the Temporary Shortage List for Skilled Worker Visas
The Temporary Shortage List is a specific list of occupations, with a skill level of RQF 3-5 which are still eligible for sponsorship in the Skilled Worker route. The List essentially preserves a few lower-skilled occupations, making them eligible for sponsorship despite not meeting the new, higher skills level for all other occupations, RQF Level 6.
The Temporary Shortage List, as its name suggests, includes occupations which are in long-term shortage, and have been identified by the Department for Business and Trade and His Majesty's Treasury as being 'important for the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy', according to the Explanatory Memorandum published with the recent Statement of Changes.
Currently, the List exists alongside another list of exempted occupation codes, the Immigration Salary List. The Immigration Salary List contains a number of occupations which are eligible for a reduced salary in the Skilled Worker route. In the most recent set of changes, the Immigration Salary List was also expanded to include some lower-skilled occupations which have been identified as in shortage.
It should be noted, however, that by the end of 2026 the Immigration Salary List will be entirely phased out, and replaced by the Temporary Shortage List. Therefore, in the future, we can expect that the Temporary Shortage List may be the only list of occupations through which sponsorship in a lower skill level will be possible.
5. Occupations on the UK Temporary Shortage List
The list of occupations on the Temporary Shortage List, current as of July 2025, is set out below. The List can otherwise be accessed here.
| Occupation code | Job types included on the Temporary Shortage List |
| 1243 | Managers in logistics |
| 1258 | Directors in consultancy services |
| 3111 | Laboratory technicians |
| 3112 | Electrical and electronics technicians |
| 3113 | Engineering technicians |
| 3114 | Building and civil engineering technicians |
| 3115 | Quality assurance technicians |
| 3116 | Planning, process and production technicians |
| 3120 | CAD, drawing and architectural technicians |
| 3131 | IT operations technicians |
| 3132 | IT user support technicians |
| 3133 | Database administrators and web content technicians |
| 3412 | Authors, writers and translators |
| 3414 | Dancers and choreographers |
| 3417 | Photographers, audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators |
| 3422 | Clothing, fashion and accessories designers |
| 3429 | Design occupations not elsewhere classified – only the following job types: - Industrial and product designers - Packaging designers - Performance make-up artists - Set designers - Visual merchandising managers and designers |
| 3512 | Ship and hovercraft officers |
| 3520 | Legal associate professionals |
| 3532 | Insurance underwriters |
| 3533 | Financial and accounting technicians |
| 3541 | Estimators, valuers and assessors |
| 3544 | Data analysts |
| 3549 | Business associate professionals not elsewhere classified – only the following job types: - Business support officers - Business systems analysts - Contract administrators - Clinical coders - Clinical trials administrators - Research coordinators |
| 3552 | Business sales executives |
| 3554 | Advertising and marketing associate professionals |
| 3571 | Human resources and industrial relations officers |
| 3573 | Information technology trainers |
| 4121 | Credit controllers |
| 4122 | Book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks |
| 4129 | Financial administrative occupations not elsewhere classified – only the following job types: - Box office assistants - Grants officers - Mortgage administrators - Revenue assistants (excludes National and Local government revenue occupations) - Treasury assistants |
| 4132 | Pensions and insurance clerks and assistants |
| 5213 | Welding trades |
| 5214 | Pipe fitters |
| 5223 | Metal working production and maintenance fitters |
| 5225 | Air-conditioning and refrigeration installers and repairers |
| 5231 | Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians |
| 5232 | Vehicle body builders and repairers |
| 5233 | Vehicle paint technicians |
| 5235 | Boat and ship builders and repairers |
| 5241 | Electricians and electrical fitters |
| 5242 | Telecoms and related network installers and repairers |
| 5244 | Computer system and equipment installers and servicers |
| 5245 | Security system installers and repairers |
| 5249 | Electrical and electronic trades not elsewhere classified |
| 5311 | Steel erectors |
| 5315 | Plumbers and heating and ventilating installers and repairers |
| 5319 | Construction and building trades not elsewhere classified – only the following job types: - Builders - Divers - Fence erectors - Industrial climbers - Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) operators - Steel fixers and underpinners |
| 5322 | Floorers and wall tilers |
| 5323 | Painters and decorators |
| 5330 | Construction and building trades supervisors |
| 8133 | Energy plant operatives |
6. How the UK Temporary Shortage List Works for Skilled Worker Sponsorship
Unlike the Immigration Salary List, the Temporary Shortage List does not qualify the sponsored migrant for a reduction in salary. The purpose of the list is only to allow a person to be sponsored in a lower skills threshold, which would otherwise be unavailable to them as a new entrant to the Skilled Worker route under these new rules. See our article UK Immigration Salary List 2025 for further details.
Therefore, an employer seeking to sponsor a migrant in this route must pay their Skilled Worker a salary which equals or exceeds both the general salary threshold (which was recently increased to £41,700 per year) and the occupation-specific threshold (or 'going rate') for the applicable occupation code on the Temporary Shortage List.
The 'going rate' for each code listed in the UK Temporary Shortage List is split into a 'standard rate' and 'lower rate'. In order to qualify for the lower salary rate, you must have been assigned your Certificate of Sponsorship for your first Skilled Worker visa before 04 April 2024, and have continuously held a Skilled Worker visa since then.
If you are applying for the first time for a Skilled Worker visa, and you were assigned your first Certificate of Sponsorship after 04 April 2024, then the standard rate will apply to you, not the lower rate.
7. Important Factors When Sponsoring Workers via the Temporary Shortage List
In practice, there is little difference between sponsoring a migrant in a code listed on the Temporary Shortage List or in a code on the standard SOC 2020 list. However, companies should be aware that the Temporary Shortage List is, as its name suggests, temporary. The government made it clear that the List is an interim measure, designed to mitigate long-term shortages in the UK labour market, but not to facilitate long-term access to the immigration system for lower-skilled migrants.
Indeed, according to the Explanatory Memorandum published with the most recent Statement of Changes, entries on the Temporary Shortage List are 'time-limited and conditional'. By 31 December 2026, occupations on the List will be removed and the future contents of the list (as well as visa terms and conditions for those occupations) will be reviewed and replaced by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The Explanatory Memorandum says 'occupations will only be included or retained on the list where the MAC has advised it is justified, where there is a workforce strategy in place, and where employers seeking to recruit from abroad are committed to playing their part in increasing recruitment from the domestic workforce'.
Employers should also be aware that the changes to the Temporary Shortage List are expected by 31 December 2026, but the government has reserved the right to bring this timeline forwards if 'compliance issues present on these lists'. Therefore, employers should be aware that occupations on the List are very likely to be changed by 31 December 2026, or even possibly before that date.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), who is responsible for conducting the review of the Temporary Shortage List, has said that it will publish Stage 1 of its analysis (including an assessment of which lower-skilled occupations are crucial for delivering the UK's industrial strategy) by October 2025. Stage 2 of MAC's assessment is not expected for another 12 months. Therefore, by this time next year, we expect to have a clearer sense of which occupations might be included on any List beyond 31 December 2026.
8. Impacts of the Temporary Shortage List on Migrant Workers in the UK
The increased skill level required for Skilled Workers means that many occupations which were previously eligible for sponsorship no longer meet the skills requirement and as such, there are fewer eligible occupations available for new entrants to the Skilled Worker route. The Temporary Shortage List has preserved a few lower-skilled occupations, which will benefit any migrants recruited into occupations which fall under these lower-skilled codes.
However, one significant disadvantage for sponsorship in this route is that workers sponsored in occupations at RQF Level 3-5 will not be able to bring their dependants to the UK. Workers sponsored in an occupation which is RQF Level 6 or above will still be able to bring dependants, as will any workers who were already sponsored as a Skilled Worker in an occupation at RQF Level 3-5 and eligible to bring dependants, prior to these changes to the rules.
Therefore, any new entrants to the Skilled Worker route who are sponsored in an occupation code on the Temporary Shortage List will not be able to bring their families to the UK with them. This is, of course, often a significant consideration for many when deciding whether to make a visa application.
9. Summary of Key Changes to the Temporary Shortage List
The Temporary Shortage List preserves some lower-skilled occupations, making them eligible for sponsorship in the Skilled Worker route, despite the recent increase to the skills requirement for Skilled Workers. As explained above, the Temporary Shortage List is an interim measure, and the occupations currently on the List are very likely to be changed in the future.