Discover the UK’s potential to offer you the best of job opportunities in industrial sectors like banking & finance, healthcare, IT, banking, and construction. Plan to work in UK by procuring a work visa that suits your professional requirements.
The UK work visa is a visa pathway that is highly encouraged to skilled workers around the world considering the UK is one of the strongest economies even after separating from the EU and going through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Understand the features, processes, and procedures related to work in UK. Learn what it takes to acquire a work visa and what are the possibilities in store for you to become a permanent resident in the UK. Let’s talk more about the UK work visa and the pathways that lead you to the opportunity to work in UK.
Here are some interesting facts about the UK.
It’s a big decision to live and work in UK. Before you plan to take a work visa in the UK, learn the best reasons why it’s recommended to take a UK work visa.
Before moving to the UK on a work visa, learn about the most important cities in the country. Here they are:
Exceptional talent visa:
This Exceptional talent visa is for highly skilled migrants who can be referred to as exceptional talent or exceptional promise in their field. This visa lasts up to 5 years and four months and can be extended up to 5 years.
Entrepreneur visa:
This visa is for starting your own business in the UK. With this visa, you can even run multiple companies in the UK. Although, you can’t work for anybody else with this visa.
Skilled worker visa:
If an individual has a skilled job offer in the UK, then a Tier 2 General visa is the best route in the UK. The employer must be registered as a licensed sponsor to receive a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), as you will need this for your visa application.
The visa timing is generally for the specific duration on the certificate of sponsorship plus one month. But it shouldn’t exceed more than five years and 14 days.
You can acquire a UK skilled worker visa by targeting occupations currently experiencing a shortage of labour skills.
Intra-company Transfer visa:
This visa is for employees who are transferred abroad to work in the UK branch of their business. It allows the individual to fill the overseas post, start working in the UK, and bring family members with them.
Youth Mobility Scheme visa:
This all–trade visa will allow you to study, work, and set up your own business or travel, combining features of all four tiers 1, 2 and 4 but with more restrictions. For this visa, an individual has to be within the 18-30 age range.
You can live and work in the UK for a maximum of 2 years. There is no option for a visa extension.
Temporary worker visa:
This visa is for Government Authorized Exchange, which allows an individual to work in the UK as long as they have a sponsor but for a short-term purpose only. Once the sponsorship certificate is offered, you can work in the UK, even study and have a second (temporary) job, and bring family members for short-term purposes.
Top occupations in demand
Here are the many options for a work visa offered by the UK. Check out some of the UK work visa options.
The demand in the tech world is changing and the IT and tech skills have become a necessity for companies due to the latest trends. The skills that are in demand in the UK are as follows:
Most in-demand programming languages
For the front end technologies, JavaScript is being used. There are many businesses that are using these programming languages to make their [processes streamlined across all the systems.
DevOps
DevOps is combination of tools, cultural philosophy and practices that is used to automate the process between software development and it teams. This is the fastest growing skill in the UK and is in high demand.
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence is also an emerging technology and it is in high demand in the UK for different types of jobs mentioned below:
Cloud Computing
Storage is always a necessity in the computer world and cloud computing has enhanced the computing power and data storage. Now the cloud computing market has become a fast growing industry and the cloud computing professionals are in high demand.
Cybersecurity
UK has faced many cybercrime attacks in the recent years. Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand to counter these attacks.
CRM
The CRM skills have been increased by 14 percent since last year. This has helped in providing jobs to more than 7.2 million professionals globally.
Top IT Designations in the UK
Job Title |
Average starting salary |
Dev Ops Engineer | £40,000 |
Software Engineer | £35,000 |
Python Developer | £35,000 |
Data Scientist | £31,000 |
Software Developer | £27,000 |
Cyber Security Specialist | £25,000 |
Mobile Application Developer | £20,000 |
Top Industry in UK – Tier 2 Sponsor
Industry | Cloud Companies |
Information Technology | 4074 |
Retail | 2714 |
Manufacturing | 2372 |
Management | 2362 |
Hospitality | 2064 |
HR & Admin | 2024 |
BFSI | 1505 |
Engineering (Construction) | 807 |
List of UK Visa Sponsored Employers (Y-Directories) Tier – 2
Industry | Count |
IT | 5641 |
BFSI | 2651 |
Engineering | 1264 |
Healthcare | 2712 |
Hospitality | 983 |
Sales & Marketing | 1247 |
Education | 2629 |
Automotive | 435 |
Oil & Gas | 488 |
FMCG | 321 |
Accounting | 510 |
Restaurants | 1411 |
Pharmaceuticals | 415 |
Chemicals | 159 |
Construction | 1141 |
Biotechnology | 311 |
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | 954 |
Telecommunications | 250 |
Non-Profit/Volunteering | 883 |
Machinery | 655 |
Industry wise jobs on the Rise 2022 – UK – LinkedIn
Industry | Designation | Most Common Skills | Top Hiring Locations | Remote Jobs Availability |
Information Technology | Machine Learning Engineer | Deep Learning, TensorFlow, Machine Learning, Python | London, Cambridge, Edinburgh | 18.10% |
Data Scientist | ||||
Software Engineer | ||||
Data Engineer | ||||
Site Reliability Engineer | Terraform, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) | London, Edinburgh, Newcastle upon Tyne | 41.30% | |
DevOps Consultant | ||||
System Administrator | ||||
Salesforce Administrator | Salesforce.com Administration, Salesforce.com Implementation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | London, Leeds, Sheffield | 28.20% | |
Salesforce Consultant | ||||
Customer Relationship Management Analyst | ||||
Business Analyst | ||||
Computer Vision Engineer | Computer Vision, OpenCV, Image Processing | London, Edinburgh, Cambridge | 26.50% | |
Software Engineer | ||||
Machine Learning Engineer | ||||
Data Engineer |
Aache, Spark, Hadoop, Python (Programming Language) |
London, Edinburgh, Manchester | 27.40% | |
Data Analyst | ||||
Business Intelligence Developer | ||||
Back End Developer | Go (Programming Language), Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS) | London, Manchester, Glasgow | 43.80% | |
Full Stack Engineer | ||||
Web Developer | ||||
Procurement | Import Specialist | Freight Forwarding, Customs Regulations, International Logistics | London, Felixstowe, Manchester, Dover | 3.40% |
Import Manager | ||||
Import Clerk | ||||
Freight Forwarder | ||||
Import Export Specialist | ||||
Sales & Marketing | Business Development Representative | Product Management, Product Strategy, Agile Methodologies | London, Glasgow, Oxford | 21.10% |
Strategy Associate | ||||
Vice President of Products | ||||
Director of Product Management, Chief Product Officer, Vice President of Product Strategy, Head of Product, Product Team Manager | ||||
Human Resource | Chief Human Resources Officer | Succession Planning, Culture Change, Talent Management, Employee Engagement, | London, Belfast, Manchester | 13.70% |
Talent Management, Chief People Officer, Vice President of Human Resources, Director of HR Operations | ||||
Diversity and Inclusion Manager | ||||
Talent Acquisition Specialist | Recruiting, Sourcing, Interviewing | Greater Manchester, Leeds | 23.00% | |
Talent Acquisition Manager, Recruiter, Delivery Consultant, etc. | ||||
Education | Career Counsellor | Coaching, Career Development, Training Delivery | London, Birmingham, Manchester | 20.60% |
Career Advisor | ||||
Writing/ Publishing & Media Communications | Content Designer | User Experience (UX), Content Strategy, Web Content Writing | London, Edinburgh, Manchester | 21.60% |
Content Coordinator, Brand Designer | ||||
Copywriter, Editor, Content Manager | ||||
Pharma/ Healthcare | Laboratory Operations Manager | Life Sciences, Molecular Biology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) | Glasgow, London, Manchester | 2.00% |
Laboratory Supervisor | ||||
Laboratory Assistant | ||||
Medical Laboratory Scientist | ||||
Laboratory Operations Manager | ||||
Environmental Science/ Health & Safety | Sustainability Manager | Sustainable Development, BREEAM, Sustainability Reporting, Environmental Awareness | London, Manchester, Bristol | 8.30% |
Public Health Officer | ||||
Project Manager, | ||||
Public Health Specialist |
Top 5 Industries in UK (General)
Industry | Employment number |
Supermarkets in the UK | 1,288,724 |
Hospitals in the UK | 852,944 |
Charities in the UK | 836,335 |
Temporary-Employment Placement Agencies in the UK | 708,703 |
General Secondary Education in the UK | 695,038 |
Top Companies in UK (Fortune 500)
RANK | NAME | REVENUES ($M) |
1 | Walmart | $5,59,151 |
2 | Amazon | $3,86,064 |
3 | Apple | $2,74,515 |
4 | CVS Health | $2,68,706 |
5 | UnitedHealth Group | $2,57,141 |
6 | Berkshire Hathaway | $2,45,510 |
7 | McKesson | $2,31,051 |
8 | Amerisource Bergen | $1,89,893.90 |
9 | Alphabet | $1,82,527 |
10 | Exxon Mobil | $1,81,502 |
Skilled Worker visa
A Skilled Worker visa is for you if you want to move to the UK and do a job deemed eligible with an approved employer. This visa is a replacement for the earlier Tier 2 (General) Work Visa.
To be eligible for this work visa, you have to
The validity of the visa is 5 years after which it has to be extended. You may even apply for settling in the UK permanently.
Health and Care Worker visa
This visa allows medical professionals to arrive and stay in the UK and do jobs deemed eligible with the NHS, a supplier for NHS, or in adult social care.
To be eligible for this work visa, you have to
A confirmed job offer must be acquired before applying for the visa. The validity of the visa is 5 years after which it has to be extended. You may even apply for settling in the UK permanently.
Intra-company visas
This work visa comes in handy when you want to move to stay in the UK and engage in employment in a job deemed eligible at your employer’s branch. This visa could be either of the 2 as given below:
To be eligible for this category of visas, you have to:
Duration of Intra-company Transfer Visa is the shorter of the following:
Duration of Intra-company Graduate Trainee Visa is the shorter of the following:
Temporary Work – Charity Worker visa
This visa is for you if you want to do unpaid work of a voluntary nature for a charity.
Temporary Work – Creative Worker visa
This visa is for you if you have a job offer in the role of a creative worker in the UK.
Temporary Work – Government Authorised Exchange visa
This visa is for you if you
Temporary Work – International Agreement visa
You are eligible to apply for this work visa if you will be available for a contract to work in a job covered by international law/treaty while in the UK. E.g., you will be
Youth Mobility Scheme visa
You can apply for this visa if you
With this visa, you can live and work in UK for not more than 24 months.
Graduate visa
With this visa, you can live and work in UK for not less than 2 years after you have completed doing a course in the country successfully.
To apply for this work visa, you must be in the UK. Besides that, you have to meet the following criteria:
The visa has a duration of up to 2 years. If you possess a Ph.D. or other doctoral qualification, the duration will be 3 years. The visa cannot be extended. To extend your stay you must switch to another type of visa.
To apply for the UK work visa, you can follow the steps given below:
Step 1: Check your eligibility with the Y-Axis UK points calculator
Step 2: Choose the type of UK work visa
Step 3: Arrange the requirements for the Visa
Step 4: Apply for the UK work visa
Step 5: Await the status of your Visa
Step 6: Fly to the UK
You can apply for this Visa three months before working in the UK. The starting date will be mentioned in the certificate of sponsorship you will receive from your UK employer.
You will decide on your Visa within three weeks of your application. With the UK government including more occupations in the Shortage Occupation List, the processing time is expected to be reduced for many applicants.
Here is the list of UK work visas:
Type of visa | Application fee |
Skilled Worker Visa | £625 to £1,423, depending on your situation |
Start-up visa | £378 |
Graduate Work Visa | £715 |
Youth Mobility scheme | £259 |
Global Business Mobility Worker Visa | £259 |
Temporary Worker Visa | £259 |
Y-Axis is the immigration consultant of choice for serious applicants for UK immigration. Our thorough process and end-to-end support ensure you take the right action at every step. We help you with:
Talk to us to evaluate your chances and make an informed decision.
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