Can the salary threshold for the work permit ILR be discounted? Part-time and residence requirements

Check the work permit and permanent residency salary, annual salary, hourly wage, and full-time converted salary are all mixed together, really complicated.

Especially when preparing to work one day less, take maternity leave, or return home to be with family: once the contract benefits are negotiated, whether the permanent residency application can proceed as planned still depends on verifying another set of conditions. This article answers four questions based on the current rules found on October 3, 2026, focusing on how salary and continuous residence should be checked together after changes in work arrangements.

Work permit transfer to ILR, which level is the annual salary based on?

The standard grade requires both an annual salary of £41,700 and the going rate for the relevant occupation (the salary specified by the occupation), with the higher one being actually adopted.

The UK government's work visa settlement salary explanation gave an example: an annual salary of £42,000, with a job-specific salary of £45,000, which is still insufficient. Check your own figures, you need to find the SOC occupation code from the sponsorship certificate CoS, then check the applicable occupation salary table and weekly working hours. Even if the job titles are similar, they may not use the same code; even if the codes are the same, you need to confirm whether you are subject to the standard salary table or the lower salary table. Here, we verify the pre-tax annual salary that meets the rules, the after-tax income received monthly by the bank cannot be directly multiplied by twelve for comparison. When checking the table, it is also necessary to keep the table name and verification date, to avoid directly copying the old amount used for the current work visa application into this settlement material.

For those approaching five years, another key document is the version of the rules applicable to the first work permit. Keeping old CoS and approval records will be more useful than just remembering the year of entry.

Those who obtained a work visa under the rules prior to April 4, 2024, have continuously held the work visa permission and apply before April 4, 2030, may use the transitional route: general threshold £31,300, and meet the applicable lower going rate. The basis is SW 4.2(b) and SW 24.3 of the current Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker. The continuity here refers to the work visa permission; changing employers itself does not equal to losing the transitional eligibility; the permission records and other conditions still need to be verified.

Certain medical positions may also be eligible for the £31,300 band, and your group cannot be determined solely by the year you entered the UK.

Other common branches can be located as follows: the most recent licensed guarantee position belongs to the Immigration Salary List (immigration salary list), and if it does not apply to a more specific branch, it is listed at £33,400; medical, education, and some other positions that meet the conditions in the table can reach the £25,000 level. Each level must also meet the corresponding occupation's salary. A few old Tier 2 research positions and others have separate transitional provisions, which need to be verified according to SW 24.3. The occupation salaries for medical and education may be determined by national wage levels, regions, and job levels, and may apply to both public and private employers. The industry name cannot replace the occupation code for verification.

Can the threshold also be discounted if it's changed to a four-day workweek?

Under normal reduced working hours arrangement, the general annual salary threshold does not decrease with working hours; going rate is calculated according to applicable rules. These two items need to be calculated separately.

Guidance for Tier 2 visa applications, section 13, and the sponsor guidance SK7.11 clearly state that part-time work is assessed based on actual pre-tax annual income, not by converting it into full-time income to determine if the threshold is met. For a pure calculation example, suppose a position has a general threshold of £41,700, with a salary of £45,000 corresponding to 37.5 hours per week; if changed to 30 hours per week, the salary is converted to £36,000, while the general threshold remains £41,700. If the actual annual salary also drops to £36,000, the salary condition will not be met.

My judgment is: those who are planning to switch to part-time before obtaining permanent residency should first obtain a written salary calculation under the new working hours before signing the reduced hours agreement.

When accounting, the human resources department should clearly state the actual weekly working hours, actual annual salary, job code, and applicable threshold. It should not only leave the "full-time equivalent annual salary" field. If the so-called four-day workweek is just compressing the original working hours into four days, with the same salary amount, it should be re-verified according to the actual arrangement; the result may be different from that of working one day less per week and receiving a portion of the salary less. Whether the arrangement can maintain the guarantee conditions also needs the employer's simultaneous confirmation.

Temporary low pay due to maternity leave, and there are specific provisions.

A detail that is easy to overlook in SW 24.4(b): If an employee has left their position due to specified reasons such as statutory maternity leave, or has just returned from such absence within the month prior to the application, the salary upon return should be assessed according to the guarantor's explanation. This means that those who meet the terms do not need to determine their eligibility solely based on the lower maternity leave salary of that month. The nature of the leave, start and end dates, and the return benefits should be clearly explained; if after returning to work, the employee is subsequently changed to a long-term part-time position, it should still be calculated based on the actual arrangement, and the full-time salary that is no longer applicable should not be used anymore. Personnel certification should clearly indicate which day's work arrangement corresponds to the stated salary, and it should match the records of contract changes.

住够五年，中间休假还算连续吗？

As of the date of this verification, the current work permit appendix SW 21.1 still stipulates a five-year eligibility period. A valid permit is required to cover the corresponding period, and the continuous residence condition must be met; the five-year work experience record itself cannot replace these two verifications.

Changing employers does not automatically recalculate the five years.

Continuous residence still requires separate verification of time spent outside the country. Under the current "Immigration Rules" Appendix Continuous Residence, CR 3.1 generally requires that time spent outside the country in any twelve-month period does not exceed 180 days. For those preparing to return to their home country for maternity leave, salary will be assessed according to the terms upon returning to work, and this does not automatically exempt this period of absence from being counted. Approval of leave by the employer can indicate the work arrangement, but separate verification of the departure rules is still required; if the person remains in the UK throughout the maternity leave, no additional days outside the country will be added. Leave for work and leaving the UK should be clearly stated separately in the documents.

If a serious illness or other special circumstances occur during the overseas period, it can be verified according to CR 3.4 whether it meets the criteria for deductible absence, and corresponding evidence should be prepared.

When organizing the records, you can list the leave start and end dates together with the actual departure and return dates to the UK: the holiday may start before the departure, or may be after returning to work, the two sets of dates do not have to be exactly the same. The continuous residence review focuses on the time spent overseas and applicable exceptions, while the salary review focuses on the work arrangement and eligible salary. By organizing in this way, the application statement can specifically explain which period is only a leave of absence, and which period involves leaving the country, avoiding using a single leave approval to summarize the entire experience.

The package has been delivered, what should be confirmed by the personnel department?

According to SW 24.1 to SW 24.2, the most recent sponsor who has been approved must still have the qualification to sponsor a work permit at the time the decision is made, and must confirm that they will need the applicant's work and pay an acceptable salary in the foreseeable future.

You can concentrate all pending matters in one email: current and planned working hours, salary and job code; if on maternity leave or other specified absence, the return date and treatment; continued employment arrangements. According to Section 22.4 of the Case Handling Guidelines, there is no need to issue an additional CoS for confirming the sponsorship relationship for settlement, a verifiable email or letter will suffice. Check the visa transition and travel records yourself, and then verify the English, Life in the UK and other application requirements as applicable; the salary and residence verification in this document cannot replace the full qualification review. If the reduced hours, salary adjustment or return date is still not confirmed, the current calculation can only be considered as a plan, and cannot be directly regarded as proof of meeting the requirements at the time of submission.

If working hours, salary, or the date of return to the UK change before submission, the original application date needs to be re-verified.

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