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 originally planned still needs to verify 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 visa transfer to ILR, which level is the annual salary based on?

The standard rate requires both an annual salary of £41,700 and the going rate for the relevant occupation (the salary specified for 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, but it was 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 code is the same, you still need to confirm whether you are subject to the standard salary table or the lower salary table. Here, we are verifying 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, you also need 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 is more useful than just remembering the year of employment.

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 of £31,300, and also 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 does not by itself mean losing the transitional eligibility; the permission records and other conditions still need to be verified.

特定医疗岗位也可能适用£31,300档，不能只凭进入英国的年份决定自己属于哪组。

其余常见分支可以这样定位：最近一次许可的担保岗位属于Immigration Salary List（移民薪资清单），且不适用更具体分支的，表中有£33,400档；符合表列条件的医疗、教育及部分其他岗位，可到£25,000档。每档还要同时达到相应职业工资。少数旧Tier 2科研等岗位另有过渡条款，需要核对SW 24.3的具体行。医疗教育的职业工资还可能按国家工资等级、地区和岗位级别确定，公立与私立雇主都可能适用，行业名称不能替代职业代码核对。

改成四天工作，门槛也能打折吗？

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

Guidance on Section 13 of the Work Visa Application and Sponsor Guidance SK7.11 clearly states that part-time positions are assessed based on actual pre-tax annual income, not by converting it to full-time income to determine if the threshold is met. For a pure calculation example, suppose a position is subject to a general threshold of £41,700, with a salary of £45,000 for a 37.5-hour weekly job; if changed to a 30-hour weekly job, 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, and then sign 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 just leave a single column for "full-time equivalent annual salary". If the so-called four-day workweek is simply compressing the original working hours into four days, with the same salary amount, it should be re-evaluated according to the actual arrangement; the result may differ 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 leave within the month prior to the application, the salary upon return should be assessed according to the guarantor's explanation. This means that individuals who meet the criteria do not need to determine their ineligibility solely based on their lower maternity leave salary for that month. The nature of the leave, start and end dates, and the terms of return 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 continue to be used. Personnel certification should ideally clearly indicate which day's work arrangement the stated salary corresponds to, and should be consistent with the records of contract changes.

After living for five years, is the leave taken in between considered continuous?

As of the date of this verification, the current work visa appendix SW 21.1 still stipulates a five-year eligibility period. A qualified permit is required to cover the corresponding period and meet the continuous residence conditions; the five-year work experience record itself cannot replace these two checks.

Changing employers does not automatically recalculate the five years.

Continuously residing also requires separate verification of overseas stay. Under the current "Immigration Rules" Appendix Continuous Residence, CR 3.1 generally requires that any departure from the country does not exceed 180 days within any twelve-month period. For those preparing to return to their home country for maternity leave, salary will be assessed according to the return-to-work treatment, and this period abroad will not be automatically exempted from calculation. Approval of leave by the employer can indicate the work arrangement, but it still requires separate review of the departure rules; if the person remains in the UK during the maternity leave, no additional days abroad will be added. Work leave 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 need to be exactly the same. Continuous residence review focuses on the time spent overseas and applicable exceptions, while salary review focuses on work arrangements and eligible salary. By organizing in this way, the application statement can specifically explain which period is only absence from work, and which period involves leaving the country, avoiding using a single leave approval to cover the entire experience.

The express delivery has been sent, 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 occupation codes; if there is a specified leave for maternity or other reasons, the return date and treatment; continued employment arrangements. According to Guideline Home Office section 22.4, there is no need to issue another CoS for permanent residency confirmation, as a verifiable email or letter will suffice. Check the visa transition and travel records yourself, then verify the English, Life in the UK, and other application requirements as applicable; the salary and residence verification in this text cannot replace the entire qualification review. If the reduced hours, salary adjustment or return date are still not confirmed, the current calculation can only be considered as a plan, not as proof of meeting the requirements at the time of submission.

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

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