Your visa is tied to the sponsor, not to you
Your permission names a sponsor, a job and an occupation code. If you want to work for a different employer, that employer must hold its own sponsor licence, assign you a new Certificate of Sponsorship, and you must apply to update your visa. Until that application is decided, you cannot start the new job.
When you do and don't need a new application
| Situation | New application needed? |
|---|---|
| New employer (new sponsor) | Yes — new certificate and an application to update your visa |
| Same employer, promotion within the same occupation code | Usually no |
| Same employer, move to a different occupation code | Yes |
| Same employer and code, pay rise | Usually no |
| Employer restructures or is taken over by a new legal entity | Often yes — depends on how the licence transfers; ask early |
| Second job alongside your sponsored role | Only in limited circumstances — check the supplementary employment rules |
The takeaway from that table is that the occupation code, not the job title, is what triggers a new application. A “Senior” prefix added to your existing title usually changes nothing; a genuine move from one professional discipline to another usually does.
The new job has to pass today's tests, not the ones you originally met
This surprises people who have been in the UK for a few years. A change-of-employment application is assessed against the rules and salary thresholds in force when the new certificate is assigned — not the ones that applied when you first arrived. Thresholds have risen substantially, with the general Skilled Worker floor at £41,700 for certificates assigned on or after 22 July 2025.
So a role that was comfortably sponsorable in 2022 might not be sponsorable today, and a lateral move at your current salary can fail. Before you resign anything, run the numbers for the new role: the requirement is the higher of the general floor and the occupation's going rate, as set out in our salary threshold guide. Every job on this site shows that calculation on the listing itself.
There are transitional arrangements for people who were already sponsored before certain rule changes, which can allow continuing on more favourable terms in defined circumstances. Whether any of them apply to a given case is precisely the kind of question worth taking to a qualified immigration adviser rather than reading off a table.
If you're made redundant or your sponsor loses its licence
Your sponsor is required to report to the Home Office when you stop working for them. That normally leads to your permission being curtailed, typically leaving a window of around 60 days from the date of the curtailment decision to find a new sponsor and apply, switch to another eligible route, or leave the UK. If your remaining permission is shorter than that window, it simply runs to its existing expiry date.
- Sixty days is short for a full search-to-offer-to-certificate cycle. Start applying immediately, and filter hard for employers already on the register.
- Prioritise roles that clear the salary threshold on base pay alone — a borderline offer that needs negotiation can burn two weeks you don't have.
- Keep every piece of correspondence. Dates matter, and the clock usually runs from the curtailment letter rather than from your last day.
- If your sponsor's licence was revoked rather than you being made redundant, the same window logic generally applies, but the circumstances differ — take advice quickly.
What it does to settlement
Changing employer does not, by itself, reset your qualifying period for settlement. What matters is continuous lawful residence in a qualifying route, and continuity is broken by gaps in permission — not by moving between sponsors. A clean switch, applied for and approved before you start the new job, generally keeps the clock running.
Two practical cautions. First, absences from the UK are counted for settlement purposes, so a long gap spent abroad between jobs can matter even when your permission is intact. Second, the qualifying period and the requirements attached to it have been the subject of repeated policy change — check the current position rather than relying on what a colleague did three years ago.
A safe sequence
- 1Confirm the new employer is on the sponsor register for the Skilled Worker route before you interview seriously.
- 2Get the occupation code and the guaranteed base salary in writing, and check both against the current threshold.
- 3Let the new employer assign the Certificate of Sponsorship.
- 4Apply to update your visa, and don't travel abroad while an in-country application is pending — leaving the UK can cause it to be treated as withdrawn.
- 5Wait for the decision. Agree a start date with the new employer that assumes processing time, and only then hand in notice if your circumstances allow.
- 6Keep your current sponsored job running until the decision arrives, wherever that's possible.
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