Can you change employer before Skilled Worker ILR?

01 / The residence history

The 5 years attach to qualifying permission, not loyalty to 1 employer.

Appendix Skilled Worker, SW 21.1 and SW 21.2, requires a continuous qualifying period and specifies the permitted routes. It does not require 5 years with the same employer. A lawful move from one Skilled Worker sponsor to another does not, merely because the sponsor changes, discard the earlier qualifying time.

That is not a rule that every period living or working in the UK counts. Route changes, gaps, absences and any period without permission must be examined separately. SW 22.1 imports Appendix Continuous Residence; SW 19.3 also requires the applicant to have, or last have been granted, Skilled Worker permission. Earlier Student or Graduate permission is not ordinarily interchangeable with Skilled Worker time for this calculation.

Keep the residence calculation separate from the recruitment timetable. The date a contract was signed is not necessarily the date qualifying permission began. Nor does leaving employment itself settle the question of when permission ends. Establish the grants, expiry dates, applications and any cancellation decision rather than counting from payroll records alone.

02 / The settlement sponsor

A future employer’s offer is not a substitute for the current sponsor’s confirmation.

SW 24.1 identifies the sponsor in the applicant’s most recent permission. That sponsor must remain approved to sponsor Skilled Workers on the date of decision. Under SW 24.2, it must confirm that it still requires the applicant’s work for the foreseeable future and that the required salary is being, and will continue to be, paid.

The Home Office’s Skilled Worker caseworker guidance, section 22.4, says a new Certificate of Sponsorship should not be assigned merely for settlement: a verifiable letter or email is sufficient. This dispenses with a new CoS for ILR. It does not dispense with the relationship between the relevant sponsor, the permission and the continuing job.

For an ordinary move, an offer from employer B cannot simply be attached to an ILR application based on permission sponsored by employer A as though B had already replaced A. If the move is to occur before settlement, the new Skilled Worker application and the evidence supporting later settlement need to be planned together. A sponsor licence and an assigned CoS are necessary steps in many moves; neither is the grant of permission.

03 / The employment facts

The foreseeable future confirmation must describe the real position.

The Rules do not express foreseeable future as a fixed number of months. The phrase is also not a guarantee of lifelong employment. The difficulty is a known inconsistency: a letter describing an ongoing requirement where an accepted resignation, agreed termination or other settled arrangement points to a departure already fixed.

Remaining on payroll during notice or garden leave does not, by itself, answer that forward-looking question. The employment documents, the sponsor’s actual intention and the statement proposed for the Home Office must be considered together. A general interest in future career opportunities is not the same fact as an agreed departure; the assessment should not collapse those different positions into an automatic prohibition on looking for work.

As a practical control, ask the person authorised to give the confirmation to review the current employment position before signing it. If a material change occurs while ILR is pending, obtain advice on notifying UKVI and on the continuing basis of the application. An earlier accurate letter is not a means of concealing a later change. Equally, a change does not justify assuming refusal without examining the facts and the applicable requirements.

04 / Choose a defensible sequence

ILR first and a new sponsored role first are different plans.

Applying for settlement while genuinely remaining in the existing sponsored role can be appropriate where all settlement requirements are met and the employer can give the necessary confirmation. It should not be built around a misleading letter or an assumption that a rapid decision will arrive before a known employment problem becomes visible. A priority service is not a guarantee of a decision before a contractual deadline.

Where the move must precede settlement, assess the new role, sponsor, occupation and applicable salary rules; obtain the new permission; and establish the evidence for settlement with the new sponsor. The qualifying years are not automatically lost, but the additional application, cost and evidence timetable are real. Negotiate a start date and notice arrangements which accommodate that process.

SW 21 and SW 24 do not impose a general requirement to spend a fresh 6 or 12 months with the new employer before ILR. That does not mean an immediate application will always be ready. The actual salary evidence, the credibility of the ongoing role and the new sponsor’s ability to confirm the position still matter. Probation is an employment fact to assess, not a separate statutory settlement waiting period.

05 / An application already filed

Do not treat 2 applications as parallel insurance policies.

If an ILR application is pending and a change of employer becomes necessary, identify the current permission and the status of the application before filing anything further. Under Part 1, paragraph 34BB, a further application will ordinarily vary an undecided application, with only the most recent application considered. The validity requirements, including the continuing biometrics requirement in paragraph 34BB(2A), must also be respected.

Variation is not the same act as withdrawing the existing application and starting again. Section 3C guidance explains that an undecided application can be amended while leave is extended under that section, but withdrawal ends section 3C leave. If the original permission has expired, that distinction can be decisive. A grant, refusal or administrative review introduces a different procedural position; the pending-application analysis should not be carried across without checking it.

There is no universal instruction to vary an ILR application whenever a job offer arrives. First decide whether the offer will be pursued, whether the settlement basis remains supportable and which application is now appropriate. Then document the procedural choice, its effect on settlement and the person’s lawful work position. Filing another form is not a substitute for that assessment.

06 / A separate salary assessment

A salary sufficient for the new visa may not be sufficient for settlement.

SW 24.3 sets the settlement salary requirements, with different rows for specified circumstances. The relevant general threshold and going rate must both be tested, together with the salary calculation provisions and any applicable transitional protection. Do not lift a salary conclusion from the recruitment application without checking whether the same basis is available at settlement.

The caseworker guidance expressly excludes the relevant PhD and new entrant reductions at settlement. It also excludes earnings from supplementary employment from the sponsored salary calculation. A large total remuneration package is not necessarily a qualifying salary: the permitted components, hours and occupation rate need their own calculation.

Section 22.5 addresses PAYE checks and, pending automated checks, the most recent month’s payslip and matching bank or building society evidence, dated no earlier than 31 days before application. Its reference to checking 12 months of PAYE records is not a rule requiring 12 months with the new sponsor. Where past pay does not support the claimed future salary, the guidance directs scrutiny of the explanation, including any promotion, actual increased payments and the business’s ability to sustain the increase.

For a recent move, assemble the old and new employment chronology, the current contract, the applicable CoS and grant, payroll evidence and an explanation of any apparent mismatch. Do not manufacture a clean history by omitting the previous employer, or assume an offer letter alone resolves a short or incomplete pay record. The evidential question should be identified before selecting the filing date.

07 / Protect the interval

Pending ILR is not unrestricted permission to start the new job.

GOV.UK’s change of employment guidance permits an application up to 3 months before the proposed start. It says that the worker can continue the current job or work out notice while a timely application is considered, but should not start the new job until the new permission is confirmed. The receiving employer should verify the actual right to undertake its role, not merely that an immigration application has been submitted.

Section 3C extends existing leave when its conditions are met; it ordinarily preserves the existing conditions rather than granting the conditions being requested. For a sponsored worker, a pending settlement application therefore does not itself remove the restriction to the authorised employment. Any proposed supplementary work is a separate question, not a device for beginning a replacement full time role early.

Travel also needs a separate check. Part 1, paragraph 34K, treats a pending permission-to-stay application as withdrawn on departure from the Common Travel Area. Section 3C leave ends on leaving the UK, a different geographical test. Do not infer that travel to Ireland is safe merely because it is inside the Common Travel Area. Household members’ permission and any pending applications should be checked individually before the move or travel is committed.

08 / Recognise a different transaction

A business transfer is not necessarily an ordinary job move.

The change of employment guidance recognises circumstances where a change does not require a fresh worker application, including qualifying transfers under TUPE or similar protection where the relevant conditions are met. Licence applications, sponsor reporting and the identity of the employer still require analysis. Do not apply an ordinary resignation checklist to an acquisition, or use the existence of a group relationship as proof that no action is needed.

For a deal team, the settlement question belongs alongside the transfer analysis: which entity is responsible for sponsorship, what has been reported or approved, and who can accurately confirm continuing employment? The existing corporate-change and TUPE analyses address that separate workstream. Where several employees are approaching settlement, the transaction timetable should identify them expressly rather than discover their position when individual letters are requested.

Practical questions.