UK Skilled Worker visa Part 1 Introduction

03 Dec 2021

After being offered a PDRA position in the United Kingdom (UK) I found that applying UK VISA was a huge huddle from India. As I went along the visa process I notice that I wasted days waiting for some official document to be approved, and not realizing that I could move on to prepare other required documents needed for the visa. I hope this blog series could help PhD students from India with applying for a skilled worker visa as time efficiently as possible.

Firstly, a Skilled work visa is not the only route for skilled jobs in the UK. Another very attractive route to the UK is with a Global Talent visa (Tier 1). But Global Talent visa is much difficult to be approved than a Skilled work visa. If you have a permanent job, or a contract for more than two years you may be eligible to apply for Global Talent visa.

A Skilled Worker visa (Tier 2) allows you to come to or stay in the UK to do an eligible job with an approved employer. This visa has replaced the formerly called Tier 2 (General) work visa. The best place to know more about the visa, or the routes to apply this visa is the Official UK Skilled visa website. Unlike other official websites, UK visa website is clean and well organized.

Once you receive your offer/appointment letter from a UK university/laboratory, you can start your visa application. The documents you will need to apply for a Skilled worker visa are:

A valid passport
Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate
Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)
Verified PhD degree certificate via ECCTIS
Proof for English proficiency via ECCTIS
Tuberculosis (TB) screening test report

Below is a list of all the articles in this blog series.