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How to Extend a Skilled Worker Visa: What Filipino Workers in the UK Need Before Their Visa Expires

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By iStart Editorial Team·Published November 10, 2026

How to Extend a Skilled Worker Visa: What Filipino Workers in the UK Need Before Their Visa Expires

The end date on your visa is a few months away. Three years in, the ward or the care home has become your working life, and a quiet question starts keeping you up: can I stay on, and what has to happen first?

Extending means staying with the same employer in the same job and asking the Home Office for more time. It is a fresh application, with a new certificate of sponsorship, a salary test and a fee, made before your current visa ends. Moving to a new employer or a different occupation code is a different application, which gov.uk calls updating your visa. This guide is about staying put on the route that brought you to the UK.

We see the same pattern whenever an end date gets close: the workers who plan backwards from their certificate of sponsorship stay calm. Every rule below is as gov.uk stated it on 27 October 2026.

Can a Skilled Worker visa be extended?

Yes. You can usually extend if you have the same job, in the same occupation code, with the same employer that gave you your current certificate of sponsorship (CoS). The Health and Care Worker visa adds a fourth condition: you still meet the salary requirement.

You can extend as many times as you like, as long as you still meet the eligibility requirements. Under the Immigration Rules, each grant lasts until 14 days after the CoS end date, which can be up to 5 years after its start date.

If you've changed job or employer, you apply to update your visa instead. A different role in the same occupation code with the same sponsor counts as an extension.

What changed in 2025, and who it still lets extend

Statement of Changes HC 997 lifted the skill level for the route back to RQF level 6 from 22 July 2025, removing around 180 occupations. The threshold is about the occupation, not your own qualifications.

If your job is now listed as 'medium skilled', you can still extend your Skilled Worker visa if both of these are true: you got your first certificate of sponsorship before 22 July 2025, and you have held Skilled Worker visas continuously since then. The Home Office wrote that these arrangements "will not be in place indefinitely and will be reviewed in due course." Jobs on the immigration salary list or the Temporary Shortage List are the other way in, but only with a CoS issued before 31 December 2026.

What did not get a transition is pay. The explanatory memorandum says "there are no transitional arrangements relating to the updates to salary requirements", so every extension is tested against the going rates in force on the day you apply.

If you are a care worker or senior care worker

New visas from outside the UK for codes 6135 (care workers and home carers) and 6136 (senior care workers) did close in 2025. But the Immigration Rules let someone who already has permission sponsored in those codes apply to stay. The 22 July 2028 date belongs to people switching in from another visa after three months' legal work for their sponsor. It is not your extension deadline.

In England your employer must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, unless you have been sponsored as a care worker continuously since before 11 March 2024 and are staying with the same sponsor. On the Health and Care Worker visa, the Home Office's sponsor guidance says pay in these codes must be at least £25,000 a year and £12.82 an hour.

Your employer's part: a new certificate of sponsorship

Every extension needs a new CoS, even for the same job with the same employer. The Home Office's sponsor guidance says a sponsor that wants to keep you in the same role "must assign them a new Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)", and a certificate already used in a decided application is not valid again. It is an electronic record with a reference number, carrying your job title, occupation code and salary.

The guidance says the start date on the new CoS should be the day after your current permission ends. That date sets your application window, so ask your employer early, in writing, when they will assign it.

The Immigration Skills Charge and the CoS fee are the sponsor's costs, not yours. The guidance says a sponsor "must not pass on any of the ISC to, or attempt to recoup it from" a sponsored worker, and will normally lose its licence if it does. The same ban covers the CoS fee and its admin costs for any certificate assigned from 31 December 2024. If an employer asks you to repay either, treat it as a red flag.

A card titled Who pays what on an extension sorts the costs into three groups. Paid by your sponsor, not by you: the Immigration Skills Charge, and the certificate of sponsorship fee and its admin costs for any certificate assigned from 31 December 2024. Paid by you: the application fee, and the immigration health surcharge unless you are on the Health and Care Worker visa. Free: fingerprints and photo. An employer asking you to repay the sponsor costs is a red flag.

The salary requirement you meet again

The general rule is £41,700 a year or the going rate for your occupation, whichever is higher. Healthcare and education jobs paid on national pay scales use a different floor: at least £25,000, or more if the pay-scale going rate is higher. If you are a nurse on the Health and Care Worker visa, your floor comes from gov.uk's table of national pay scales.

If your first CoS came before 4 April 2024 and you have held Skilled Worker visas continuously, you can be paid the higher of £31,300 or the lower going rate for your occupation, for applications made before 4 April 2030. gov.uk adds that your salary "will still need to rise in line with the updated going rates each time you apply."

Only guaranteed pay counts toward the salary requirement (basic gross pay, and guaranteed payments treated exactly like it), and it must be paid in every pay period. If you came in on the new-entrant rate, that option has a ceiling of 4 years in total across Skilled Worker, Graduate and Tier 2 time.

An extension is a moment your career is written down again. The code and salary on the new CoS become the record that your next extension, and one day your settlement application, is measured against. So treat it as a career conversation, not paperwork: does the certificate reflect what you do now, and what is the next rung? The workers we see settle well kept growing in the job, and their pay kept pace.

A Filipino nurse in navy scrubs reads a thick clinical textbook at a table in a quiet hospital staff room in England after his shift.

How much a Skilled Worker visa extension costs

From inside the UK, the application fee is £943 per person for up to 3 years, or £1,865 for more than 3 years. Jobs on the immigration salary list pay £628 or £1,235. On the Health and Care Worker visa the fee is £324 or £628, and you and your family pay no healthcare surcharge.

Everyone else pays the immigration health surcharge, usually £1,035 a year, for any length of stay when applying from inside the UK. Fingerprints and photo are free, and you need not show savings after 12 months in the UK on a valid visa.

Both visas' extensions are listed for faster decisions: priority costs £500 and usually decides within 5 working days, and super priority costs £1,000 and usually decides by the end of the next working day. Places are limited, and the fee is not usually refunded if it takes longer. Pay every fee only through the official online application.

When to apply to extend, and what happens while you wait

Under the Home Office's sponsor guidance, you can apply up to 3 months before the start date on your new CoS, and that start date should be the day after your current visa ends, so in practice your window opens about three months before your visa expires.

The latest date is simple: before your current visa expires. The guidance says an application made after permission has expired will be refused, unless a narrow exception in the Rules applies. That exception is not a grace period to plan around. If your employer has not assigned the CoS as the date nears, ask again in writing, and never let your current visa expire while you wait.

If you applied in time, you can continue working in the same role while the application is considered. The Home Office's section 3C guidance explains that your existing permission is extended until the decision, so you do not become an overstayer while waiting. Do not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man: your application is withdrawn if you do.

Four steps, When to apply to extend: your employer assigns a new certificate of sponsorship whose start date should be the day after your current visa ends; your window opens up to 3 months before that start date; apply before your visa expires, as a late application is refused unless a narrow exception applies; while you wait, if you applied in time, you can keep working in the same role but must not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

A decision usually comes within 8 weeks on the Skilled Worker visa, or 3 weeks on the Health and Care Worker visa; it can take longer, for example if documents need verifying. If you cancel, the fee is only refunded if UKVI has not started processing your application.

How to apply to extend your visa

You apply online, and you can save the form and complete it later. Health and Care Worker holders use the Skilled Worker form and answer yes to the Health and Care Worker question. You prove your identity with the UK Immigration: ID Check app (it also signs you into your account with UK Visas and Immigration, or UKVI) or with fingerprints and a photo at a UKVCAS service point. Have ready your CoS reference number, job title, salary, occupation code, and your employer's name and sponsor licence number.

On English: if you had this visa before 8 January 2026, you need B1 and you do not need to prove it again.

Your partner and children

Their visas do not extend automatically. Each dependant applies separately, with you or any time before their own visa expires, including children who turned 18 during your stay. If you are a care worker or in a 'medium skilled' job, check the conditions for a partner or child staying as your dependant, which turn on your employment since before 11 March 2024 or 22 July 2025.

What happens after 5 years on a Skilled Worker visa

The Immigration Rules require a continuous period of 5 years for settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain (ILR). You can spend no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months, and you can apply 28 days before you reach 5 years. You must continue to be needed for your job and be paid at least the required salary, your employer must confirm it, and your sponsor must still be licensed when the decision is made; if you are 18 to 64 you must also pass the Life in the UK Test.

From 26 March 2027, settlement applications need English at B2; that is already in the Rules. Separately, the Home Office's earned settlement consultation of 20 November 2025 proposed moving the starting point to 10 years, with reductions for some groups, and with transitional arrangements for people already in the UK to be set out after consultation. As of 27 October 2026 it is a proposal, not the rule; check again as your five years near.

After ILR, the Home Office says applying for citizenship usually needs at least 12 months living in the UK after settlement, among other requirements.

If your employer is holding back your CoS, passport or pay

The UK government's guidance on labour exploitation lists an employer confiscating your passport or ID, and pay below the minimum wage or no pay at all, among the signs of forced labour. The UK Modern Slavery Helpline is 0800 121 700. If this is happening to you, read what the helpline does for workers whose employer controls their papers.

Before You Apply to Extend

  • Write down your visa end date and count back three months.
  • Ask your employer, in writing, when they will assign your new CoS.
  • Check the job title, occupation code and salary on it.
  • Work out which salary rule applies to you: the general rule, the pay scales, the care codes, or the 4 April 2024 group.
  • Budget the fee and the surcharge, or confirm you are on the Health and Care Worker visa.
  • Plan no travel outside the UK and Ireland until the decision.
  • Diarise your partner's and children's applications.
  • Keep payslips and every CoS reference in one folder for your five-year application.

The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most

How many times can I extend my Skilled Worker visa? As many times as you like, as long as you still meet the eligibility requirements.

When should I apply to extend, for example three years into a Tier 2 or Skilled Worker visa? No more than 3 months before the start date on your new CoS, which should be the day after your current visa ends, and always before your visa expires.

Can I keep working while my extension is being decided? Yes, if you applied before your visa expired. You can continue working in the same role, and section 3C extends your permission until the decision.

Do the new settlement proposals change my five years? As of 27 October 2026, the Immigration Rules say 5 years, with B2 English required for applications from 26 March 2027. The 10-year earned settlement model is a proposal, not the rule.

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