New Entrant & PhD Visa Exceptions: 30% Off the £41,700 Threshold (UK 2026)

1. Who qualifies as a New Entrant

The Home Office defined the New Entrant rate to keep the Skilled Worker route accessible to high-potential graduates and junior talent the UK actively wants to retain. You qualify if you meet any one of these criteria at the date you submit your visa application:

• Age: You are under 26 on the date of application.
• Recent Student/Graduate status: You are switching from a Student visa or Graduate Route visa, or your most recent UK visa expired less than 2 years ago and was a Student or Graduate visa.
• Regulated profession trainee: Your role is a recognised step towards a regulated qualification — qualifying as an architect, accountant, solicitor, actuary, surveyor, etc. The role must be on the sponsor's CoS as a recognised training position.
• Postdoctoral researcher: The role is a recognised postdoctoral research position at a UK higher education institution.

Note: criteria are any-of, not all-of. A 30-year-old solicitor-trainee qualifies. A 25-year-old developer with no Student/Graduate history qualifies (on age alone). A 28-year-old switching from a Graduate visa qualifies (on recent status).

2. The 30% discount, in numbers

New Entrant maths is a two-step test:

1. Take the SOC code's published going rate.
2. Discount it by 30%. Floor the result at £33,400 (the absolute new entrant minimum). Your salary must be at least the higher of those two figures.

The discount only ever reduces the SOC-going-rate component of the threshold test. The £33,400 floor cannot be undercut, and the £17.13/hour hourly minimum still applies regardless of weekly hours.

Practical takeaway: for SOC codes with going rates between roughly £42,000 and £47,000, the New Entrant rate effectively means the £33,400 floor. For going rates above ~£48,000, the 30% discount delivers a real reduction below £34,000.

3. The PhD discount

PhD-based discounts work similarly to New Entrant but with smaller percentages and no age requirement:

• Relevant PhD (any subject): 10% off the SOC going rate. PhD must be relevant to the duties of the role.
• STEM PhD relevant to the role: 20% off the going rate. STEM here is broader than common interpretation — it includes mathematics, computer science, all engineering disciplines, all natural and life sciences, and most quantitative subjects.

The PhD discount also has hard floors — currently aligned with the standard general threshold. The PhD route has no four-year cap and no age limit, which makes it the better long-term option for older applicants who would otherwise age out of New Entrant.

4. Stacking discounts: what is and isn't allowed

Discounts do not stack. You take the most favourable single discount applicable to you. A 24-year-old STEM PhD holder switching from a Graduate visa cannot combine the New Entrant 30% with the STEM PhD 20% — they pick whichever delivers the lower threshold for their specific SOC code (usually New Entrant). The SOC going rate's hourly floor still applies.

5. The four-year cap that catches Graduate visa switchers

New Entrant status is capped at four years total across your immigration history. The clock includes:

• Time spent on a Graduate visa (typically 2 years post-undergraduate, 3 years post-PhD).
• Time spent on a Skilled Worker visa under the New Entrant rate.
• Time spent on the legacy Tier 2 (General) visa under the predecessor "new entrant" rules.

Worked example. You complete an undergraduate degree in 2024, switch to a 2-year Graduate visa, then switch to a Skilled Worker visa as a New Entrant in 2026. The Graduate visa burned 2 years of New Entrant cap. You have a maximum 2 years left on the New Entrant rate. At the start of year 3 your sponsor must lift you to the standard £41,700 (or your SOC going rate, whichever is higher) or you cannot extend.

6. Common mistakes

• Assuming the discount applies to the £41,700 figure. It doesn't. The discount is 30% off the SOC going rate, with a hard floor at £33,400.
• Forgetting the floor. "30% off £42,000" sounds like £29,400 — but the £33,400 floor pulls it back up. Many SOC codes binding-floor for New Entrants.
• Letting the four-year cap expire silently. Sponsors don't always track the cap on the worker's behalf. Mark your fourth-year anniversary in your calendar 6 months ahead and have a salary-uplift conversation.
• Confusing relevant-PhD vs STEM-PhD. A history PhD applied to a museum curator role qualifies as relevant — 10%. A computer-science PhD applied to a data engineering role qualifies as STEM-relevant — 20%. A computer-science PhD applied to a hospitality manager role is neither.
• Skipping evidence. Your CoS application must reference the discount used. If your CoS is issued at the standard threshold but you apply on a New Entrant salary, your visa application will be rejected for evidential mismatch.

7. Edge cases

What if I turn 26 mid-application?

The age test is checked on the date of visa application submission. If you submit at 25 years 364 days, you qualify on age. If you turn 26 the day before submission and have no other New Entrant route (no Student/Graduate history, no regulated training, no postdoc), you don't.

What if I had a brief Visitor visa between Student and Skilled Worker?

Short Visitor visa interludes don't break the "switching from Student/Graduate" eligibility — provided your most recent substantive visa was Student or Graduate within the last 2 years. Bringing this argument requires evidence of your visa history.

What if my employer extends my New Entrant period beyond four years?

They can't. The cap is a Home Office rule, not a sponsor-level rule. If your sponsor's CoS still claims New Entrant rate after the cap is exhausted, the visa application will be refused at decision stage — and the refusal is recorded against your immigration history. Insist on a CoS issued at the standard rate from the start of year 5.

What about the new entrant rules for ILR?

When you apply for ILR, the salary on your final 12 months of qualifying employment must meet the standard threshold (or the SOC going rate, whichever is higher) — not the New Entrant rate. Plan your sponsor's salary trajectory to lift you to the standard threshold at least 12 months before you intend to apply for ILR.

8. How employers see New Entrant hires

Most large UK employers — Big Four, magic-circle law firms, FTSE banks, tech scale-ups — actively prefer New Entrant hires for graduate cohorts. The route lets them:

• Hire international talent without breaking junior compensation bands.
• Standardise graduate scheme pay across UK and overseas joiners.
• Spread the Immigration Skills Charge across a 3-year retention period.
• Build a pipeline of culturally-integrated mid-level hires for the year-5 standard-threshold uplift.

Practically, this means competition for graduate-scheme New Entrant slots is fierce. The A–Z sponsor directory includes most of the firms running active graduate pipelines.