Four construction trades sit on the Immigration Salary List rather than the Temporary Shortage List, and that distinction is worth £8,300 a year: bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, roofers and stonemasons can be sponsored from £33,400 with a reduced visa fee. The list expires for new Certificates on 31 December 2026. This page covers the terms, the CSCS step, how we test a bricklayer or a roofer in Makati, and the 2027 outlook.
Appendix Immigration Salary List keeps a short UK-wide list of occupations that may be sponsored at salary option D — £33,400 a year and the going rate — with a reduced visa fee. For Filipino construction recruitment the entries are stonemasons (5312), bricklayers and masons (5313), roofers, roof tilers and slaters (5314) and carpenters and joiners (5316); the going rate for each is £33,400, so the threshold and the going rate coincide. Each entry carries a removal date of 31 December 2026, the Explanatory Memorandum to the July 2025 rules says the list will be phased out, and new hires on it cannot bring dependants. The visa fee is £628 for up to three years and £1,235 for longer from 8 April 2026; the sponsor pays the Immigration Skills Charge of £1,320 a year and the £525 Certificate and may not recover either.
Since 22 July 2025 the Skilled Worker route is a graduate-level route: a role must be at RQF 6 unless it sits on the Temporary Shortage List or the Immigration Salary List, and both lists apply only to Certificates of Sponsorship issued before 31 December 2026 (last issue date 30 December 2026) unless the Government renews them. Pay must reach £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher; Immigration Salary List roles qualify from £33,400 plus the going rate, and nurses and other listed health occupations on national pay scales from £25,000 plus the going rate. The salary counted is basic gross pay for up to 48 hours a week — no allowances, overtime, bonuses or payments towards immigration costs — and since 8 April 2026 it must be met in every pay period. New applicants prove English at CEFR B2. The sponsor pays the Immigration Skills Charge of £1,320 a year (£480 for small sponsors and charities) and may not recover it. Workers sponsored in sub-graduate roles on either list cannot bring dependants, and the Government has consulted on lengthening the path to settlement from five years to ten or more, without deciding at the time of review.
A bricklayer sponsored on the Immigration Salary List costs the employer £33,400 in salary and £628 in visa fee; a steel fixer on the Temporary Shortage List costs £41,700 and £819 for the same contract length. Plasterers are on neither list and cannot be sponsored from overseas at all. A contractor building a mixed crew therefore plans by code: bricklayers, carpenters and roofers from the Philippines on the lower threshold, steel fixers and tilers on the higher one, plasterers and labourers locally. The Migration Advisory Committee's July 2026 report proposes moving bricklayers, roofers, carpenters and plasterers onto a renewed Temporary Shortage List from January 2027 — which would raise the salary to the general threshold unless the Government decides otherwise.
At our Makati facilities a bricklayer lays blockwork and facing brick to line and level, a carpenter builds formwork or a roof element from drawings, a roofer tiles and slates a mock roof and details a valley, a stonemason sets and points to a sample; your site manager watches live and interviews the same day. Candidates come from Gulf megaprojects, Japanese and Korean sites and Philippine contractors, with TESDA Masonry, Carpentry and Tile Setting NC II. On arrival the CSCS Blue Skilled Worker card needs a Level 2 NVQ or an Ecctis Industry Skills Statement on the Philippine qualification, with primary-source verification and a translated certificate, plus the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test; we start the Ecctis step before departure.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office at the Philippine Embassy in London, which has jurisdiction for the United Kingdom and Ireland, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no applicant pays for an interview, a trade test or a place on a shortlist, and UK sponsor guidance itself forbids passing the Immigration Skills Charge or the sponsor-licence costs to the worker. Your company is the sponsor and the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the Immigration Rules in force on the day the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned (Appendix Skilled Worker, Appendix Skilled Occupations, Appendix Immigration Salary List), Home Office sponsor guidance, the professional regulators and Philippine DMW rules.
Yes, on the Immigration Salary List for Certificates of Sponsorship issued before 31 December 2026 (last issue date 30 December 2026) — basic pay of £33,400 for up to 48 hours a week, no dependants, visa fee £628 for up to three years.
No. Plasterers are on neither list in 2026; the MAC proposes them for the 2027 Temporary Shortage List, which the Government has not decided.
Not directly. CSCS accepts an Ecctis Industry Skills Statement on the overseas qualification with primary-source verification, plus the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test; we start the Ecctis step before departure.
The Immigration Salary List entries expire on 31 December 2026 and the list is to be phased out; the MAC has proposed the trades for a renewed Temporary Shortage List at the general threshold. Employers who want the £33,400 terms assign Certificates in 2026.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.