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Skilled Worker changes since 22 July 2025: what Turkish applicants need
From 22 July 2025 the Skilled Worker route went back to RQF level 6 and a £41,700 general salary threshold. Both changes push qualification and criminal-record evidence to the front of an application made from Türkiye.
The rules that took effect on 22 July 2025
Two changes from that date still shape most Skilled Worker applications made from Türkiye. The skill level for new applications went back up to RQF level 6, in other words graduate-level occupations, and the general salary threshold moved to £41,700. Occupations below degree level are sponsorable only through narrower temporary lists, and the going rate for an individual occupation code often sits above the general floor rather than at it.
What it means for your documents
A higher skill level pushes qualification evidence forward. Sponsors and caseworkers want to see the diploma and the transkript, and for a Turkish degree that means a certified English translation of each. Where the job falls into one of the health, education and social-care occupation codes that require an overseas criminal record certificate, an adli sicil kaydı is added — apostilled at a kaymakamlık or valilik in Türkiye first, then translated. That order is not a preference. An apostille obtained afterwards attaches to the wrong sheet of paper and the bundle comes back.
Figures move
Salary thresholds are revised and going rates are republished alongside the occupation tables, so treat the numbers above as the position on the date of this post and read the current ones on GOV.UK. Our Skilled Worker page covers what a sponsor will ask you for, and the Skilled Worker guide for applicants in Türkiye works through the sequence document by document.