United Kingdom · from Pakistan
UK visas from Pakistan — the honest version.
The UK got substantially harder in 2025. Two of the routes most heavily advertised in Pakistan don’t work the way they’re being sold.
The main work route
The Skilled Worker reality check
This is the main UK work route, and the numbers are the numbers.
The salary floor
£41,700 — or higher
The skill level
Degree-level jobs only
The sponsor
A genuine vacancy
If the offer is below these thresholds, you’re the one at risk
What’s being mis-sold
Two myths that cost people real money
Both are advertised hard in Pakistan. Neither works the way it is described.
Myth 1
“Self-sponsorship” is not a UK visa
There is no such category. Look at the UK government’s list of visas — it isn’t there.
What people mean by it is: set up a UK company, get it licensed as a sponsor, and have it sponsor you on a Skilled Worker visa. That is a real thing. But it does not escape any of the rules above — the same £41,700, the same degree-level requirement, and a genuine vacancy that survives Home Office scrutiny.
It is sold in Pakistan as a shortcut around the salary rules. It is the opposite: the same rules, plus you now also have to run a real company.
Myth 2
The Expansion Worker route does not lead to settlement
It is for sending someone to set up a UK branch of an existing overseas business. It is capped at two years and it does not lead to indefinite leave to remain.
It is routinely mis-sold in Pakistan as a settlement route. It isn’t one. If your goal is to settle in the UK, this is not the door.
In the news
On the “10-year settlement” news
A proposal is not a law — and the difference matters before you plan around it.
You may have read that the UK is extending settlement from 5 years to 10. As things stand it is a proposal, not law. The consultation closed in February 2026, no government response has been published, and no rules have been laid. A House of Lords committee came out against it in June.
Anyone telling you it is already the law is wrong. Anyone telling you it definitely won’t happen is also guessing. We’ll update this page when there is something real to report.
Where we can help
Visitor visas, and refusals
The two UK cases we take on — and the one that most often gets people to reapply blind.
If your UK visit visa was refused, the letter names a ground — and that ground tells you whether reapplying is worth it or whether you are about to waste another fee.
Send it to us and we’ll tell you honestly which one it is.
Send us your refusalStraight answers
UK questions, answered honestly
The questions we get asked most about UK routes from Pakistan.
Is “self-sponsorship” a UK visa?
Does the Expansion Worker route lead to settlement?
Is UK settlement now 10 years instead of 5?
My UK visit visa was refused — is it worth reapplying?
Can you guarantee me a UK visa?
Been quoted a UK route?
Send us what you were told
Send us what you were told and what you were quoted. We’ll tell you whether it is real.