Age criteria
While age is not a precluding factor for the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), there is a special provision of five bonus points for those under 32 years of age.
Applicants who are making an application in the under 32 categories must ensure that they contact us approximately 2 months prior to their birthday, to ensure that all documentary evidence that needs to be prepared by our lawyers can be prepared without risking your case being submitted late. If there is less than two months remaining until your birthday, contact us immediately and we will prioritise your application.
Those who are 32 years of age and over usually have higher earnings, reversing any disadvantage they suffer due to their age.
The points under age are allocated in recognition of the fact that it is more difficult for a highly skilled young graduate to score maximum points in the past earnings category, compared to an older counterpart with the same level of skills. Furthermore, there is a greater potential for young highly skilled individuals to be active in the labour market for longer than their older counterparts.
Points can be claimed as follows:
| Age in years | Points |
| 27 or under | 20 |
| 28 or 29 | 10 |
| 30 or 31 | 5 |
| 32 and over | 0 |
Points can only be awarded to individuals who are still within the age band when we submit their HSMP application to the Home Office.
Education criteria
To be awarded points for your qualification under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), the level of qualification you have achieved must be equivalent to the recognised British standard for a Bachelors degree, a Masters degree, or a Doctorate.
Vocational and professional qualifications can also score points in this area if satisfactory independent evidence is produced to show that the qualification is equivalent to an applicable level UK academic qualification. We will obtain any evidence required to show that your qualification is equivalent to the required level. This will be verified, where possible, by reference to the NARIC database or the relevant professional body.
There are no additional points awarded for holding more than one degree. In such cases points are awarded for the highest qualification you hold.
If you have attended one of 50 eligible MBA programmes you may be eligible under the MBA provision for additional points.
In this category you can score the following points according to the highest level of educational qualification you hold:
| PhD | Masters | Bachelors |
| 50 | 35 | 30 |
UK experience criteria
An additional five points will be awarded if you have UK experience. You can claim previous UK experience points if you have:
- scored points for UK earnings; or
- obtained a degree in the UK while you have held a valid visa in the UK, or from an overseas educational institution that has its base in the UK. You need to have studied at this educational institution for at least one academic year or three consecutive terms full-time during the five years prior to submitting your application for HSMP.
You can only score a total of five points in this category. You can not score five points for UK earnings and five points for UK qualifications.
The qualification used in to gain points in this section does not need to be used to claim points in the qualifications points scoring area.
English language requirement
Lack of English is considered a significant barrier to taking employment as a highly skilled migrant. In order to qualify for HSMP, an applicant must be competent in English. We will guide you on providing the appropriate evidence to support this.
In order to demonstrate the required knowledge of English, your easiest form of evidence will be in the form of a Bachelors degree that was taught in English, and is of an equivalent level to a UK Bachelors degree.
Whilst a Bachelors degree that meets the requirements specified above will normally be accepted for the purposes of satisfying the English language requirement of your application, higher level degrees (such as Masters or PhDs) and professional/vocational qualifications will not. This is because a Bachelors degree is normally taught over a period of at least three years, during which time a candidate is required to display a level of competence in each of the four areas - listening, reading, writing and speaking in English. For higher degrees and vocational/professional qualifications it is not possible to establish clearly that such a qualification would necessarily have been delivered in a manner that would test each of the required elements outlined above.
Alternatively, you will need to acquire the equivalent of an IELTS qualification at Band 6, or TOEFL at the equivalent level. We will guide you through the process of obtaining this.
The table below shows the TOEFL equivalence scores required for given IELTS bands.
| IELTS | TOEFL - Paper Based | TOEFL - Computer Based | TOEFL - Internet Based |
| 7.5 | 627 | 263 | 107 |
| 7 | 600 | 250 | 100 |
| 6.5 | 577 | 233 | 90 |
| 6 | 550 | 213 | 79 |
| 5.5 | 525 | 197 | 71 |
| 5 | 500 | 173 | 61 |
*The comparison between IELTS & TOEFL scores is based on similar tables on a number of leading UK university web sites. It is not endorsed by either TOEFL or IELTS.
