Car washes and vape shops can still sponsor skilled foreign workers despite visa changes

Here is a story making headlines in the economy: Car washes and vape shops can still sponsor skilled foreign workers despite visa changesByAlison Benjamin and Daniel WainwrightPublished6 August 2026More than 1,900 small high street businesses including mini-marts, vape shops and car washes are licensed to sponsor foreign workers under a specialist scheme intended for high-earning individuals despite visa rules being tightened, Verify has found. The Home Office scheme allows registered employers to recruit workers from overseas who meet a certain skill level. The rules were tightened in July 2025 to restrict the scheme mostly to graduate-level employees who would be earning at least £41,700.

But a year on from the rule change, Verify has found more than 1,500 grocery and convenience stores, 150 taxi operators, 100 barber shops, and dozens of car washes and vape shops are still on the register and able to sponsor people to apply for visas. More than 100 of those businesses were added to the skilled worker sponsorship list after the rules were tightened. Being on the register does not mean applications for individual visas would be approved.

Economic Details

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday the government will "make sure that the rules are being properly enforced because we cannot have employers getting round the rules or finding different ways to deviate". Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an urgent review into the presence of vape shops, barbers and car washes on the skilled worker sponsor register two months ago, following concerns over the "potential misuse of the system". The Home Office said at the time that any businesses seeking to abuse the system would have their licences revoked.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We have raised the skilled worker threshold and over 100 occupations are now ineligible for new skilled worker visas. "It is understood some of the companies that joined the register after the rules changed may have applied before they took effect. Some companies may have also remained on the register because they were approved before July 2025 or are sponsoring workers who were already in the UK.

There are more than 120,000 businesses with licences to sponsor skilled workers. The skilled worker scheme was introduced after Brexit for employers to recruit workers after EU free movement ended. Smaller firms must pay a £611 fee to apply to join the register while larger businesses, such as those with more than 50 staff, pay a fee of £1,682.

Analyst Views

Anyone can be visited by the UK Visas and Immigration service during the application process. Until July last year, someone being hired from abroad could qualify for sponsorship if their qualifications met an Level or equivalent standard, as long as they were paid at least £38,700 in most cases. Since the rule change, non-graduate professions, such as shop managers, are no longer eligible to apply.

There are also higher English-language skill requirements that were introduced in January this year.

Economists are analysing what the news means for the markets.