London, August 20
After graduating with an MBA from the UK’s York St John University in 2021, Sadikshya Thapa worked full-time on a two-year Post-Study Work (PSW) visa.
After the scheme ended, she either had to return to Nepal or find sponsorship in the UK to remain on a work permit. Seeing little future in Nepal if she returned, she obtained a Skilled Worker visa on January 9, 2024, after receiving sponsorship from an Indian-owned restaurant, Bamboo House Limited.
At her employer’s request, Thapa paid more than Rs 900,000 (£4,500) herself to a solicitor when submitting her visa application.
Initially, her employment agreement stated that she would be paid an annual salary of £21,500 for a minimum of 37 hours of work per week. However, as she continued working, Sadikshya did not receive a written employment contract. She was made to work 42 hours per week, more than the hours stated on her visa. Regardless of how many hours she worked, she was paid only £400 per week.
For most of her employment, she did not receive payslips. She received payslips only for May, June and July 2024, which showed deductions labelled as ‘NEST pension contribution’.
When she later contacted NEST, she was informed that she had never been enrolled in its pension scheme.
From January 9, 2024, to March 28, 2026, over approximately 26 months, she did not receive any paid holiday. After experiencing severe financial and mental exploitation and a lack of a proper working environment, Sadikshya has now taken her case to a British employment tribunal.
“I have gone to court because I was exploited even in a place like the UK,” she told Onlinekhabar. “Even if I have to return to Nepal, I will continue fighting for my rights until the very end.”
She said being unemployed for the past four months had made her daily life difficult.
Many Nepali students have changed their immigration route after completing their studies, believing that a Skilled Worker visa is more secure than remaining on a student visa. Some have spent thousands of pounds on employers to obtain sponsorship. But their experiences have been similar to Sadikshya’s.
Most workers suffer at the hands of employers
With few exceptions, many workers who move onto the work permit route are forced to suffer financial and mental distress at the hands of their employers. Some receive neither holiday pay nor payslips and are not given leave. They may also find themselves in situations where they have to pay tax on their own wages.
There are many cases of people in Nepal being cheated out of millions of rupees by the lure of overseas employment. But recently, the number of Nepalis who have already come to the UK and obtained Skilled Worker visas who are being cheated or left in distress has been increasing.
A rule preventing people from switching to a work permit without completing their degree has now been implemented. The British government further tightened the rules from July 2025. Under the new system, mainly workers with a bachelor’s-level qualification who earn at least £41,700 per year are eligible.
Isha (name changed), who works as a manager at a restaurant operated by a Pakistani-origin businessman in Central London, spent nearly Rs 2.5 million when extending her visa twice. She had worked there for three and a half years.
Now, while waiting to become eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK in another year and a half, she has suffered a major setback after the restaurant’s licence was suspended.
Isha is under stress after the UK Home Office began the process of cancelling the restaurant’s licence, preventing it from sponsoring workers, on the grounds that it had failed to comply with government rules, regulations and preconditions.
If a company’s licence is suspended or revoked, or if it does not renew the licence itself, workers must find another sponsor within 60 days or leave the UK.
“It is very difficult to find sponsorship elsewhere for a manager position because the annual salary threshold is now above £41,000,” she said sadly. “No company can pay that salary, and it is not easy to find such a job. I left my university studies midway and moved onto a work permit. Now I am left with nowhere to go.”
Almost impossible to bring workers from Nepal or other countries
Bishnu Kharel, director of Visa Quest UK, which has long provided services and advice on the work permit route, also operates two restaurants.
Immigration adviser Kharel said the government has recently begun tightening restrictions on Skilled Worker visas.
“During spot checks, many companies have been found to have lost or had their licences suspended after employers were found not to have complied with the requirements,” he said. “Many have lost their licences for not paying the agreed salary, for not even paying the minimum wage despite paying salaries, for not paying holiday pay, for not providing weekly days off, and for workers not appearing to be doing the job corresponding to the position stated on the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) when applying for the visa.”
Business owners also say the British government is currently tightening restrictions on Skilled Worker visas.
A businessman who operates several takeaway restaurants in London said that, because of government rules, it is now almost impossible to bring workers from Nepal or other countries.
“Our restaurants are simply not in a position to support workers while paying an annual salary of more than £41,000 and dealing with numerous compliance requirements and the associated stress,” the businessman said. “We gave many people work permits in London without taking a single penny from them, but various accusations, including exploitation, are made against Nepali businesspeople themselves. So we thought it was best to quietly run our businesses and keep to ourselves.”
Under the Home Office’s Skilled Worker visa scheme, employers officially registered with the Home Office and holding the relevant licence can sponsor and employ foreign workers who meet certain skill-level requirements.
Until July last year, people could qualify for sponsorship to bring workers from overseas if they were paid at least £38,700 per year and had qualifications at A-level or equivalent.
Following changes to the immigration rules, the salary threshold has increased, while people working in non-graduate occupations such as shop managers will no longer be eligible to apply.
The British government further tightened the rules from July 2025. Under the new system, mainly workers with a bachelor’s-level qualification who earn at least £41,700 per year are eligible.
There are more than 120,000 businesses in the UK holding licences to sponsor skilled workers. After the UK left the European Union (EU) through Brexit, free movement between the EU and the UK came to an end. Alongside this, the UK introduced the Skilled Worker visa scheme so employers could recruit foreign workers.
According to the British Home Office, 68,067 Skilled Worker visas were issued in the 12 months to March this year, including 29,745 main applicants and 38,322 dependants. This number is 30 per cent lower than the previous year.
Among those receiving Skilled Worker visas, the largest number were professionals working in the information technology sector, followed by those working in the financial sector. However, the number of visa approvals has fallen because workers in the hospitality sector are no longer eligible for this visa.
A Home Office spokesperson told the BBC: “We have raised the threshold for skilled worker requirements, and new Skilled Worker visas will no longer be available for more than 100 occupations.”
In addition, a higher standard for English-language proficiency was introduced in January this year.
