Sheet metal worker in the UK: your Skilled Worker visa, step by step

Fabricators, panel beaters and whitesmiths

The Home Office attaches three related titles to code 5211. Metal fabricators and finishers cut, form and assemble sheet and plate. Panel beaters under this code work on non-vehicle panels; the listing says "excludes vehicles", so a car body repairer belongs under the vehicle technicians code instead. Whitesmiths work light metals such as tin. The code is chosen by the sponsor when the Certificate of Sponsorship is issued. It has to reflect the actual work. A fabricator who spends most of the week welding may be closer to the welding trades code, which carries its own going rate.

Salary for code 5211

Skilled Worker pay is checked against a threshold and against a going rate. The threshold for most applicants is £41,700 (UK Home Office, effective July 22, 2025). It falls to £33,400 for occupations on the Immigration Salary List and for people covered by another reduced-threshold rule. The going rate is the floor the Home Office sets for the specific code. The offer has to reach the higher of the two.

Run the numbers for a sheet metal worker in a fabrication shop. The going rate for code 5211 is £33,400 (UK Home Office, effective July 22, 2025). The code is not on the ISL. The threshold is therefore £41,700. Since £41,700 is the larger figure, the offer has to be £41,700 or more. An offer at the £33,400 going rate is not enough.

The lower going rate of £26,800 (UK Home Office, effective July 22, 2025) is used only when a reduced-threshold rule, for example new entrant, applies. It does not change the £41,700 requirement for everyone else.

Canada's trades category names sheet metal workers

IRCC's 2026 category list, last modified on 22 June 2026, includes sheet metal workers (NOC 72102). Machinists, welders and construction millwrights appear alongside. To be eligible for a category draw you need at least 12 months of full-time experience in the occupation within the past three years. Part-time work counts if it totals the same. Candidates in a category can be invited at lower scores than the general pool. That makes the Canadian picture for this trade different from the UK picture. IRCC revises its lists, so confirm the entry is still there before you act.

Licensing in the UK

There is no statutory registration or licence for sheet metal workers. No title is protected. Professional and trade bodies exist, and some employers value membership. Membership is not a legal condition of working and has no bearing on the visa.

Beyond the standard Skilled Worker visa

• Canada Express Entry, trades category. Sheet metal workers (NOC 72102) are on the 2026 list. The 12-months-in-three-years rule applies.
• Canada Provincial Nominee Programs. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS (Comprehensive Ranking System) points. Skilled-trades streams run in many provinces.
• New entrant reduced threshold. Early-career applicants, and people moving across from the Student or Graduate routes, may be covered by a reduced general threshold. That figure is not quoted here.

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