Skilled Worker Visa Holder Buys First London Home

Chioma, 32, is a software engineer from Nigeria. She has been in the UK for four years on a Skilled Worker visa, which has three years remaining. She earns £78,000 a year, has no consumer debt, and had saved £62,000 for a deposit — all accumulated in the UK since her arrival.

She found a flat in Woolwich priced at £310,000 and was keen to put down the £62,000 deposit and borrow £248,000. When she approached her bank, they declined immediately on the basis of her visa status. A second bank came back and said they required indefinite leave to remain or British citizenship. A broker comparison website she tried quoted her only deals requiring a 25% or 40% deposit despite her having 20%.

Visa status is one of the most common reasons for mortgage application refusal for foreign nationals. Lenders are concerned about what happens if a visa is not renewed: they hold a UK property as security but the borrower may no longer have the right to live or work in the UK. This risk aversion varies enormously across lenders.

Chioma had four years of UK residency, a clean credit history built in the UK, no county court judgments or defaults, and a strong income. But her credit file was thin compared to a long-term UK resident, and her visa expiry in three years was shorter than many lenders' minimum requirement.

We identified a lender on our panel with a specific policy for Skilled Worker visa holders. The lender's criteria required: the visa to have at least two years remaining at the time of application (Chioma had three), at least a 20% deposit, and the applicant to have been UK-resident for at least two years. Chioma met all three conditions.

We prepared a thorough application pack including Chioma's visa documentation, payslips and P60 confirming UK-sourced income, three years of UK bank statements, and a letter from her employer confirming her role and salary. We also included a credit report from each of the three main UK credit reference agencies to give the underwriter as complete a picture as possible of her credit behaviour in the UK.