I Was Exploited Even in a Place Like the UK" — Nepali Skilled Workers Left Stranded as Sponsors Lose Licences

Nepali workers who moved from student to Skilled Worker visas in Britain, believing it the more secure route to settlement, are instead reporting unpaid holiday, missing payslips, illegal hour-stacking and — in a growing number of cases — sudden loss of status when their sponsoring employer's Home Office licence is suspended or revoked, according to reporting by OnlineKhabar's UK correspondent that features on-the-record accounts from affected workers now pursuing an employment tribunal case.

The article centres on Sadikshya Thapa, who completed an MBA at York St John University in 2021, moved onto a Skilled Worker visa in January 2024 after her Post-Study Work visa expired, and says she paid over £4,500 of her own money toward the sponsorship process, then worked 42 hours a week for a flat £400 regardless of hours, went without a written contract, and discovered pension deductions on her payslips were never actually paid into a scheme. She has now taken her case to a British employment tribunal. A second worker, "Isha," spent roughly £19,000 (Rs 2.5 million) extending her visa twice as a restaurant manager, only to have her employer's sponsor licence suspended by the Home Office for non-compliance — leaving her needing a new sponsor within 60 days, an increasingly narrow window given the Skilled Worker salary floor is now £41,700 a year, a level immigration adviser Bishnu Kharel says few hospitality employers can meet. The Home Office confirmed to the BBC that the salary threshold has risen and that more than 100 occupations, mostly non-graduate roles like shop and restaurant management, are no longer eligible for sponsorship at all, part of a post-Brexit tightening that has already cut Skilled Worker visa issuance by 30% year-on-year (68,067 in the year to March 2026, of which under 30,000 were main applicants). The story sits uncomfortably close to home for the UK's Nepali business community: while some employers stand accused of exploiting sponsored staff, restaurant owners quoted in the piece say the compliance burden and salary floor have made it "almost impossible" to sponsor workers from Nepal at all, squeezing both sides of the community — workers and small Nepali-run businesses alike — simultaneously.