In order to qualify for the Health and Care Worker visa, the following Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes must be met (in ascending SOC code order):

• 1181: health services and public health managers and directors
• 1242: residential, day and domiciliary care managers and proprietors
• 2112: biological scientists and biochemists
• 2113: physical scientists
• 2211: medical practitioners
• 2212: psychologists
• 2213: pharmacists
• 2214: ophthalmic opticians
• 2215: dental practitioners
• 2217: medical radiographers
• 2218: podiatrists
• 2219: health professionals that are ‘not elsewhere classified’, such as audiologists and occupational health advisers
• 2221: physiotherapists
• 2222: occupational therapists
• 2223: speech and language therapists
• 2229: therapy professionals that are ‘not elsewhere classified’, such as osteopaths and psychotherapists
• 2231: nurses
• 2232: midwives
• 2442: social workers
• 3111: laboratory technicians
• 3213: paramedics
• 3216: dispensing opticians
• 3217: pharmaceutical technicians
• 3218: medical and dental technicians
• 3219: health associate professionals not elsewhere classified
• 6141: nursing auxiliaries and assistants
• 6143: dental nurses
• 6146: senior care workers

This list is exhaustive and roles within the same sector but belonging to different codes would not qualify for the Health and Care Visa. However, some of these roles may qualify under the general category of Skilled Workers.

In order for an individual to make a valid application for permission (also known as a visa) under the Skilled Worker and other sponsored work route, a sponsor must first assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to them.

You must have a valid Certificate of Sponsorship to qualify for a Health and Care Worker Visa. Instead of a paper copy, this document is electronically stored.

In order to obtain your Certificate of Sponsorship, you must have an employer who has been authorized by the Home Office to sponsor your job under the Health and Care Worker route. 

Typical employers would be the NHS, an organization providing medical care to the NHS, or an organization providing adult social care. Those employers that do not yet hold a sponsor licence should speak with the UK Immigration Solicitors team for assistance and guidance on how a qualifying application can be made.

Employers are required to include a brief explanation in the Certificate of Sponsorship regarding how the employee meets the requirements for the Health and Care Visa. Any contract between an employer and the NHS may need to be disclosed if an employer provides services commissioned by the NHS. 

You must have received your Certificate of Sponsorship not more than 3 months before you apply for your Health and Care Worker visa.

There are certain mandatory details required on your Certificate of Sponsorship, including:

• Your name, your job title, and your salary;
• The start date cannot be longer than 3 months after your visa application;
• Confirmation that the Certificate of Sponsorship has not been used in a prior application that has been either granted or refused, or withdrawn or cancelled by the sponsor;

An employer seeking to employ foreign workers must pay a charge known as the Immigration Skills Charge.  

Any required Immigration Skills Charge must also be paid in full by your sponsor.

Employers must pay the Immigration Skills Charge each time they assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to a migrant.

Chemical scientists (2111) and biological scientists and biochemists (2112) are exempt from the Immigration Skills Charge requirement.

It is important to note that the Immigration Skills Charge must be paid in full by the employer who is sponsoring you.

It is common for sponsors to ask if they can deduct the Immigration Skills Charge from the worker’s salary or whether they can request it at the outset. 

Sponsors must pay the ISC to the worker and cannot pass it on to the worker in any fashion. 

An employer is likely to lose their sponsor license if they pass the Immigration Skills Charge on to a worker to pay in any fashion whatsoever. 

In order to qualify for a Health and Care Worker Visa, you must be able to demonstrate that you can communicate effectively in the English language.

You must show you have the required level of English language proficiency on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) in all 4 components in order to qualify for a skilled worker visa.

In order to satisfy the English language requirement, candidates applying for entry clearance or leave to remain as a Health and Care Worker must:

• You are a national of a country with a majority English-speaking population;
• Successfully passed the Secure English Language Test;
• Were awarded an English-taught degree;
• While attending school in the United Kingdom, you earned a GCSE/A Level in English; or
• They have already demonstrated that they meet the entry clearance or stay permission requirement, of level B1.

Unless the ‘going rate’ for the job is higher, employers seeking to hire Health and Care Workers must pay their health workers at least £20,480 per year (subject to certain limitations as described below). 

There is a ‘going rate’ for each occupation code. Roles within the NHS have different pay bands depending on whether they are located in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. 

In the case of biochemists, biologists, or physical scientists, there is a separate salary system that typically requires a minimum salary of £25,600 per year, unless the ‘going rate’ is higher. 

Under the following circumstances, you may be paid less than the ‘going rate’:

• If your job is on the shortage occupation list, you can be paid 80% of the usual going rate.
• If you’re under 26, studying or recently graduated, or in professional training towards a UK qualification, you’ll be paid 70% of the usual going rate.
• If you hold a relevant PhD in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), you can earn 80% of the usual going rate as long as you earn at least £20,480 a year.
• As long as you will still earn your salary of £23,040, you can be paid at 90% of the typical rate if you have a PhD in a subject other than STEM.
• If you are working in a postdoctoral position, you can earn 70% of your usual salary. 

There are skilled roles for which the Home Office keeps a list of positions for which employers are struggling to find enough workers.  

This is a feature of the current Tier 2 work migration route called the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). These are occupations where employers are facing a labour shortage and where migrant workers can help fill that shortage  

A number of special dispensations are provided for those occupations on the list within the immigration rules to make it easier for employers to hire migrant workers to fill vacancies in those areas of shortage.   

It is the Government’s responsibility to regularly commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to recommend what occupations should be added to the SOL. However, it is ultimately the Government who chooses the occupations.  

The Home Office maintains a list of skilled jobs for which it is difficult for employers to hire enough workers with the necessary skills to fill the vacancies. 

Healthcare and education shortage occupations are listed separately on the Home Office website and include, among others, medical practitioners, nurses, midwives, psychologists, speech and language therapists, medical radiographers, paramedics and social workers. 

The salary threshold requirement will be reduced if you have a job offer for an occupation on the shortage occupation list.

In most cases, you need at least £1,270 in cash, subject to the exemptions below.

The money must have been held for at least 28 consecutive days and not more than 31 days prior to the date of your Skilled Worker Visa application.

If necessary, a fully ‘A-rated’ sponsor who agrees to cover your maintenance costs up to the end of the first month of your employment will exempt you from the financial requirement. This must be confirmed on your Certificate of Sponsorship by your sponsor.

If you are applying for permission to remain in the UK and have been here with permission for more than 12 months at the time of application, you qualify as meeting the financial requirement.

In the case of obtaining entry clearance for certain jobs (generally jobs in the health, care, welfare, and education sectors), unless it is not feasible to do so, you will be required to provide a criminal record certificate for any country in which, since the age of 18, you have resided for a period of 12 months or more (continuously or cumulatively) in the ten years prior to your application date.

You must provide a criminal record certificate if you are applying from outside the UK unless your job is one of the following occupation codes: biological scientists and biochemists (2112) or physical scientists (2113).

You’ll need to provide a criminal record certificate if you’re applying from outside the UK and you work in:

• education, for example teachers, education advisers and school inspectors, childminders, teaching assistants
• healthcare, for example nurses, doctors, paramedics, managers, pharmacists, dentists and dental nurses, ophthalmic opticians
• therapy, for example psychologists, speech and language therapists, counsellors
• social services, for example social workers, managers, probation officers, welfare and housing officers

If you’ve lived in more than one country

You might need to provide a certificate from each country you’ve lived in, depending on your age and how long you stayed in each country.

If you’re under 28, you’ll need a certificate from any country you’ve stayed in for a total of 12 months or more since you turned 18.

If you’re 28 or over, you’ll need a certificate from any country you’ve stayed in over the last 10 years.

You might be able to apply to change (‘switch’) to a Health and Care Worker visa if you’re already in the UK on a different type of visa.

Your partner or children will need to apply separately to switch their visa.

They can either apply at the same time as you, or at any time before their current visa expires.

You must not travel outside of the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man until you get a decision. Your application will be withdrawn if you do.

Eligibility

Your proposed job must meet strict job eligibility requirements

You must have a satisfactory proficiency of English in speaking, reading, writing and understanding.

Who cannot apply to switch to a Health and Care Worker visa from within the UK;

You cannot apply to switch to this visa if you’re currently in the UK:

• on a visit visa
• on a short-term student visa
• on a Parent of a Child Student visa
• on a seasonal worker visa
• on a domestic worker in a private household visa
• on immigration bail
• because you were given permission to stay outside the immigration rules, for example on compassionate grounds

You must leave the UK and apply for a Health and Care Worker visa from abroad if you’re in one of these categories.

The Tier 2 cooling off period previously barred Tier 2 visa holders from returning to the UK for a period of 12 months after their visa expired or moving back to a Tier 2 visa from another UK leave category within 12 months (unless they earned more than £159,600). 

It applied to people who were either abroad and had their last grant of Tier 2 leave expire or finish; or who were in the UK and had an earlier period of Tier 2 leave, but then transferred to a different immigration category and then tried to apply under Tier 2 again.

The Tier 2 cooling off period has been eliminated, allowing Tier 2 (General) and Health and Care Worker visa holders to apply for a UK visa without having to wait. Existing Tier 2 General visa holders will no longer be subject to these restrictions as a result of this adjustment.

The Tier 2 cooling off period had been troublesome for both sponsors and workers, and the revised rules provide Health and Care Workers with more flexibility in returning to the UK while also improving companies’ foreign recruitment possibilities.

There is no longer a 12-month ‘cooling off period’ for Health and Care Worker Visa holders.  

There is no restriction on the timing of applications for Health and Care Worker Visa holders.

Visas for Health and Care Workers can be granted for a maximum of five years.

If the visa holder wants to extend the visa at this point, they can do so; if they have completed the five-year residency requirement, they may be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

Providing you follow the visa requirements, there is no limit to how many times you can extend the Health and Care Worker Visa.

Formerly, applicants to the Tier 2 (General) route had to spend up to six years in the route to be eligible for entry clearance or to switch to the route.

A six-year maximum stay has been removed from the Health and Care Worker Visa route. There is no duration limit.

It is necessary to apply for a new period of leave if the visa holder changes sponsors or jobs.

This means that if you continue working for your sponsor (and meet compliance requirements) for a continuous period of 5 years, you are eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain which will then afford you a status equivalent to permanent residency.

At this point, you become free from immigration control and enter and leave the UK at your leisure without any visa requirements.

You also enjoy all of the same rights as a settled person in the UK

Visa holders for Health and Care Worker are allowed to work in the position they have been sponsored for.  Additionally, they can work part-time in the same occupation code or less than 20 paid hours per week if they continue to work at the job for which they are sponsored. 

Most benefits and state pensions are not available. Changing jobs and employers is not possible unless your visa is updated.

If you want to change jobs and your new employer is a different one; or if you are not in a graduate training programme; or if you leave a job on the shortage occupation list to take one that is not on the list, you need to apply for an update of your Health and Care Worker visa.

Additionally, if you are going to work more than 20 hours a week or if you are switching occupation codes, you will need to update your visa. Your second employer must issue you a new certificate of sponsorship, along with a letter explaining why you want to change your current stay authorisation. 

There are important UKVI compliance considerations as well as Employer policy / contractual obligations and conflicts of interest which must be examined in detail, and it is therefore not recommended to take on additional work unless there are compelling reasons to do so.

Our expert team are able to discuss any concerns or requirements at length with you to ensure the most appropriate action is taken and your immigration status is safeguarded at all times.

Settlement means that you are considered to be permanently in the UK and do not require any further visas.

Indefinite leave to remain is how you settle in the UK.

It’s also called ‘settlement’. It gives you the right to live, work and study here for as long as you like and apply for benefits if you’re eligible.

You can use it to apply for British citizenship.

The following conditions must be met in order to qualify for settlement as a Skilled Worker:

• You have lived in the UK continuously for five years;
• This period includes the time spent on any of the following routes, or any mix of them: Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator, T2 Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Overseas Business Representative, Tier 1 Migrant (except as a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) Migrant), or Scale-Up;
• Each year of the continuous 5-year period you haven’t been outside longer than 180 days;
• If you are under 65, you have passed the Life in the UK test; 
• Your sponsor is still an approved sponsor by the Home Office;
• You are required to continue working for your sponsor;

For the foreseeable future, you will be paid at least the general salary threshold or the going rate requirement, whichever is higher.

Applicants for the Health and Care Visa will pay reduced application fees if their employer confirms the eligibility criteria for the route on their Certificate of Sponsorship. Partner and dependent fees are also reduced. Reductions should be automatic when the application is submitted.

Fees for an entry clearance application outside the UK and an application for leave to remain outside the UK, including an application to switch into this category, will be the same in effect from 01 December 2020. 

• When you have been issued a Certificate of Sponsorship that allows you to stay in the UK for less than three years, the fee is £232.
• For those with a Certificate of Sponsorship allowing them to stay in the UK for 3 years or more, the fee is £464. 

Depending on your nationality, this fee will be automatically reduced by £55 if you come from Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, or Sweden. Only the applicant is eligible for this reduction; partners and dependents will have to pay the full application fee.

Immigration Health Charges are not applicable to Health and Care Worker visa applicants and their dependents.

Health and Care visa applications will be prioritised by UK Visas and Immigration. It is hoped that most of these applications will be processed within three weeks following biometric collection.

It is possible for Health and Care Workers to have a dependent partner over 18 years of age and/or a dependent child under 18 years of age. 

If you are a Health and Care Worker in the UK, your immediate family can also come to the UK with you as your dependents.

They will be free to work, study or travel freely whilst subject to a dependent visa.

Dependant Visas are issued to the family members of migrants who qualify for the visa.  

A dependent is defined by the Immigration Rules as:

• Husband, wife or civil partner;
• Unmarried or same-sex partner;
• Child aged under 18 years at the time of application.

For the purposes of the Dependant Visa, it is highly unlikely that any other family members would be eligible for dependant status.

A spouse or partner may obtain a dependent visa if the person they are dependent on is either:

• In the UK on a relevant visa, or
• Applying for a visa at the same time as you are making your application for a Dependant Visa

Same-sex or unmarried partners must also be able to show they have been in a subsisting genuine relationship akin to marriage for the past two years.

Dependant visas are available for children if:

• Both parents are applying for entry-clearance at the same time, or;
• Both parents are already in the UK and the child is applying to join them, or;
• One parent is already in the UK and the other parent is applying for entry-clearance to join them along with the child.

Dependant visas can only be applied for by the children of a sole parent if:

• The parent is the only surviving parent; or
• The parent has sole responsibility for the child’s upbringing; or
• There are serious or compelling reasons for why the child can exceptionally apply as the dependant of only one of his/her parents.

Having sufficient finances to support a family without recourse to public funds is a requirement of the Dependant Visa. 

As an example, if the visa applicant is the main applicant, he/she is required to submit evidence of having £285 in savings for their dependent partner, along with an additional £315 in savings for their first dependent child and £200 for each additional dependent child. 

In addition to the fee reduction for Health and Care Workers, the exemption from Immigration Health Charge also applies to partners and children of Health and Care Visa applicants.

Our expert legal team are highly experienced in assisting with the below services (where the option has been made available by UKVI)

New Applications – We can help you assess the merits, challenges and solutions to any issues arising whilst making a new application for Health and Care Worker Visas

Dependents – We can help you make a successful application for your partner or children to join you as your dependents on your Health and Care Worker Visa.

Legal Representations – Where applicable, if you find yourself in an unusual or challenging situation and want the Home Office to take notice of your special circumstances to ensure that you are treated fairly and your rights are respected, our expert team can make both oral and written persuasive legal representations.

Challenge a Refusal – If your application has been refused, we can consider your refusal for free and advise on the best course of action.

Administrative Review – Home Office or Immigration Rules can be challenged if the decision-maker failed to follow them correctly.

Judicial Review – If your application was denied illegally, unreasonable or procedurally improperly, our immigration lawyers can apply for Judicial Review and represent you at the Judicial Review hearing.

Appeal an Unfair Decision – The decision to refuse your application may provide you with a right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal. Our expert lawyers can advise you on and handle Appeals before the Immigration & Asylum Chamber (First Tier & Upper Tribunal)