UK HEALTH AND CARE WORKER VISA

UK Health and Care Worker Visa Occupational Codes

The following Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Codes are applicable for eligibility for the UK Health and Care Worker visa:

• 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
• 6145: care workers and home carers
• 6146: senior care workers

Roles falling under different codes within the same sector are not eligible for the Health and Care Visa, even if listed exhaustively. Nonetheless, some of these roles may still qualify under the general Skilled Worker category.

Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) Requirement

To be eligible for a UK Health and Care Worker Visa, you must possess a valid Certificate of Sponsorship for the job you intend to perform. This certificate is an electronic record, not a physical document.

The Certificate of Sponsorship must be issued by an employer authorized by the Home Office to sponsor the job under the UK Health and Care Worker route, typically the NHS or an organization providing medical services to the NHS, or adult social care services. If your employer is not yet approved, they may apply for a Sponsor Licence if they meet the eligibility criteria.

Your employer must provide a brief explanation in the Certificate of Sponsorship demonstrating how you meet the requirements for the UK Health and Care Worker Visa.

If the employer is an organization that provides services commissioned by the NHS, evidence of any agreements with the NHS may also be required. The Certificate of Sponsorship must have been issued within the last 3 months prior to submitting your UK Health and Care Worker Visa application.

Your Certificate of Sponsorship must include certain mandatory information, including:

• details of your name, job and salary
• a start date which is no more than 3 months after the date your Health and Care Worker visa application
• confirmation that the Certificate of Sponsorship has not been used in a previous application which was either granted or refused and has not been withdrawn by the sponsor or cancelled by the Home Office

Immigration Skills Charge Requirement

In addition, your employer must have fully paid the required Immigration Skills Charge. This payment cannot be transferred to you. The Immigration Skills Charge is a fee that the sponsoring employer must pay for each foreign worker they wish to hire. It must be paid each time a Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned to a migrant worker by the sponsoring employer.

Please note that chemical scientists (2111) and biological scientists and biochemists (2112) are exempt from this fee requirement.

Salary Threshold Requirement

General salary requirement

Employers who are looking to hire under the Health and Care Worker category are typically required to offer a salary of no less than £20,480 annually or the standard salary for the position, whichever is greater.

Each occupation code has its own annual ‘going rate’. For roles within the NHS there are various pay bands which vary according to whether they are in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. 

Different salary requirement

There are separate salary requirements for those working in the following occupation codes:

• 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
• 3111: laboratory technicians
• 3216: dispensing opticians
• 3217: pharmaceutical technicians
• 6145: care workers and home carers
• 6146: senior care workers

If your job is in one of the above occupation codes then you will usually need to be paid at least £25,600 per year or £10.10 per hour, whichever is higher.  If the ‘going rate’ is higher than both of these then you will usually need to be paid at least the going rate.

You may be paid less than £25,600 or your job’s ‘going rate’ in the following circumstances (you must still be paid at least £10.10 per hour):

• You can be paid 80% of the usual going rate if your job is in a shortage occupation and your salary is at least £20,480 per year
• You can be paid at 70% of the usual going rate if you are under 26, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training towards a recognised UK qualification or registered status and your salary is at least £20,480 per year
• You can be paid at 80% of the usual going rate if you have a science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) PhD level qualification that’s relevant to your job as long as you will still earn at least £20,480 a year
• You can be paid at 90% of the usual going rate if you have a non-STEM PhD level qualification as long as you will still earn your salary must be at least £23,040
• You can be paid 70% of your usual going rate if you will be working in a postdoctoral position and your salary is at least £20,480 per year

What is a ‘job in a shortage occupation’?

The Home Office keeps a record of positions in which employers have difficulty finding enough skilled workers to fill their open positions. There is a separate list of shortage occupations in healthcare and education that is available on the Home Office website, which includes medical practitioners, nurses, midwives, psychologists, speech and language therapists, medical radiographers, paramedics, and social workers, among others.

As previously stated, if you receive a job offer for a role on the shortage occupation list, the salary threshold requirement will be lowered.

English Language Requirement

To be eligible for a UK Health and Care Worker visa, you must show that you have intermediate-level English language proficiency in all four components of reading, writing, speaking, and listening according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) at a minimum of B1 level.

Prospective employees applying for entry clearance or leave to remain as a UK Health and Care Worker will satisfy the English language requirement if they:

• Are a national of a majority English-speaking country
• Have passed a Secure English Language Test from an approved provider
• Have been awarded a degree-level academic qualification taught in English
• Obtained a GCSE/A Level, Scottish National Qualification level 4 or 5, Scottish Highers or Advanced Higher in English while at school in the UK; or
• Have already shown they met the requirement, of level B1, in a previous successful application for entry clearance or permission to stay

If you are being sponsored to work as a doctor, dentist, nurse, or midwife, you are exempt from demonstrating your English language proficiency if you have already passed an accepted English language assessment as determined by the professional regulatory body relevant to your occupation.

Financial Maintenance Requirement

Subject to specified exemptions, in order to be eligible for a UK Health and Care Worker Visa, you must have access to a minimum of £1,270 in cash funds, which must have been held by you for at least 28 consecutive days ending no more than 31 days prior to the date of your visa application. If you have already been in the UK with valid permission for a period of 12 months or more at the time of your application, you will meet the financial requirement and will not be required to provide proof of funds.

Additionally, if your employer is willing to cover your expenses for the first month in the UK to the amount of £1,270, if necessary, you will also be exempt from the financial requirement. Your sponsor must confirm this on your Certificate of Sponsorship by completing the ‘Sponsor certifies maintenance’ section.

Criminal Record Certificate Requirement

If you are applying for a UK Health and Care Worker visa from outside the UK, you will be required to present a criminal record certificate, except if your occupation falls under the codes of biological scientists and biochemists (2112) or physical scientists (2113).

• If you are under 28 years old and you have lived in more than one country you will need to provide a criminal record certificate for any country in which you have stayed for a total of 12 months or more since you turned 18
• If you are over 28 years old you will need to provide a criminal record certificate for any country you have stayed in over the last 10 years

Switching into the UK Health and Care Worker Visa Route

If you are already authorized to remain in the UK under a different immigration category, you may extend your stay by transitioning into the Health and Care Worker route, unless your previous permission was granted as a Visitor, Short-term student, Parent of a Child Student, Seasonal Worker, Domestic Worker in a Private Household, you are on Immigration Bail, or your leave to remain was obtained outside of the UK Immigration Rules.

Is there a cooling-off period in the UK Health and Care Worker route?

In the past, under the Tier 2 (General) route, applicants seeking entry clearance or to switch into the route were required to have not been in the UK as a Tier 2 (General) migrant in the preceding 12 months.

However, this "cooling off period" of 12 months has been lifted in the Skilled Worker route, which encompasses the Health and Care Worker route. As a result, there are no restrictions on when applications for the UK Health and Care Worker visa can be submitted.

Duration of a UK Health and Care Worker Visa

If your UK Health and Care Worker Visa application is successful, you will be granted entry clearance or permission to remain in the UK for a duration that concludes 14 days after the expiration date of your Certificate of Sponsorship, which may be up to 5 years from the start date of your Certificate of Sponsorship. The length of your sponsorship by your employer will be specified in your Certificate of Sponsorship.

You can usually apply to extend your Health and Care Worker visa if you still meet the salary requirements and :

• You have the same job as when you were previously given permission to enter or stay in the UK; or
• Your job is in the same occupation code as when you were previously given permission to enter or stay in the UK; or
• You are working for the same employer that issued your current certificate of sponsorship

Is there a maximum time in the Health and Care Worker route?

Previously, those who wanted to enter or switch to the Tier 2 (General) route had to fulfil the requirement of spending a maximum of six years in the category. However, the Health and Care Worker route has eliminated this time limit, allowing individuals to stay for an unrestricted period, with up to 5 years of leave granted at a time.

Conditions of Stay as a UK Health and Care Worker

Health and Care Worker Visa holders are authorized to work in their sponsored job and can take on additional employment as long as it is in the same occupation code or less than 20 paid hours per week while continuing their primary sponsored job.

Eligibility for most benefits or a State Pension is not available. Changing jobs or employers requires updating the visa. Updating is necessary if you switch to a new job with a different employer, change the occupation code, exceed the 20-hour limit, or leave a shortage occupation job for a non-shortage occupation job. To update the visa, you must obtain a new certificate of sponsorship from the second employer and provide a letter explaining the reason for the change.

Settlement as a UK Health and Care Worker

In order to qualify for Settlement as a Health and Care Worker, you will need to satisfy UK Visas and Immigration that:

• You have spent a continuous period of 5 years in the UK
• The 5-year continuous period consisted of time with permission on any of, or any combination of, the following routes: Health and Care Worker, Global Talent,  Innovator, Tier 2 Minister of Religion, Tier 2 Sportsperson, Representative of an Overseas Business or as a Tier 1 Migrant (other than as a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) Migrant)
• You have not been outside for more than 180 days during each year of the 5-year continuous period
• You have passed the Life in the UK test (unless aged 65 or over)
• Your sponsor is still a Home Office-approved sponsor
• Your sponsor still requires you to work for them for the foreseeable future
• You are being and will be paid for the foreseeable future, at least the general salary threshold or the going rate requirement, whichever is higher

Application Fees and Fee Reduction

Individuals who apply for the Health and Care Visa will benefit from a reduced application fee if their employer confirms on the Certificate of Sponsorship that they meet the route's eligibility criteria.

This fee reduction also applies to their partners and dependents, and it should be automatically applied during the online application process.

As of 01 December 2020, the fees published for entry clearance applications made outside of the UK and for leave to remain applications made within the UK, including switching to this category, remain the same.

• Where a Certificate of Sponsorship has been issued for you to stay in the UK for 3 years or less the fee is £247
• Where a Certificate of Sponsorship has been issued for you to stay in the UK for3 years or more the fee is £479 

If you are a citizen of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden or Turkey, your Health and Care Visa application fee will be automatically reduced by £55.

However, this fee reduction only applies to the applicant and not to their partners or dependants, who will need to pay the full application fee.

Exemption from Immigration Health Surcharge

Health and Care Worker visa applicants and their dependents are exempt from paying the Immigration Health Charge.

Fast track Entry & Expedited Visa Processing Times 

The Home Office published guidance states that UK Visas and Immigration will prioritise Health and Care visa applications, with the aim that the vast majority are processed within 3 weeks from the date biometrics are taken.

Dependants of Health and Care Workers

Health and Care Workers are eligible to bring a dependent partner over the age of 18 and/or a dependent child under the age of 18 with them. Both partners and children applying as dependents of Health and Care Visa applicants are eligible for the visa fee reduction and are also exempt from paying the Immigration Health Charge.