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Pathway

UK Health and Care Worker Visa

United Kingdom Residency
Pathway overview

At a glance

The UK Health and Care Worker visa is for qualified medical, health, and adult social care professionals with an eligible UK job offer from an approved sponsor. It generally requires the role, employer, salary, English ability, and professional fit to meet UK rules.

Job offer required?
Yes, with the required sponsorship
Occupation
An eligible health or care role, with professional registration where required
Other requirements
The applicable pay and English rules, plus the required personal checks

Summary

This is a sponsored UK work route for eligible health and care roles with the NHS, NHS suppliers, or adult social care employers. It can lead to settlement after enough qualifying residence if the requirements continue to be met.

Check the exact occupation before relying on sponsorship
  1. Match the role to the current occupation rules Verify the approved sponsor, salary, and any professional registration.
  2. Resolve any care-worker transition restrictions Document the required location and employment history where that branch applies.
  3. Prepare sponsorship and each dependent’s case Check occupation-specific family cutoffs and retain the employment and immigration evidence.

Not every NHS or care job qualifies. The reduced fees and surcharge exemption do not remove the Skilled Worker requirements.

Could this pathway work for you?

Eligibility

The applicant needs an eligible job, licensed sponsor and certificate of sponsorship. Initial applicants now normally need B2 English from 8 January 2026; a person already granted this route under the former B1 rule can extend at B1, and regulated doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives and vets may rely on an accepted professional assessment.

Salary is occupation-specific. Jobs paid on listed national scales generally require at least £25,000 and the applicable pay scale. Many other listed health occupations normally require at least £31,300 and the lower going rate, with tightly defined PhD, new-entrant, postdoctoral or salary-list options down to £25,000. Care workers and senior care workers require at least £25,000 and £12.82 an hour under sponsor guidance.

Care-worker jobs have extra restrictions. New overseas recruitment under occupation codes 6135 and 6136 closed on July 22, 2025. To switch from another visa, you must have worked legally in an eligible care role for the sponsor for at least three months before it issues your sponsorship certificate. You must apply before July 22, 2028. Existing sponsored care workers follow a separate rule for extensions and employer changes.

In England, an employer sponsoring those care roles must carry out a regulated activity and have active registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the care regulator.

The current visa brake also applies because this visa is part of Skilled Worker: an Afghan main applicant applying from outside the UK from March 26, 2026 must be refused. This does not cancel existing visas or eligible applications made inside the UK.

Policy watch 2 developments we’re tracking
Health and Care Worker settlement applications will require B2 English
Enacted — not yet in effect

Health and Care Worker settlement applications will require B2 English

Current official stage: Immigration Rules laid with a deferred commencement date

The Health and Care route sits within Appendix Skilled Worker. From 26 March 2027, its settlement stage will require B2 English unless an exemption or accepted form of evidence applies, including for people already accruing qualifying residence.

Timing: The B2 settlement requirement takes effect on 26 March 2027. Applications made before that date remain subject to the rules then in force; applicants planning to file on or after it should prepare for B2 unless an exemption applies.

Last checked
References
Read the full briefing
Settlement timing may depend on occupation and contribution
Consultation — not currently law

Settlement timing may depend on occupation and contribution

Current official stage: Consultation closed; government analyzing feedback

The consultation proposes a 10-year baseline and asks whether some roles below RQF level 6 should face a 15-year baseline, while certain public-service work could earn a reduction. The final treatment of Health and Care Workers has not been published.

Timing: The consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026. GOV.UK currently says the government is analyzing feedback. No general implementation date has been announced, and current settlement rules remain in force unless and until Immigration Rules changes take effect.

Last checked
References
Read the full briefing

What This Route Allows

Permission can be granted for up to five years and extended. Work is for the sponsor, with limited supplementary work and study permitted. Settlement remains available after five qualifying years, subject to continuous residence, continuing sponsor need, the settlement salary and Life in the UK. The main worker has no separate settlement English test before 26 March 2027; enacted rules require B2 from that date. Adult dependents normally need B1 before then and B2 from that date. The main holder and eligible dependents do not pay IHS. The current application fee is £324 for up to three years or £628 for longer.

Dependents are restricted for care workers unless the worker has been continuously sponsored in that work since before 11 March 2024 or a listed child exception applies. Other medium-skilled health jobs require continuous sponsorship since before 22 July 2025 or a child exception. Higher-skilled eligible clinicians retain the normal dependent route.

What This Route Is Not

It is not open to every NHS or care job and does not override professional registration. The no-IHS benefit does not mean all NHS services are free. Public funds are normally barred, and a job or employer change usually requires a new certificate and updated visa.

Next Steps

  1. Match the job to the current four-digit occupation code, sponsor license and salary table.
  2. If care work is involved, document the in-country transition and three-month employment before assuming eligibility.
  3. Check each dependent against the occupation-specific cut-off date.
  4. Preserve payslips, certificates, regulator status, eVisa records and absences for settlement.

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Discussed in these reports

Similar skilled worker pathways in other destinations.

Sources