Social care workers, home carers, and health care workers were added to the home office’s shortage occupation list in February 2022. This addition has enabled employers to hire a wider pool of talent from overseas, resulting in greater job opportunities for the employees. The UK government designated a fund worth £15 million to support international recruitment in the health care and the adult social care sector. Applying through a health care visa route allows you to bring your dependant family members to live in the UK as well.

Who can apply?

• Qualified doctors
• Nurses
• Other health professionals
• Social care workers

What documents are required?

Certificate of Sponsorship

The primary and basic document to uptake a health care or social care job is the certificate of sponsorship with the reference number of the job you plan to do. This is usually in soft form. The certificate of sponsorship should be from an employer endorsed by the UK Home Office to sponsor the job, under the clause of health and social care worker. The typical employer will be NHS itself, an organization that is providing services to NHS or an organization providing social care. Your employer must add a brief explanation to the sponsorship visa about what and how you meet the requirements stated under the health and social care visa. If the employing organization is providing services to the NHS, it will be required to produce a proof of the contractual arrangement in the sponsorship certificate. 

Salary Bracket 

The employers recruiting under this visa route are supposed to pay their employees atleast £20,480 per year or the ‘going rate’ for the job, whichever is higher. If you’re being paid less than £25,000 a year, the rate of pay per hour should be £10.10. 

English Language Requirement

In order to qualify for this visa route, you’ll have to prove your ability in all 4 frameworks of the english language, i.e - reading, writing, listening, and speaking, as per CEFR requirements at level B1. You have to pass a secure english language test by an approved provider or if you have qualified a degree in the english language. 

Stay time under this rote 

Under the previously known Tier 2 (General) route, people applying for entry clearance or to switch into the route had to satisfy a requirement to spend a maximum of six years in the route. 
Under the Health and Care Worker route, the six-year maximum length of stay has been removed. There is no restriction on the length of stay, and you may be granted up to 5 years of leave time.