What is the Health and Care Worker visa?

It's a branch of the Skilled Worker visa for eligible health and care professionals with a job offer from a licensed sponsor such as the NHS. It offers reduced fees, exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge, and typically faster processing, and can lead to settlement over time.

What salary do you need for an NHS sponsored job?

Eligible health and care roles are assessed against national NHS pay scales rather than the general £41,700 floor, with a lower salary floor than the standard route. Your pay depends largely on your band and experience. Confirm the current figures for your role on GOV.UK, as they are updated regularly.

NHS & Healthcare Jobs With Visa Sponsorship in the UK

Q: Does the NHS sponsor visas?

Yes. The NHS is the single largest visa sponsor in the UK. Most eligible clinical roles — including nurses, doctors, midwives, paramedics, and allied health professionals — are sponsored through the Health and Care Worker visa, a cheaper and faster branch of the Skilled Worker route.

Does the NHS sponsor visas?

Yes — the NHS is the single largest visa sponsor in the UK, and most eligible clinical roles are sponsored through the Health and Care Worker visa, a cheaper, faster branch of the Skilled Worker route. Doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, and allied health professionals are all routinely sponsored, with salaries set by national NHS pay scales rather than the general £41,700 floor.

If you work in healthcare, the UK is one of the most realistic countries to move to on a sponsored visa — because the NHS and the wider health sector sponsor at a scale no other employer matches. This guide covers the clinical and professional roles that get sponsored, how the Health and Care Worker visa works, what you need to earn, and the registration and English requirements that trip up otherwise-qualified applicants.

Healthcare immigration rules — especially for care roles — changed in 2025 and can change again. Use this as an overview and confirm the current position for your profession on the GOV.UK Health and Care Worker visa pages.

Why healthcare is the biggest sponsorship sector

The UK has long-standing shortages across nursing, medicine, and allied health, and the NHS relies heavily on internationally recruited staff to fill them. That makes healthcare unusual: while the 2025 rule changes narrowed sponsorship in many sectors, demand for qualified clinical staff remains strong, and the dedicated Health and Care Worker visa exists specifically to bring them in. Alongside technology and IT, healthcare is one of the two sectors where UK sponsorship is most active.

The Health and Care Worker visa

Eligible health and care professionals are usually sponsored on the Health and Care Worker visa rather than the standard Skilled Worker visa. It's the same underlying route but with real advantages for applicants:

Reduced application fees compared with the standard Skilled Worker visa.
Exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge — a significant saving over the length of the visa.
Typically faster processing, reflecting the priority given to health roles.
A path that can lead to settlement (indefinite leave to remain) over time.

Which NHS and healthcare roles get sponsored

Sponsorship covers a broad range of clinical and professional roles, not just nursing. Common sponsored roles include:

Nurses and midwives (registered with the NMC).
Doctors across specialties (registered with the GMC).
Paramedics and ambulance staff.
Allied health professionals — physiotherapists, radiographers, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists.
Pharmacists and pharmacy professionals.
Biomedical scientists and other healthcare science roles.
Senior care and clinical support roles, where eligible.

This guide focuses on clinical and NHS roles. If you're looking at care assistant or home-care work specifically, that's a distinct route with its own rules — see our guide to care jobs with visa sponsorship in the UK.

Salary and pay scales

Here's where healthcare differs from most sponsored jobs. Rather than the general £41,700 floor, eligible health and care roles are assessed against national NHS pay scales (such as Agenda for Change bands and medical pay scales), with a lower salary floor than the standard route. Your pay is largely determined by your band and experience. Because the exact figures depend on your role and are updated regularly, confirm them against the current rules — our guide to Skilled Worker visa salary thresholds for 2026 explains how health and education roles are treated differently.

Registration and English requirements

For clinical roles, the visa is only half the picture — you also need to be able to practise in the UK. That usually means:

Professional registration with the relevant UK body — the NMC for nurses and midwives, the GMC for doctors, or the HCPC for many allied health professions.
Meeting the English language requirement, both for the visa and often a higher standard set by your professional regulator (commonly IELTS or OET).
A confirmed job offer from a licensed sponsor — the NHS trust, an NHS supplier, or another eligible healthcare employer.
Any profession-specific competency or knowledge tests required for UK registration.

How the care-worker rules changed in 2025

While clinical NHS roles remain in strong demand, the social care route was tightened significantly in 2025 — overseas recruitment of new care workers from abroad was wound down, with more emphasis on people already in the UK. If care work is your route rather than a clinical role, read the detail in our guide to the UK sponsorship rule changes since July 2025 so you're working from current information.

How to find sponsored healthcare jobs

NHS trusts advertise widely, but not every healthcare employer or role is set up to sponsor — and vacancies move fast. The efficient approach is to focus only on employers with an active sponsor licence and roles that fit your registration. For the full workflow, see our complete guide to UK visa sponsorship jobs. Or create a free Hirely profile to see sponsor-verified healthcare roles matched to your experience, without vetting each employer by hand.