UK Health and Care Worker Visa 2026: How to Apply

The Health and Care Worker visa is the cheapest way into the UK for anyone who qualifies for it. It carries a reduced application fee, a lower salary floor than the ordinary Skilled Worker route, and complete exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge for you and your family. On a five year visa that exemption alone is worth GBP 5,175 per person.

It also closed to one large group of applicants in 2025, and that is the first thing to establish before reading anything else about it.

Table of Contents

Care workers can no longer apply from abroad

On 22 July 2025 the UK closed this route to new overseas applicants in care worker and senior care worker roles. Care providers can no longer sponsor someone in those roles from outside the UK.

Two things survive, and they matter:

People already in the UK. Existing holders can extend and can change sponsor until 22 July 2028, and providers can still recruit care workers already in the country.
Every other profession on this visa. Nurses, doctors, paramedics and allied health professionals were not affected. The route is fully open to them.

That distinction gets lost constantly, and it costs people the route. If you hold a nursing qualification and have been told the UK is closed, you have been told something untrue. Registering that qualification is what changes which door you are at.

Which professions qualify

The visa covers qualified health and care professionals across seven broad areas:

Area	Roles
Doctors and dentists	Medical practitioners, dental practitioners
Nursing and midwifery	Nurses, midwives, dental nurses
Allied health professions	Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, radiographers, podiatrists, paramedics, osteopaths and psychotherapists
Pharmacy and optical	Pharmacists, pharmaceutical technicians, ophthalmic opticians, dispensing opticians
Science and laboratory	Biological scientists and biochemists, physical scientists, laboratory technicians, medical and dental technicians
Psychology and social work	Psychologists, social workers
Management	Health services and public health managers and directors, residential and domiciliary care managers

Professions eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa. Care worker and senior care worker roles are excluded for new overseas applicants.

Do not take an occupation code from a guide, including an older version of this one. Eligibility is decided by the occupation code on your certificate of sponsorship, and UK immigration moved from the SOC 2010 numbering to SOC 2020 in April 2024. Every four digit code published before then is against the old scheme. Take yours from the official list of eligible jobs and confirm it with your employer.

What you need

A certificate of sponsorship from an approved sponsor: an NHS body, an organisation providing services to the NHS, or a provider regulated by the Care Quality Commission.
A job on the list of eligible occupations, at the required skill level.
A salary meeting the threshold below.
Professional registration with the relevant UK regulator, such as the NMC for nurses and midwives or the GMC for doctors. This is usually the longest part of the whole process and the part to start first.
English at level B2 on the CEFR scale, in all four skills, for applications made on or after 8 January 2026. It was B1 before that, and B1 still applies if you held the visa before that date and are extending. If your regulator has already accepted an English assessment you will not usually need to prove it again, and OET Grade B or IELTS Academic 7.0 sits comfortably above the visa requirement.
Proof of funds, unless your employer certifies they will cover your first month.

The salary threshold, which has two levels

Your role	Minimum salary
On a national pay scale, which covers most NHS roles	GBP 25,000, or the going rate for the role, whichever is higher
Not on a national pay scale	GBP 31,300, or the going rate, whichever is higher

Health and Care Worker visa salary minimums. Both sit well below the GBP 41,700 general Skilled Worker floor.

The national pay scale route is the one most NHS applicants use, because Agenda for Change bands are national pay scales. If your offer is from an NHS trust at a stated band, that is the figure the Home Office will look at, and the GBP 25,000 floor is what applies.

Compare that with the ordinary Skilled Worker visa, where the general floor is GBP 41,700. The gap is the single biggest reason to establish whether you qualify for this route rather than that one.

What it costs, and what it saves

	Health and Care Worker visa	Ordinary Skilled Worker visa
Application fee, up to 3 years	GBP 324	Around GBP 950
Application fee, over 3 years	GBP 628	Around GBP 1,900
Immigration Health Surcharge	Exempt	GBP 1,035 per adult per year
Five year cost of the surcharge alone	Nothing	GBP 5,175 per adult

Health and Care Worker visa costs against the ordinary route. Fees are revised most Aprils.

Dependants pay the same application fee and are also exempt from the health surcharge, which is where the saving really shows. A family of four on a five year visa avoids over GBP 20,000 in surcharge that the ordinary route would charge them.

You will still need proof of funds of GBP 1,270, held for 28 consecutive days, plus GBP 285 for a partner, GBP 315 for a first child and GBP 200 for each additional child, unless your employer certifies your first month.

How to apply, in the order that works

Start professional registration first. NMC, GMC or the relevant regulator. Nothing else can complete without it and it takes the longest.
Find a sponsor: an NHS trust, an organisation serving the NHS, or a CQC regulated provider. Check them against the Home Office register of licensed sponsors.
Get your certificate of sponsorship, and check the occupation code on it against the current eligible jobs list.
Apply online, separately from your partner and each child, and give biometrics at a visa application centre.
Set up your UKVI account when the visa is granted. Your status is an online eVisa now, not a card: biometric residence permits were phased out and expired on 31 December 2024.

The official guidance is on gov.uk and NHS Employers publishes the sponsor side, which is worth reading if you want to understand what your employer has to do.

Blog Post