Health and Care Worker visa for employers

The role has to match one of the occupation codes the government treats as eligible. Every code is a four-digit label used to sort similar jobs into groups. If you're hiring someone new from overseas, eligible codes include (GOV.UK):

• doctors: codes 2211 and 2212
• therapists and psychologists: codes 2221 through 2229
• nurses and midwives: codes 2231 through 2237
• pharmacy roles such as pharmacists (2251) and pharmaceutical technicians (3212)
• eye and dental care roles: optometrists (2252) and dentists (2253)
• radiography, paramedic, and podiatry roles: codes 2254, 2255, and 2256
• managers in health services (1171) and care homes (1232)
• nursing support roles, including nursing auxiliaries (6131)

You can't use this visa to hire a care worker (code 6135) or senior care worker (code 6136) from abroad as a new recruit. Those codes only count when the person extends, updates, or switches their existing visa. Before that can happen, they need to have worked for you lawfully, with you as their sponsor, for 3 months or more (GOV.UK).

The immigration salary list allows certain jobs to be paid below the usual minimum. Most of its entries come off the list on 31 December 2026, but for care workers the date is 22 July 2028 (GOV.UK).

The salary must be at least £25,000 a year. Where the going rate for that type of job sits above £25,000, the going rate is what you pay (GOV.UK). Each kind of job has its own official minimum, and that minimum is the going rate.

For most health roles, the going rate comes from the national pay scale. Nurses and therapists are banded under the NHS Agenda for Change system, and band 5 in England pays £29,970. Doctors follow the NHS doctors' scale (GOV.UK).

Before you can offer a job to someone from overseas, the Home Office has to grant you a sponsor licence. If your care service operates in England and you want to sponsor care workers, you also have to be on the Care Quality Commission's register (GOV.UK).

Once you have the licence, you assign each worker a certificate of sponsorship. That's an electronic record holding a reference number the worker puts in their visa application. Each one costs £525 (GOV.UK).

Three fees land on you: the licence, the certificate at £525, and the immigration skills charge. The skills charge is a fee per sponsored worker, worked out from how long they'll stay with you. How much depends on how big you are (GOV.UK):

Here are the full Home Office costs for 1 worker, licence fee included:

A small business or charity pays £611 for the licence itself, while a medium or large one pays £1,682. You only pay it once. Every further worker you sponsor means another £525 certificate plus the skills charge covering their stay: £480 per year for a small organisation, or £1,320 per year for a medium or large one.

If your worker applies on or after 8 April 2026, they'll pay £324 where the visa covers 3 years or less, and £628 where it runs longer (Home Office fees). For a sense of scale, the equivalent fee for a standard Skilled Worker visa, when someone applies from overseas, comes to £819 (GOV.UK).

This visa comes with a healthcare surcharge waiver that covers both the worker and their family (GOV.UK). You can expect a decision in about 3 weeks, and the visa can cover as much as 5 years before an extension is needed.

Anyone advising you on immigration has to be on the register of the Immigration Advice Authority, the regulator that used to be called the OISC. The alternative is belonging to a recognised professional body, the Law Society is one example (GOV.UK).