EDITOR`S NOTE: This article is a partner content contribution to Clariform by Swift Solicitors Chambers. Partner contents a sponsored and Clariform neither takes responsibility for their accuracy nor ownership of the copyright. It is published for information purpose only.
You can apply for the Health & Care Worker Visa to live and work in the UK with your family if you are currently working in the healthcare sector in your country or where you currently reside. The Health and Care Worker Visa is open to qualified doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals of all nationalities (except British and Irish) who have been trained to a recognised standard.
You can also potentially qualify for this category of visa even though you are not a qualified doctor, nurse or allied health professionals, and do not currently work in the health sector. This is especially if you have undergone some related training and wish to take up a job in the sector in the UK, especially as a healthcare assistant.
Healthcare Assistants provide personal care and support to patients in medical settings and at the comfort of their own homes. They work closely with the patients and other professionals to help them through recovery while protecting their personal comfort and dignity.
If successful, the Health and Care Worker Visa can lead to settlement in the UK after 5 years and applicants can be joined by dependent partners and children. They could all relocate to the UK together or at different times as they wish, but within the period of the contract.
General Requirements:
UK Visas & Immigrations have a general set rules and requirements a Health & Care Worker Visa applicant must meet before the visa is granted. These are as follows:
- You are aged 18 or over;
- You are a qualified doctor, nurse, health professional or adult social care professional;
- You work or will work in an eligible health or social care job, which falls within the list of approved occupation codes;
- You work or will work for a UK health and care sector employer that has been approved by the Home Office;
- You have a valid ‘certificate of sponsorship’ from your employer with information about the role you have been offered;
- You are competent in the English language to at least CEFR Level B1 (equivalent to IELTS 4.0);
- You will be paid the minimum salary or the ‘going rate’ for the type of work you will be doing, whichever is higher;
- You have enough money to support yourself without relying on public funds;
- You have provided a criminal record certificate, if working with vulnerable people; and
- You have provided a valid TB certificate, if from a listed country.
Specific Requirements
The above is a shortlist of the general requirements, but we shall now further breakdown and identify what are basic for a successful application for the health and care worker visa or what is simply referred to as the Healthcare Assistant Visa. To do so, we shall discuss some condition precedents and the procedural steps that brings about the best result.
These are as follows:
- Get Yourself Ready
First, you will need to understand the nature of the job of a caregiver such as healthcare support worker/assistant. If you were already a nurse or a doctor, then you would already understand the whole picture and ready to hit the ground running from day one.
If you are none of the two then it is important to read up everything about the job that are available online. There are so much information you access for free by simply checking on search engines such as google. Having verified the specific job descriptions, then you can check yourself if you can properly fit into the shoe.
Better still, you can also get yourself trained for the job if you have the will but lacks the skill. It is not had to do so and does not take so long to get a good and suitable training completed. You can even do the training online and get certified by UK based trainers while still in your home country.
- Find a sponsor
To qualify for a Health and Care Worker visa, you need to have a confirmed job offer from a UK company, which meets the necessary minimum salary requirements. The offer must be from an employer who has been approved by the UK Home Office to act as a sponsor.
If your employer is not currently approved, they will need to apply for a sponsor licence. Once you have secured a job offer, your employer will check that you meet the eligibility requirements for working in the UK healthcare sector. They will then provide a ‘Certificate of Sponsorship’, which is an electronic record of your job offer and employer details.
For your job application, you will need a well polished CV/resume, which must clearly detail your education and qualifications. It should also convincingly detail your work history, skills and the experience you are bringing to the job. Note that details such as your sex, marital status and religion are unnecessary by UK CV standard.
To apply to a UK employer as professional healthcare worker such as a nurse or doctor you will need to show prove of your educational qualification. However, for the job of Healthcare Assistant, there are basically no mandatory educational and professional qualifications necessary.
In most cases, the required training will be carried out on-the-job under close supervision by career caregivers with adequate experience. This notwithstanding, it can be an advantage if you arm yourself with certain minimum supporting documents and paperwork in place, which we shall discuss further below.
- Assemble Supporting Documents
You will need to provide the following information to support your application for a Health and Care Worker visa:
- Any requisite healthcare certificate or license such as doctor, nursing/midwifery, care support/assistant, etc, if you are applying for such more professional roles
- Certificate of Sponsorship reference number
- Your job title, annual salary and job occupation code
- The name of your employer
- Your employer’s sponsor license number
- Evidence of your standard of English such as official letter from your former school indicating that you were thought in English language, or IELTS result
- WAEC or SSCE
- A valid passport or other official proof of identity and nationality
- Proof of required fund for one month maintenance such as your bank statement if your sponsor is not providing this maintenance
- Proof of your relationship with your partner if you are married
- Criminal record certificate from any countries you have lived in where applicable
- Results of a tuberculosis test if you are from a listed country
- Apply for the Visa
You must apply for your visa within three months of receiving your COS (Certificate of Sponsorship) from a UK employer. The best type of visa to apply for is a Health and Care Worker visa, which comes under the skilled worker visa classification and was previously known as a Tier 2 visa. To qualify for this type of visa, you will need to have suitable experience. This means you need to be working as a doctor, nurse, health care provider, social care professional or simply as a healthcare assistant.
The Health and Care Worker visa entitles you to work in the UK in adult social care, with the NHS or for NHS suppliers. You could find suitable roles in the NHS and care homes or domiciliary care providers as well as companies who provide services to the NHS. This visa is valid for up to five years and you will need to update your visa if it expires or if you get a job with a different employer.
Financial Requirements
To apply for a Health and Care Worker Visa, you need to show you will not rely on public funding or be a liability to the government on arrival in the UK, before you receive your first salary. To satisfy this requirement you should have the equivalent of at least £1270 in a bank account to support yourself for a month after arrival. Alternatively, your employer can state on your Certificate of Sponsorship if they are willing to support you.
UK visa fees in Nigeria are currently £232 if you’ll be in the UK for up to 3 years, or £464 for more than 3 years. However, this may have changed by the time you are reading this article. So please reconfirm.
Settlement routes from Health & Care Worker Visa
As already above, if successful the Health and Care Worker Visa can lead to settlement in the UK after 5 years and applicants can be joined by dependent partners and children at any time, even from the beginning.
In order to qualify for Settlement as a Health and Care Worker, you will need to satisfy UK Visas and Immigration that:
- You have spent a continuous period of 5 years in the UK;
- The 5-year continuous period consisted of time with permission on any of, or any combination of, the following routes: Health and Care Worker, Global talent, Innovator, Tier 2 Minister of Religion, Tier 2 Sportsperson, Representative of an Overseas Business or as a Tier 1 Migrant (other than as a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) Migrant);
- You have not been outside for more than 180 days during each year of the 5-year continuous period;
- You have passed the Life in the UK test (unless aged 65 or over);
- Your sponsor is still a Home Office approved sponsor;
- Your sponsor still requires you to work for them for the foreseeable future;
- You are being, and will be paid for the foreseeable future, at least the general salary threshold or the going rate requirement, whichever is higher.
Conclusion
To be sure of what you really need for your Health & Care Worker Visa application, you may need to seek professional advice from an immigration lawyer. In other to reduce the chances of failure and brighten your chances of success at first attempt, it is advisable you speak with an immigration lawyer in every situation.
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