Skilled Worker Visa for Care Workers: UK Guide

The route as it now stands

Care work is sponsored under the Health and Care Worker visa, a version of the Skilled Worker visa. Two occupation codes cover it: 6135, care workers and home carers, and 6136, senior care workers.

Both are what GOV.UK calls “medium skilled” codes. Medium-skilled codes closed to new sponsorship on 22 July 2025, when the route's skill level rose to degree level. For the care codes the consequence is specific and important:

• You cannot apply from outside the UK. GOV.UK lists 6135 and 6136 only among the codes eligible when “extending, updating or switching to this visa”.
• Switching needs 3 months already worked. If you are switching from a different visa, you must have been working legally in your job for your sponsor for at least 3 months.
• The window closes on 22 July 2028. Applications in these codes must be made before then.

Compared with the standard Skilled Worker route, this one has a lower application fee — £324 for a stay of up to 3 years, £628 for more than 3 years, the same inside or outside the UK — and no immigration health surcharge. The current rules are on GOV.UK.

Occupation codes and pay

• 6135 — care workers and home carers. Frontline care roles, including care home staff, residential care workers, community support workers, and home carers visiting people in their own homes.
• 6136 — senior care workers. Senior and supervisory care roles.

The going rate published for both codes is £33,400 a year, or £17.13 an hour. Both are on the Immigration Salary List. That gives a lower salary floor and a lower application fee, but it does not reduce the going rate — the full rate still has to be paid. The 80% discount that used to come with the shortage occupation list ended in April 2024, and it has not returned.

Because care is normally paid hourly, the hourly figure is the one that bites: the going rate is pro-rated to the hours your sponsor states. Since 26 March 2026 the required salary must also be paid in each pay period, rather than averaged out across a year. See our guide to how salary is calculated and our Health and Care Worker salary guide. Your employer assigns the code on your certificate of sponsorship, and it must match the work you actually do.

What the employer must be

• a holder of a sponsor licence;
• in England, registered with the Care Quality Commission and carrying on a regulated activity. GOV.UK states this requirement for England, and sets out no equivalent for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland; and
• an employer, not a private household. A private household or individual cannot sponsor in these codes, unless it is a sole trader sponsoring someone to work for their business.

The employer assigns the certificate of sponsorship and must pay at least the rate that applies. Since 31 December 2024 a sponsor may not pass the licence fee, the administrative costs of the licence, or the certificate fee on to the worker.

English

Because sponsorship in these codes is only open to people already in the UK, which English level applies depends on what you are doing:

• Extending or updating a visa you held before 8 January 2026: level B1, and you do not need to prove it again.
• Switching from a Health and Care Worker visa: no fresh proof needed.
• Switching from any other visa: level B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

B2 can be shown by a Secure English Language Test at that level, a degree taught in English, a UK school qualification begun before you turned 18, or nationality of a country GOV.UK lists as majority English-speaking. Being from a country where English is an official language is not the same as being on that list. See our guide to English language tests for UK visas.

Partners and children

A worker sponsored in the care codes normally cannot bring a partner or children. GOV.UK sets out the exceptions.

If your partner or children are inside the UK, they can apply to stay as your dependant if any of these is true:

• you have been continually employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK and on a Skilled Worker visa since before 11 March 2024;
• they are your child and they were born in the UK;
• they are your child and you are the only living parent responsible for them; or
• they are your child and their other parent is also sponsored as a care worker or senior care worker.

If they are outside the UK, only the first two of those apply.

Someone who does hold dependant permission can work, except as a sportsperson or coach, and can study. See our guides on bringing family and dependant work rights.

The health surcharge exemption, and what care still costs

On this route neither you nor your partner or children pay the immigration health surcharge, which is £1,035 a year for most other applicants. You can use the NHS from the date the visa starts.

That is not the same as free healthcare. GOV.UK says you will still pay for some services, such as prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests and assisted conception, on the same basis as a UK resident. In England a prescription costs £9.90 an item and NHS dental treatment falls into bands of £27.90, £76.60 and £332.10. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Signs of an exploitative sponsor

Exploitation in the care sector was a stated reason for the restrictions on this route. These are things the rules or the law prohibit, or that contradict what your sponsorship says:

• being charged for the certificate of sponsorship, the sponsor licence, or the administrative costs of the licence — a sponsor has not been allowed to pass these on since 31 December 2024;
• repayment of large recruitment or training fees taken out of your wages;
• an employer keeping your passport or other documents;
• hours far below what you were promised, after you have arrived; and
• pay below the rate on your certificate of sponsorship, or deductions you cannot get an explanation for.

The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority investigates labour exploitation and takes reports. Citizens Advice and trade unions give free help, and the Care Quality Commission takes concerns about regulated providers in England. Our guide to employment rights for visa holders sets out the rights that apply to everyone working in the UK, whatever their visa.

How the rules got here

• 11 March 2024: care workers and senior care workers stopped being able to bring dependants, other than those continually employed in these codes since before that date.
• April 2024: the shortage occupation list was replaced by the Immigration Salary List, ending the going-rate discount that used to come with it.
• 22 July 2025: the route's skill level rose to degree level, closing the care codes to applications from outside the UK. The general threshold rose to £41,700.
• 8 January 2026: English rose to B2 for new applications.
• 26 March 2026: the required salary must be paid in each pay period.

Our guide to the recent Skilled Worker changes and to the 2025 immigration white paper set out the wider picture.

Settlement

After 5 years living in the UK you may be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain, with no more than 180 days spent outside the UK in any 12 months. Our continuous residence guide explains how that is counted.

You must still meet a salary requirement when you apply, and your sponsor must confirm you are still needed for the job. If you are 18 to 64 you must pass the Life in the UK test. GOV.UK says you do not need to prove English again at settlement on this route, because you did so for the visa; from 26 March 2027 the settlement English requirement rises to B2. Settlement costs £3,226 per person, and a decision usually arrives within 6 months.

Related guides

• Skilled Worker visa guide
• Health and Care Worker salary
• Bringing family on a Skilled Worker visa
• Recent Skilled Worker changes
• Settlement for health and care workers
• Employment rights for visa holders

Questions and answers