Skilled Worker Visa for Doctors: UK Guide

The Health and Care Worker route

Doctors come to the UK on the Health and Care Worker visa, a version of the Skilled Worker visa for eligible health and social care jobs. Compared with the standard Skilled Worker route it has:

• a lower application fee: £324 for a stay of up to 3 years, or £628 for more than 3 years, the same whether you apply from inside or outside the UK;
• no immigration health surcharge for you, your partner or your children; and
• salary rules based on national pay scales rather than a single going rate.

GOV.UK lists generalist medical practitioners (occupation code 2211) and specialist medical practitioners (code 2212) among the eligible jobs. Your employer must be an approved sponsor: the NHS, an organisation providing medical services to the NHS, or an organisation providing adult social care. They hold a sponsor licence and assign you a certificate of sponsorship, which is an electronic record, not a paper document. You must apply within 3 months of getting it.

A decision usually arrives within 3 weeks. The visa can last up to 5 years before you need to extend it. You must also have at least £1,270 available for 28 days in a row, unless you have been in the UK on a valid visa for at least 12 months or your sponsor certifies your maintenance on the certificate of sponsorship.

Registration with the General Medical Council

Professional registration with the General Medical Council, and a licence to practise, are what allow you to work as a doctor here. The usual route for an international medical graduate is the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test, known as PLAB:

1. PLAB part 1: a written, multiple-choice examination, which can be taken outside the UK.
2. PLAB part 2: a practical examination of clinical skills, taken in the UK.
3. Registration: after passing both parts, apply to the General Medical Council for registration with a licence to practise.

Some doctors do not need PLAB, because the General Medical Council accepts certain overseas qualifications and postgraduate examinations instead. There is also a separate route on to the specialist or general practitioner register for experienced doctors who trained outside a UK training programme. The council is the only authority on which qualifications it accepts and what each route costs, so check the General Medical Council website. Registration is a separate process from the visa: neither one grants the other.

Salary for visa purposes

Doctors fall into the group of healthcare jobs where, in the words of GOV.UK, “the going rate is based on the national pay scales set by the relevant independent body, for example the NHS”. For those jobs your salary must be at least £25,000 a year, or more if the national pay scale rate for your role is higher. The general £41,700 Skilled Worker threshold does not apply to them, and there is no single going rate figure for a doctor.

The rates are published by NHS pay band and by area of the UK, and they apply whether the employer is in the public or the private sector. Ask your employer which role and pay band you will be on, then check it in the table of national pay scales for eligible healthcare jobs.

Our guide to how salary is calculated covers which parts of a pay package count. In outline, the figure used is guaranteed basic gross pay; allowances and payments that are not guaranteed, such as most unsocial hours supplements, are not counted.

Career routes in the NHS

The visa does not decide your career route. Doctors who come from overseas commonly enter the NHS through:

• the foundation programme, the first two years of postgraduate training;
• specialty training, entered by competitive application to a training post;
• locally employed posts, such as trust grade or clinical fellow roles, which are not training posts; and
• the specialist register, for experienced doctors whose training and experience outside a UK programme are assessed by the General Medical Council.

Healthcare and what it still costs

The surcharge exemption means you can use the NHS from the date the visa starts without paying it. It does not make everything free. GOV.UK says you will still need to pay for some services, such as prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests and assisted conception. In England a prescription costs £9.90 an item. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Settlement

After 5 years in the UK on this route you may be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain, if you meet the other requirements, and afterwards for British citizenship.

Bringing your family

Your partner and children can apply as dependants. They can work, except as a sportsperson or coach, and can study. They are also exempt from the immigration health surcharge on this route. They cannot claim most benefits (public funds) or the State Pension.

Related guides

• Skilled Worker visa guide
• Professional registration in the UK
• Recognition of foreign qualifications
• Skilled Worker visa for nurses
• Settlement for health and care workers

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