Key Takeaways
- Yes. Every NHS trust in England holds a sponsor licence, making the NHS the UK’s single biggest visa sponsor, mostly through the Health and Care Worker visa.
- That visa is cheaper than the standard route, with a reduced application fee and no Immigration Health Surcharge to pay.
- It covers clinical and professional roles such as doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, but the overseas care worker route closed on 22 July 2025.
- Sponsorship still means a genuine job offer from a licensed employer for an eligible role, and the rules tightened further in 2026.
If you are a healthcare professional abroad hoping to work in the UK, the NHS is usually the first employer that comes to mind, and the first question is always the same: does the NHS actually sponsor visas? It matters enormously, because without sponsorship most overseas healthcare workers have no route in, and it is easy to lose time chasing roles that were never open to you.
The short answer is yes, and on a scale bigger than any other employer in the country. But the picture changed significantly in 2025, particularly for care workers, so the honest answer now depends a lot on the type of role you are looking at.
This guide explains how NHS sponsorship works, which roles it covers, and what the recent changes mean for healthcare and care workers. If you are a healthcare or care employer thinking about sponsoring staff, Osbourne Pinner offers a free 30-minute consultation with an immigration solicitor.
The short answer: yes, and on a huge scale
Every NHS trust in England holds a Home Office sponsor licence. With well over a million staff, the NHS is the largest single visa sponsor in the UK. So if you are a qualified healthcare professional with an offer from an NHS trust, sponsorship is not the exception, it is the norm. The route it uses is the Health and Care Worker visa, a dedicated part of the Skilled Worker system built for exactly this.
What the Health and Care Worker visa offers
This visa is deliberately more generous than the standard Skilled Worker route, to make it easier for the health service to recruit. The Health and Care Worker visa comes with a much lower application fee, around £300 for visas of up to three years, and applicants are also exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge, which alone saves over £1,000 a year. The salary requirement is also generally lower than the standard route, set by reference to NHS pay scales and the going rate for the role rather than the higher general threshold.
Which roles the NHS can sponsor
The visa is aimed at qualified clinical and professional staff. Commonly sponsored roles include doctors at every grade, registered nurses across all specialties, and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, radiographers and paramedics. The role has to be an eligible occupation and, following the 2025 changes, generally at graduate level. A job offer for an eligible role from a licensed trust is what opens the door to the visa.
The big change: care workers from overseas
This is where a lot of people are caught out. On 22 July 2025, the government closed the route for recruiting care workers and senior care workers from overseas. Employers can no longer sponsor a new care worker coming from abroad. There is a transitional arrangement: care workers already in the UK who have been on an employer’s payroll for at least three months can still extend or switch until 22 July 2028. But the door to fresh overseas recruitment for those roles has closed. We cover this in detail in our guide to the closure of the social care visa route.
NHS suppliers and adult social care
The Health and Care Worker visa is not limited to NHS trusts. It also covers roles with NHS suppliers and in adult social care, provided the employer holds a licence and the role qualifies. For care providers, though, the closure above bites hard, and recruitment now has to focus on eligible clinical roles or on workers already in the UK. Care homes weighing up their options may find our guide on how care homes can sponsor skilled workers useful.
How to get sponsored by the NHS
For a worker, the order of events matters. You first need a job offer from an NHS trust or other licensed health employer for an eligible role. The employer then assigns you a Certificate of Sponsorship, and only then do you apply for the visa itself. There is no way to get NHS sponsorship without first securing the job. Our step-by-step guide on how to apply for a Skilled Worker visa and our immigration solicitors can help you get the application right once you have an offer.
How long does it last, and can it lead to settlement?
The Health and Care Worker visa can be granted for up to five years at a time, matching the length of your Certificate of Sponsorship, and it can be extended as long as you still qualify. It can also put you on the path to settlement, or indefinite leave to remain, which gives you the right to stay without further sponsorship. The settlement rules are under review and the qualifying periods have been changing, so it is worth checking the current position for your route before you count on a particular timeline.
Can your family come with you?
For most eligible clinical roles, yes. Your partner and any children under 18 can usually join you as dependants, with the right to live and, for your partner, work in the UK. Each dependant makes their own application and pays their own fee, so it is worth budgeting for the whole family rather than just the main applicant. The rules on dependants have been tightened for some routes, so check what applies to the specific role you are being sponsored for.
What if the NHS will not sponsor you?
If your role no longer qualifies, particularly in social care, it is worth knowing there are other routes. Some healthcare professionals move on the standard Skilled Worker route with a different employer, and others explore the self-sponsorship visa, where you set up a UK business that holds its own licence. Neither is a like-for-like replacement, but they can keep a UK career alive where direct NHS sponsorship is not available.
What this means for health and care employers
If you are an employer in the sector, sponsoring staff means holding a valid sponsor licence and keeping to your sponsor duties, which are policed more closely than ever after a record year of licence revocations. Getting the licence and your compliance systems right protects both your recruitment and your ability to keep sponsoring in future. You can read more on our skilled worker sponsor licence page.
Speak to an Immigration Solicitor About Health and Care Sponsorship
NHS and health sponsorship is well established, but the 2025 and 2026 changes have reshaped who can be recruited from overseas, especially in social care. Getting clear advice avoids wasted applications for workers and costly compliance mistakes for employers.
At Osbourne Pinner, our skilled worker sponsor licence solicitors can help health and care employers apply for a licence and stay compliant, and advise workers on securing and using their sponsorship correctly.
Please note that this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. We always recommend speaking to a qualified solicitor for advice tailored to your specific circumstances.
We offer a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your situation. You can speak with us via video call or visit our offices in Harrow, Canary Wharf, Piccadilly Circus or Manchester. To arrange your consultation, call 0203 983 5080, email [email protected] or complete the form below.
