UK Skilled Worker visa for healthcare jobs

The rule that is different here

For almost every other job, the UK publishes a single "going rate" figure per occupation. Healthcare is not on that list.

Instead, your salary must meet the national pay scale rate for the job you will be doing, and this applies "whether you'll be working in the public or private sector". A private hospital cannot pay below the NHS band for the role.

One healthcare-adjacent job does use the standard table. Biochemists and biomedical scientists (code 2113) have a published going rate of £45,900 (UK Home Office, effective July 22, 2025) standard, £35,100 lower.

The money you do not pay

The Health and Care Worker visa removes the immigration health surcharge. Everyone else on a work visa pays £1,035 (UK Home Office, effective February 6, 2024) per person per year, upfront, for the whole visa length.

A nurse bringing a partner and two children on a five-year visa saves four people's surcharge for five years (4 × 5 × £1,035 (UK Home Office, effective February 6, 2024)). That is the largest single number in UK work immigration, and it applies to you and your dependants from the day the visa starts.

Application fees are also lower than the standard Skilled Worker visa.

Registration: what is actually required

This is where most guidance is wrong, so here is the precise position.

Start registration before you start job-hunting. For pharmacists and doctors the process is measured in years, not weeks, and no sponsor can shorten it.

How to use this section

Each job page gives the specific pay band, the registration position for that profession, and which job titles the occupation code covers.

If a sponsored healthcare post is not the right fit

• Canada's Express Entry runs a health care and social services category in 2026, confirmed by IRCC in February 2026. Candidates with at least 12 months of qualifying experience in the past three years can be invited at lower scores than the general pool. A provincial nomination adds 600 points on top.
• Global Talent visa: no sponsor and no job offer, with an endorsement route for academic and research roles. Clinical academics and researchers qualify more often than they expect.
• Already in the UK on another visa? Switching into a Health and Care Worker role in-country is common, and the surcharge exemption applies from the new visa.

Our assessment checks you against every open UK and Canadian route in about three minutes and shows your score, where you stand and the first thing that would raise it. No card needed for that. Seeing every route in full needs a plan.

See where you stand →