Employment law update
Staying the right side of immigration law
André Minnaar, partner and head of the immigration team at Midlands law firm Sydney Mitchell, offers an overview of UK immigration law relevant to recruiting workers from overseas
According to recent data, around 300,000 foreign workers are currently employed in the UK care sector, and over the last 12 months the number of overseas recruits has increased, but the number of visas granted has decreased. Any business wanting to recruit a
foreign worker from abroad needs to first apply to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) for a sponsorship license. Only if the licence is approved will the business be entitled to employ workers from abroad to work for the business in the UK. The same applies when looking to employ a foreign worker who is already in the UK on another route. Employing foreign workers without authority is a serious offence, liable to huge civil penalty fines.
Impact on care UKVI recently introduced measures to bring net migration down, and stepped up scrutiny of the visa system, not least in response to the alleged high levels of non-compliance and worker exploitation, as well as unsustainable levels of demand. These measures, including the significant increase on the financial income threshold, have had a particularly harmful impact on social and health care.
One important change to immigration rules took effect on 11 March 2024, when new health care workers were stopped from applying to sponsor partners and dependents as family members joining them. A partner and children now cannot apply to join or stay in the UK as dependants unless the care worker was employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK and on a Health and Care Worker visa
42 before 11 March 2024.
The impact of the changes is stark – Home Office data reports 50,591 Health and Care Worker visas granted to main applicants in the year ending September 2024, representing a 65 per cent decrease compared to 2023. Further, the number of grants for ‘Health and Care Worker’ main applicants fell by 84 per cent to 13,131 between April and September 2024, compared with 80,541 grants in the same period in 2023.
Prior to these changes, international applications had been rising steadily, not least because of the care sector’s reliance on international recruitment to help tackle its skills and staff shortages. Not only have the changes had an impact on the number of applications, but they have also impacted the real costs of recruiting overseas workers.
The process of recruiting care workers from overseas Employing care workers from overseas begins with an application for a sponsorship
Employing foreign workers without authority is a serious offence
licence from UKVI. To apply for a licence, which can be a complex process, you need to complete documents with detailed information about your care business. Only when this licence application is
approved is the business entitled to employ workers from abroad, and for them to enter the country and work for your care business. The same applies when employing a foreign worker already in the UK following a different immigration route. You can only assign a certificate of sponsorship to the applicant (employee) with an approved licence. In turn, this sponsor licence enables the employee to apply for a skilled worker visa. Employing foreign workers without authority and a sponsorship licence approved by UKVI is a serious offence that carries huge penalty fines.
UK visas for the care sector There are many different types of visas enabling foreign nationals to work in the UK, so here we identify the visas most relevant to overseas workers and the UK care sector.
Health Care Worker Visa
The Health Care Worker Visa (HCW) is part of the Skilled Worker Visa route, which is a
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