Employment law update
sponsored working visa route that enables skilled foreign nationals to work in the UK. The HCW visa is designed for healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses, and adult social care workers. It is a work sponsored route and therefore requires the employer to have a sponsorship licence before sponsoring the individual on a health care visa to undertake a role within an eligible standard occupation code. The HCW visa has certain benefits over the normal skilled worker route, including: n Fast-track processing for entry into the UK. n Support of a dedicated team within UKVI for processing the visa.
n Reduced salary thresholds. n Reduced visa fee. n Exemption from the immigration health surcharge.
The only exception to the new immigration rules allowing dependents is if the care worker was employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK and on a Health and Care Worker visa before 11 March 2024, and/or meets one of the following criteria: n Is currently still on a Health and Care Worker visa.
n Is extending their Health and Care Worker visa with their current employer.
n Is changing to a new job within the same occupation code while on a Health and Care Worker visa.
What are the Spouse Visa requirements? A UK Spouse Visa is a settlement visa that allows a person to live together with their British partner in the UK for up to 30 months. It is one of the visas under the Family visa category, and can be extended for another 30 months if certain eligibility conditions are met. In certain circumstances, this is a route to settlement and living in the UK upon completion of either the 60 or 120 months in certain circumstances. Spouse visas can be refused because the applicant fails to satisfy (or prove that they satisfy) the spouse visa eligibility requirements, such as: n Income from employment. n Accommodation conditions. n Lack of evidence to show a genuine and subsisting relationship.
n Insufficient knowledge of the English language.
How can a partner be brought to the UK? If an applicant is British, has settled status, refugee status and/or humanitarian
May 2025
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protection, or is an EU national with settled or pre-settled status, their partner, spouse/civil partner, or fiancé can join the applicant in the UK provided they meet the requirements. There are different requirements for each of these categories. The Entry Clearance Officer will review the application against the information given and the supporting documents that form part of the online application process.
Earnings below the minimum income requirement From April 2024, there was an increase in the minimum financial income threshold when applying for a visa. The minimum threshold is dependent on the type of skilled worker visa/visa applied for and so it is best to seek legal advice.
The financial threshold is on usually
above the annual salary of most care workers, and so this move presents another barrier to overseas recruitment. However, there are other ways to meet the financial requirement. In the case of skilled workers, a salary can be reduced if the applicant is eligible as a new entrant, or if the role in the UK is on the Immigration Salary List (previously called the Shortage Occupation List). For a spouse visa, there are some circumstances where meeting the income
threshold is not required, instead showing adequate maintenance, such as receipt of certain types of benefits, will suffice. There may be times when there are
exceptional circumstances where a refusal will cause a breach of human rights, and it may therefore be possible to rely on credible third party support or future job offers.
Illustration
This fictional scenario explains how an application may help those on work sponsorship visas, such as nurses and other health care workers. The sponsor, a qualified nurse, was
sponsored by the NHS and came to the UK as a skilled worker, with her husband as a dependent. They were both were given poor advice in relation to their son, who entered on a visit visa valid for six months, meaning he subsequently became an illegal overstayer.
If her son had been required to leave the UK when the visit visa expired, in order to make an application from abroad, there was no family left in their home country, so sending him back was not an option. Nor could the sponsor or her husband, who also worked for the NHS as a clinical support worker, take leave of absence from their jobs and return to their home country
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Nina L/
peopleimages.com -
stock.adobe.com
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