The nursing route is the part of UK immigration the July 2025 reform left standing: all seven nursing codes remain on the Health and Care Worker visa, nurses pay a reduced fee and no health surcharge, their families can come, and the salary rule follows the NHS pay scale. What decides a Filipino nurse's arrival date is the Nursing and Midwifery Council's calendar — the computer-based test in Manila, the practical test in the UK within twelve weeks of starting — and the English test the Philippines is not exempt from.
Nurses apply under the Health and Care Worker visa, a Skilled Worker variant for the health occupations listed in the Health and Care Visa Guidance — all seven nursing codes 2231 to 2237 among them; general and staff nurses, ward managers and sisters are sponsored under 2237, other registered nursing professionals, and midwives under 2231. The visa fee is £324 for up to three years and £628 for longer from 8 April 2026, applicants and their dependants are exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge, and dependants are allowed because the codes are graduate-level. The salary rule is option K: at least £25,000 a year and the going rate taken from the national pay scale — Agenda for Change Band 5 starts at £32,073 in England in 2026/27 after the 3.3 % award — and NHS Employers advise £31,300 for providers not on published scales. English B2 is required for the visa, but a nurse who has met the NMC's English requirement does not prove it again.
Since 22 July 2025 the Skilled Worker route is a graduate-level route: a role must be at RQF 6 unless it sits on the Temporary Shortage List or the Immigration Salary List, and both lists apply only to Certificates of Sponsorship issued before 31 December 2026 (last issue date 30 December 2026) unless the Government renews them. Pay must reach £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher; Immigration Salary List roles qualify from £33,400 plus the going rate, and nurses and other listed health occupations on national pay scales from £25,000 plus the going rate. The salary counted is basic gross pay for up to 48 hours a week — no allowances, overtime, bonuses or payments towards immigration costs — and since 8 April 2026 it must be met in every pay period. New applicants prove English at CEFR B2. The sponsor pays the Immigration Skills Charge of £1,320 a year (£480 for small sponsors and charities) and may not recover it. Workers sponsored in sub-graduate roles on either list cannot bring dependants, and the Government has consulted on lengthening the path to settlement from five years to ten or more, without deciding at the time of review.
From 1 October 2026 the NMC's fees total £1,226 per nurse; UK sponsor rules forbid recovering immigration costs from the worker, and the DMW rules forbid charging the nurse for recruitment, so the registration costs sit with the employer in a compliant programme.
The United Kingdom and the Philippines signed a memorandum of understanding on the recruitment of Filipino healthcare professionals on 11 November 2021 — a recruitment framework, worker-protection commitments and a joint committee — and the UK is a recognised destination under the Philippine nurse-deployment framework. Recruitment nonetheless runs through a DMW-licensed agency with MWO London accreditation and a verified contract, and the nurse leaves Manila with an Overseas Employment Certificate; the memorandum does not replace that process. Filipino nurses were the largest overseas nationality in the NHS workforce for years, and the Philippines remained the fifth-largest source of UK sponsored workers in 2025 with some 8,750 Health and Care Worker main applicants — most of them nurses after the care-worker closure.
Candidates hold a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a PRC licence and two or more years in hospital practice — Philippine tertiary hospitals, Gulf hospitals under DHA, DoH or MOHAP licences, Singapore — and are selected by clinical scenario and by English level before the NMC process starts. We run the computer-based test and the English test in Manila before the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned so that the twelve-week OSCE clock starts with a prepared nurse. Band 5 pay after UK tax and the cost of living in the trust's area are briefed in Manila in writing.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office at the Philippine Embassy in London, which has jurisdiction for the United Kingdom and Ireland, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no applicant pays for an interview, a trade test or a place on a shortlist, and UK sponsor guidance itself forbids passing the Immigration Skills Charge or the sponsor-licence costs to the worker. Your company is the sponsor and the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the Immigration Rules in force on the day the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned (Appendix Skilled Worker, Appendix Skilled Occupations, Appendix Immigration Salary List), Home Office sponsor guidance, the professional regulators and Philippine DMW rules.
2237, other registered nursing professionals — staff nurse, ward manager, sister. 2231 is midwifery nurses. All seven nursing codes are on the Health and Care Worker visa.
At least £25,000 and the going rate from the national pay scale — Band 5 starts at £32,073 in England in 2026/27, so the band governs; £31,300 for providers not on published scales.
Yes, unless they can evidence training in English with at least 75 % of clinical interactions in English and a UK employer's supporting reference. The Philippines is not on the NMC's majority-English list.
Typically six to ten months from brief: two to three months for the English test and the computer-based test in Manila, weeks for the visa, then the OSCE within twelve weeks of arrival and the PIN about 35 days after passing.
Yes — nursing codes are graduate-level, and Health and Care Worker dependants are exempt from the health surcharge.
Not from overseas. Care workers and senior care workers (6135/6136) closed to new entry-clearance applications on 22 July 2025; see the care-workers page for what remains possible.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.