Nurses
prioritised by
UK immigration change

22 October 2015

The extreme shortage of nurses in the NHS is being accommodated for by a temporary change in the immigration rules.

Currently, all non-EEA nationals working in skilled roles in the UK must be earning a minimum of £35,000 a year in order to apply to settle in the UK. If they are not earning this amount at the time when their current visa expires, as is the case for many foreign nurses, then they must leave the UK.

It is highly unlikely that a nurse will be earning £35,000 or more within only six years of being in the UK and many nurses will therefore be forced to return home, leaving the NHS in crisis.

To ease this situation the government recently announced that nurses will be added to the shortage occupation list on a temporary basis, meaning that the hiring of foreign nurses during this period will be prioritised within the Tier 2 migrant cap system and that these new hires will be exempt from the minimum pay threshold for settlement applications.

How long these changes will apply remains to be seen. The situation is to be reviewed in February 2016 by the government-commissioned Migration Advisory Committee.

The effects of this change to the system will have further reaching effects, however, than simply providing temporary relief to a strained NHS.

The addition of nurses to the shortage occupations list will almost certainly cause employment requests for nurses to flood the current system.

There are only a certain number of places available per month for skilled foreign workers to come to the UK at the request of UK employers and the prioritisation of nurses will ensure that many UK businesses in struggling industries will have their chances of recruiting the talent they so desperately need substantially reduced.

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