Moving a medical career to the United Kingdom means running two processes at once, governed by two entirely different institutions, on two different clocks. The professional track — registration with the General Medical Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council — decides whether you may practise. The immigration track — the Health and Care Worker visa — decides whether you may live and work in the country. Neither can be completed without the other, and the single most common reason a competent candidate loses a year is sequencing them wrongly.
Track one: professional registration
Doctors — GMC registration
The General Medical Council grants registration with a licence to practise on the basis of your primary medical qualification, evidence of your knowledge and skills, and English language competence. For most internationally trained doctors, knowledge and skills are demonstrated through the PLAB examination in two parts, though certain recognised postgraduate qualifications and sponsorship arrangements can substitute for it. Which door is open to you depends on your specialty, your qualifications and your experience — and choosing the slower one by default is a costly habit.
Nurses and midwives — NMC registration
The Nursing and Midwifery Council assesses overseas applicants through a qualifications review, a computer-based test of competence, and a practical OSCE examination normally taken in the UK. That last point has an immigration consequence that catches people out: the practical examination is sat in the country you are trying to enter, so the visa and the registration have to be choreographed rather than pursued in sequence.
Track two: the Health and Care Worker visa
The Health and Care Worker visa is a branch of the Skilled Worker route reserved for qualified health professionals working for eligible employers, principally the NHS, organisations providing services to the NHS, and adult social care providers. Its requirements follow the Skilled Worker logic:
- A licensed sponsor and a Certificate of Sponsorship — a job offer from an approved employer, in an eligible occupation.
- Salary at or above the relevant threshold for the occupation, with health occupations benefiting from national pay-scale rules rather than the general going rate.
- English language ability at the required level, typically evidenced by IELTS Academic or OET — the same tests the regulators accept, which is why one well-planned sitting can serve both tracks.
- Professional registration where the role requires it.
Why this route and not plain Skilled Worker
The advantages are material rather than cosmetic. Health and Care applicants pay reduced visa fees, are exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge — which for a family over several years is a very substantial sum — and benefit from faster processing. For a family of four, the difference between the two routes is measured in thousands of pounds.
Your family
Partners and children apply as dependants alongside the main applicant, with the right to work and study in the UK. This is where our clients most often need help, because a recruiter manages the employment contract and nobody manages the family: the dependants' applications have their own evidence requirements, their own financial rules, and their own capacity to delay everyone if prepared as an afterthought. We prepare the household as one file.
One caveat worth stating plainly, because it is widely misunderstood: the dependant rules were tightened in recent years for care workers and senior care workers, and differ from those applying to doctors, nurses and other eligible health professionals. The rules that govern your situation depend on the specific occupation code on your Certificate of Sponsorship — a detail worth confirming before you make family plans around it.
Settlement and citizenship
Five years of continuous residence on this route leads to indefinite leave to remain, and British citizenship can follow. The conditions that protect that timeline — absences within permitted limits, continuity of sponsored employment, and clean immigration history — are easy to satisfy when you know about them in year one and painful to repair in year five.
Sequencing: the part that saves a year
The order that works, in most cases, is this. Establish which registration route your qualifications actually open. Sit the English test once, at a level that satisfies both the regulator and the Home Office. Progress registration far enough to be employable. Secure the sponsored offer. Then file the visa and the dependants together, timed so that any UK-based examination falls inside a lawful status rather than outside one. Candidates who chase an offer before understanding their registration path, or who sit an English test that satisfies one institution but not the other, lose months to work they have already done.
And if France is the destination
For doctors considering continental Europe, the French route runs through the PADHUE procedure — the knowledge-verification examinations (EVC), followed by a supervised consolidation period, before full authorisation to practise is granted by the relevant authorities. The immigration side runs in parallel, usually through the Talent card or a salaried permit, with family accompanying. It is a longer, more academic path than the UK's, and the right one for a different profile. We assess both honestly rather than steering you toward whichever we prefer to file. Read more about how we work in France.
How we help
We manage the immigration side of a medical relocation end to end — the visa, the dependants, the landing formalities — and we coordinate it around your registration timetable so that the two tracks meet instead of colliding. Your recruiter handles the contract; we handle your family and your file, working with vetted UK lawyers. Start with an Initial Consultation, or read more about how we work in the UK.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need GMC or NMC registration before applying for the visa?
You need a sponsored job offer, and eligible employers will not normally issue one without registration being in place or clearly imminent. The two are therefore linked in practice even where they are separate in law — which is exactly why the sequencing matters.
Can I take the OSCE while on a visitor visa?
Entry as a visitor permits certain limited activities, and what is permissible depends on the precise nature and timing of what you intend to do. This is a question to settle in advance with advice, not to improvise at the border — the consequences of getting it wrong reach far beyond the trip itself.
Does my spouse need their own job offer?
No. Dependants apply on the strength of your visa and receive work rights; they do not need separate sponsorship. Their applications still need proper preparation, particularly where relationship or financial evidence is involved.
Is the Immigration Health Surcharge really waived?
Health and Care Worker applicants and their dependants are exempt from the surcharge, which is one of the route's most significant financial advantages over the general Skilled Worker visa. Government fees and any priority services are still payable, and we set out exactly what to expect, in writing, before you sign.