Important Update on Nursing Job Vacancies in UK and Ireland

UK and Ireland are recruiting nurses NOW and offering work permits and working visas which can lead to permanent residence and an EU passport.

Earlier this week I informed you that UK Tier 2 Work Permits and Irish work permits are available now for non-EU trained nurses living in the UK or overseas. This could include qualified nurses from any country as long as they meet the UK NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) or the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) requirements - experience, English language.

Hospitals and Nursing Homes are paying generous salaries and allowances to Nurses, as they desperately need staff. UK hospital salaries start at around £25,000 pa and Nursing Homes pay up to £30,000 pa.

Irish Nursing Homes are offering up to 18 Euros per hour once you are fully qualified to work as a nurse in Ireland, which is a member of the European Union and not to be confused with Northern Ireland which is part of the UK.

In order for a non-EU trained nurse to work as a nurse in the UK, you must achieve a minimum IELTS score of 7.00 in all bands and pass the NMC Part 1 online test. Whilst this is proving difficult for some candidates, the system is actually more straightforward than the old 0NP adaptation programme it replaced. 

My tip is to prepare for the test like you would for any other exam. Read IELTS study guides or attend classes, as this is not an easy English test. There is no point in applying or sending a CV to me for a UK nursing job unless you have scored 7.00 in ALL bands.

However, the Irish NMBI system is less stringent and whilst you need an overall IELTS band score of 7, you can still qualify with a lower score in some areas.

Full details of IELTS Academic - minimum scores for working as a nurse trained outside the EU/EEA in Ireland.

Listening  6.5
Reading   6.5
Writing    7.0
Speaking 7.0

Overall   7.0 

Unlike the UK, which changed its rules on 19 January 2016, Ireland has NO English language requirement for EU/EEA nurses or nurses who trained and qualified in the EU/EEA. 

The UK now requires IELTS 7.00 for EU nurses, which appears to conflict with European free movement treaties.

See more at: http://www.nmbi.ie/Registration/Trained-outside-Ireland/English-Language-Requirements#sthash.TqQtb3qM.dpuf

The Republic of Ireland does not have the same restrictions on working for Croatian citizens, as imposed in the UK.

This is a window of opportunity for nurses who want to work in the UK or Ireland - and it will not stay open for long.

I have received hundreds of emails from nurses all over the world asking about the process for working in the UK.  

In case you missed it, here’s a summary of what to do if you are a non-EU nurses and want to work in the UK as a qualified registered nurse without the need to study here for a nursing degree:

1. You must be a registered nurse in your own country (surprising how many enquiries I receive from non-nurses or care workers who cannot qualify for a UK work permit).
2. You must have 3 years plus of pre-registration training and practice.
3. You must obtain an overall band score of 7.00 or more - in all subjects - on an IELTS English exam (no exceptions). 
4. You should register online with the NMC
5. Pass the first stage online test (CBT).
6. Assuming you pass the test, you will need to get through a UK-based assessment - Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) before you can be licensed by the NMC to practice as a nurse.
7. You need to find an employer to sponsor your work permit and UK visa.

NMC fees for the 4 stage application process:

Application for nursing/midwifery £140
Part 1 test of competence (CBT) £130
Part 2 test of competence (OSCE) £992
Admission onto our register £153
Total £1415

Some employers may pay for or advance a loan to cover part or all of the above costs.

For full details, check the NMC website http://www.nmc.org.uk/ and see if you will qualify for UK registration. 

I can find a SPONSORING EMPLOYER AND JOB for you in the UK - and help you get a work permit - if you have IELTS 7.00 and preferrably have started the NMC process. If you are a nurse and want to work in the UK. email your CV and IELTS results.

Ireland are also recruiting nurses and offering work permits and unlike the UK there are NO English language test for EU trained nurses.

Do you really a need to migrate?

It has long been assumed that people in poorer countries must emigrate to richer countries to succeed and earn a living for their family.  However, this is no longer be the first choice for everyone. There has been a substantial economic shift during the past decade helped on by the technological and information revolutions. 

Millions of people are now choosing to work from home and avoid the pain of leaving their families behind for employment thousands of miles away. Major outsourcing platforms like Upwork.com and Fivver offer anyone with a laptop and an internet connection the chance to earn a living working from the comfort of their own home anywhere in the world. 

We can also trade stocks and shares or foreign exchange (FOREX) using inexpensive real-time technology that would have previously only been available to large institutions.

Students can also earn legitimate degrees from major universities online at a fraction of the cost of travelling abroad.

Making money with home-based businesses like Affiliate Marketing - selling other people's products for a commission - now offers huge opportunities in the home-based business economy and I believe it is only just getting started. 

Companies like Amazon and Ebay offer affiliate marketing programs, albeit for small commissions meaning you have to sell a lot of products to make serious money. With some schemes, you will need quite a bit of technical knowledge to set up your own websites, systems and marketing campaigns.

More and more people are looking to ditch the daily grind of long commute, doing a job they hate and spending half their lives trading their time for money and working to make someone else rich.

Replacing your salary from a job is easier said than done, right? Well, maybe. I recently came across a company which offers stay-at-home workers who want to escape the rat race the opportunity to earn affiliate commission without the need to set up websites or possess any technical knowledge. The company trains their students online through a structured series of modules and webinars as well as live support and mentoring.

The initial training, reports and information on how to escape the 9-5 life, join the new rich and live the laptop lifestyle is downloadable and totally free. Check it out, click here.

Illegal Working Crackdown Announced By Minister – Employers Risk £20,000 fine

In the latest government crackdown on illegal working, Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, has warned that businesses employing illegal migrants face "the full force of government machinery" and risk fines of up to £20,000 per worker. However, at the current Home Office removal rate it will take 4000 years to find and deport all illegal overstayers from the UK.

The Minister said that “rogue employers” who give work to illegal immigrants and visa overstayers were denying UK citizen’s jobs.

Immigration officers are specifically targeting raids on cleaning firms, building sites and care homes according to The Times.

A study carried out by the London School of Economics estimates that there are 618,000 "irregular" residents in the UK, however, campaign group Migration Watch said the figures is closer to 1.1 million.

In 2006 the ippr think tank estimated that it would cost £5 billion and take 20 years to remove 500,000 illegal immigrants and overstayers thought to be in the UK at that time.

Figures published in the Daily Mail this week claimed tha that last year Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams arrested around 700 people and removed just 132 overstayers. At this rate it will take 4600 years to remove the existing illegal immigrants from the UK! Removal figures are probably closer to the thousands per year, but it still means it will take 600 years to remove 600,000 visa overstayers.  

Almost 10 years on from the ippr report, despite numerous measures to tighten the Immigration Rules and reduce grounds on which to appeal against a refusal, the Home Office has an even bigger task on its hands as hundreds of migrants attempt to enter the UK illegally through Calais.

Make sure your employee files comply with the law or face a £20,000 fine

The Conservative government have made progress and more raids being launched by Immigration Enforcement teams, HM Revenue & Customs, the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority and Health and Safety Executive to tackle the problem.

Other measures to deter overstayers, brought in under the 2014 Immigration Act, include forcing landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants and a reduction in the number of immigration appeals.

Employers can be fined up to £20,000 for employing each illegal immigrant, and, if they knowingly employ the worker they could spend up to two years in prison.

NHS Trusts are still short of nurses and doctors and are recruiting overseas. Tier 2 work permits and working visa sponsorship are being offered to qualified international nurses with IELTS 7.00 and the first stage of NMC registration.

If you need immigration advice of a full file audit service for employers, drop me an email. 

Recruiting International Nurses 'Frustrating And Expensive' NHS Chief Claims

An NHS Chief has branded the recruitment of overseas nurses as "distracting, frustrating and expensive" despite employing 300 nurses from the Philippines and the EU in the last year, the BBC reports.

Dr Keith McNeil, the Chief Executive of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, called for NHS officials to "figure out" what resources were needed to improve UK recruitment and train more home grown nurses.

Last year more than 7,500 international nurses were recruited and registered to work in the UK from countries such as Spain, Croatia and The Philippines.

The majority of overseas nurses coming to work in the UK are from the EU, while the number of nurses from outside of Europe has declined. EU nurses (apart from Croatian Citizens) do not need Tier 2 Work Permits and can generally gain NMC PIN numbers without the need to undergo addition ONP training.

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) figures confirm that the recruitment of overseas staff to the UK is on the rise as severe shortages hit NHS hospitals and Nursing Home groups.

In the last year, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has taken on 303 foreign nurses - half from the Philippines and the rest largely from Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Candidates at recruitment event in Portugal

In an interview with the BBC Dr McNeil said: "Nurses are the backbone of the NHS. You can't run services effectively in an acute hospital like this without adequate numbers of trained nursing staff.

"It's distracting, frustrating and expensive to do international recruitment. It would be nice not to have to do it... [and] to have a more targeted approach."

He added: "We don't have enough home-grown nurses, but we know the demographics. The health service has to figure out what resources are needed for our activity. We need proper planning; I think the people at Health Education England are doing that now.

"At least doing it now means avoiding having to do this in the years to come."

Nursing experts fear that shortages could be fuelled in the coming years by retirement among the baby-boomer generation, and limits on the number of skilled workers from outside the EU who are allowed into the UK.

NHS Employers has issued guidance to hospitals Trusts who may be considering international nurse recruitment.

Addenbrooke's estimates that it costs £3,000 to recruit each nurse from the EU, plus new arrivals are awarded £400 their first month's accommodation, so long as they stay for 18 months.

EU nurses had to be sent on a language course if they need to boost their conversational skills in English, as well as being given 10 weeks of mentoring support in the hospital to help their technical and clinical language.

On the plus side, the hospital admits that the overseas recruitment drive is paying dividends, because it is now using fewer temporary staff from agencies and saving hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A number of large Trusts regularly spend several million pounds every year on agency staff to cover shifts they cannot fill from their own staff bank.

The head of nurse’s union, the Royal College of Nursing, Dr Peter Carter, said: "Last year there were 57,000 applicants for 20,000 nurse training posts.

"Isn't that a matter of huge regret that you've got people in the four countries of the UK who want to train as nurses. They're being turned away, while we're going off and raiding the often impoverished workforce of other countries."

He added: "It's hugely regrettable and the UK is not exactly covering itself in glory in this."

But the organisation now in charge of nurse training, Health Education England, says it has increased places by 14% in two years.

A spokesperson said: "The number of nurses in the NHS is a matter of public and political comment, and HEE has responded to those concerns.

"HEE increased adult nurse commissions significantly in its first year and increased them again the following year.

"And we launched the Return to Practice campaign which has already started 1,300 experienced nurses on their journey back into the NHS. [Some] 160 of these have successfully completed training and are now employed."

Nursing agencies, such as Dolphin Care and Concept care Solutions have been supplying both temporary and permanent nurses to the NHS and private sector for many years.

A spokesman said: “The staffing crisis is similar to the shortages experiences in 1999-2000 when we recruited international nurses in their thousands from The Philippines and India.

“Whilst the initial cost may be high, international recruitment is a more permanent solution than using expensive agency staff, which the government wants to reduce.

“Of course we need to train more UK nurses for UK nursing jobs, but this will take years and in the meantime thousands of nurses are retiring, gaining promotion or going abroad to take higher paid jobs in the Middle East, Australia or the USA and Canada.”

Concept Care Solutions is on the LPP Framework to supply International nurses to the NHS. They are currently supplying nurses from Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and The Philippines.

NMC consultation on English language requirements for EU Nurse registration process

The NMC  (Nursing and Midwifery Council), the body which regulates and registers nurses and midwives in the UK, has launched a consultation on introducing English language controls for EU and EEA trained Nurses wishing to work in the UK.

Last year the UK government announced plans to give the NMC authority to introduce new language controls for European Economic Area (EEA) trained nurses and midwives, as part of revised European Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications.

The Department of Health has authorised the NMC to change the statutory rules setting out new processes in the way it deals with nurses from the EU and EEA.

Until now, EU/EEA nurses have been exempt from English language checks, unlike their non-EU counterparts who are required to pass an IELTS English test at level 7.00. This is why, in general, nurses from India or the Philippines have a greater command of the English language than European candidates.

New language controls should raise the standard of English language spoken by European nurses which can only help to improve the standard of care in hospitals and nursing homes recruiting overseas nurses.

The consultation seeking views on the processes that the NMC are putting in place for language controls for:

•  EEA trained nurses and midwives who apply for registration
• Nurses and midwives seeking readmission to our register following a lapse of registration, and
• investigating concerns about the language competence of nurses and midwives on our register.

For more information see the consultation document [PDF] and further documents outlining the full process.

Download the consultation document [PDF]

Providing evidence of English language competence: Guidance for EEA trained nurses and midwives (annexe 1) [PDF]

Proposed changes to our education, registration and registration appeals rules and our fitness to practise rules (annexe 2) [PDF]

NMC consultation on English language requirements for EU/EEA nurses: Respond to this consultation by clicking here

The NMC consultation will run for 12 weeks from 1 June to midday on 21 August 2015.

The NHS (National Health Service) are recruiting thousands of overseas nurses from both EU and non-EU countries such as The Philippines, India, Australia and NZ.

Overseas Nurses Working in UK Hospitals Despite Visa Restrictions

UK visa restrictions contained in the new 2014 Immigration Act will have far reaching consequences for overstayers and illegal immigrants. New Immigration Rules enable the Home Office to deport visa overstayers  - in some cases with no right of appeal - much faster forcing migrants and their families to leave the UK.

Legal migrants, such as students applying for visa extensions, can also be arrested by UK Border Officers and removed from the UK if their applications are refused by the Home Office and they no longer have valid leave to remain.

The UK has more job openings than in anywhere else in the EU, which has seen a sharp increase in EU immigration from countries such as Croatia, France, Italy, Spain and Romania.

In addition other former non-EU migrants, such as Filipinos living in Spain, are taking advantage of EU free movement rights and coming to the UK to work in care or nursing jobs in the NHS.

Migrants coming to the UK to work are taking thousands of shortage occupation jobs, such as care work or to fill the huge number of vacancies for nurses in the NHS or nursing homes.

NHS hospitals are recruiting doctors and nurses in EU countries such as Spain, and non-EU countries, for instance in the Philippines.

Overseas Nurse with Charles Kelly, Marketing Manager at Concept Care

If you are a nurse and want to work in the UK, make sure you check the UK NMC website and register.

EU nurses in most cases obtain automatic NMC registration. Non-EU nurses will need to obtain an IELTS English language test overall band score of 7.00. You will also need a year’s clinical experience in a hospital (not as a private or company nurse) and pass the new competency tests.

Tier 2 work permits are available for nurses, doctors, higher managerial level jobs or in ‘shortage occupations’, but not for care givers.

Beware of fake job advertisements offering working visas for unskilled jobs in care or catering and stick to government approved agencies. In the UK, Concept Care Solutions are on the LPP framework list of agencies approved to recruit overseas nurses for NHS hospital jobs.

For more information on UK jobs, immigration advice, help with Sponsorship, Work Permits, Visa, ILR, Settlement, Citizenship, Dependant Visa, Leave to Remain or visa refusal email me.

Happy New Year!

Wishing all our readers and followers who have supported our immigration blog a very happy and prosperous new year!

2015 should be a good year for international nurses who want to work in the UK. The NHS are recruiting 1000's of nurses from the EU and outside the EU for job vacancies in the UK.

Good luck and all the best!

For more information on registering as a nurse in the UK and the new NMC test of competence, see:

http://how2cometotheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/nmc-test-of-competence-for.html 

NMC Test of Competence for International Nurses who want to work in the UK starts at University of Northampton

Good news for international nurses who want to work in the UK as a nurse or midwife. The University of Northampton's School of Health has successfully started delivery the new 'Test of Competence' on 17 November, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has confirmed.

The new competency test for non-EU nurses and midwives replaces the old Overseas Nurses Programme (ONP) and will fast-track the process for internationally trained nurses and midwives seeking to work in the UK as well as ensuring candidates are assessed robustly in a standardised way.

The new assessment process is formed of two parts starting with a test in the candidates own country:

1.  multiple choice computer-based exam, which candidates sit at test centres around the world
2. practical clinical examination delivered at the University of Northampton in the UK

The NMC, the official professional body which regulates nursing in the UK, said they “want to ensure that all people joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council's register are meeting the UK standards”.

Jackie Smith, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, said:

“Each year, hundreds of nurses and midwives who trained outside Europe apply to practise in the UK. 

"As a responsible regulator, we need to make sure that they are able to demonstrate clinical and theoretical knowledge as well as the professional values that will ensure patient-centred, compassionate care.

"This test will put candidates through scenarios that they may find in the UK’s health services."

Although we have not seen the results of the changes, the competence-based testing system for international nurses should be more straightforward than the previous cumbersome and expensive ONP, which often hindered hospitals and care homes from recruiting overseas nurses. The simple two-part process will do away with the subjective 3-6 months of adaptation and supervision and help hospital Trusts employers fill thousands of UK NHS nurse job vacancies they are unable to fill within the UK or EU.

Nurses union RCN said there are around 20,000 nursing job vacancies in the UK. With NHS hospitals unable to recruit enough nurses in Spain and Portugal, they are once again offering Tier 2 working visa sponsorship for non-EU overseas nurses and those who are on Tier 4 students in the UK. Student Visa holders are allowed to switch to Tier 2 work permits whilst in the UK.

Going through the initial NMC registration process and obtaining a PRN letter can take several weeks, if not months, so if you are serious about coming to work in the UK you should get started as soon as possible. NHS hospital employers going out to countries like India or the Philippines will not want to wait around for 3-6 months while you sit an IELTS test and apply for the your NMC if they have candidates who are already in process. English tests are required for most of the English speaking countries - Australia, NZ, Canada - likely to need more nurses, so get studying!

Non-EU nurses and midwives still have to pass an IELTS English test at an overall band score of 7.00 in order to register with the NMC - and have at least 1 year's clinical experience in a hospital (private nursing or 'company' nurse will normally not be sufficient for the NMC). For full details on the new registration process and working in the UK for non-EU trained nurses or midwives, visit the NMC website or email me your CV if you are interested in migrating to and working in the UK as a nurse.