Minimum Salary for Tier 2 Work Permits to Rise to £30,000 as UK Immigration gets Tougher for Non-EU Migrants

If you think 2016 was a tough year for non-EU migrants, 2017 is about to get even harder, especially for anyone considering coming to the UK on a Tier 2 (General) working visa, such as a nurse.

The Immigration Act 2016 will see the Home Office bring in sweeping changes from April to the Tier 2 General work permit rules, including increasing the minimum salary requirement to £30,000, with no transitional arrangement for those sponsored between 24 November 2016 and April 2017. 

Nursing will remain on the Shortage Occupation List, as there are still thousands of nurse jobs in the UK. But for the first time employers will be required to carry out a ‘Resident Labour Market Test’ before assigning a nurse a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), even if the job is on the national shortage list.

The new minimum salary will automatically exclude many jobs and is above the UK average income, such as band 5 NHS nurses who start as around £26,000,

In addition, a new ‘Genuineness’ test will mean that Tier 2 applicants must satisfy the Home Office or entry clearance officer that they genuinely intend to undertake and are capable of undertaking the job for which the CoS is assigned.This could include attending an interview for entry clearance visas or further leave to remain.

Employers will be hit by a new tax or 'Immigration Skills Charge' of £1000 per year, per migrant to 'encourage' them to invest in training resident workers. There will be an exemption for PhD occupations, Tier 2 (ICT-Graduate Trainees) and Tier 4 students switching to Tier 2. The Home Office will also have more powers to search and seize documents from an employer, such as wage slips and time sheets, in order to build a case against them and an illegal worker.

Migrants will no longer have a 28-day ‘grace period’ in which to apply for further leave to remain, which means you could be branded a visa overstayer on your immigration record.

UK settlement rules are being tightened from April 2016, after which some Tier 2 visa holders will have to be earning a minimum of £35,000 per annum in order to apply for permanent residency or indefinite leave to remain. If you do not meet the salary requirement, you will not be able to stay in the UK for longer than six years and will not be able to reapply for another Tier 2 visa until you have completed a 12-month ‘cooling-off’ period outside the UK.

The Brexit, or leave EU vote, will do little to curb European immigration in the next few years as arguments rage over what type of exit Britain wants. This week the Supreme Court ruled that the Article 50 process, the mechanism required to trigger UK's exit from the European Union, must be put before MP's in Parliament. And with EU leaders insisting that free movement of labour is non-negotiable when it comes to thrashing out any trade deals, it looks like the only option for Home Secretary Amber Rudd to reduce immigration to the UK is to continue restricting non-EU migrants.

Across the pond in America today, Donald Trump has announced a halt on the U.S. refugee immigration programme for a temporary period. In his inauguration speech Trump spoke of 'America first' and wants to boost employment for resident workers. However, America still has a shortage of around one million nurses and the IT sector in the U.S and UK needs to attract the brightest and best for their growing digital economy.

The Immigration Act will have a number of consequences for Tier 2 employers and migrant workers. I will be giving you further guidance on the settlement (ILR) changes, as well as other changes, such as Tier 4 student visa switching rules, in future articles.

See also:

Uber offering free English courses to migrant worker drivers

Immigration Act 2016 - main highlights in a nutshell

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Nurses needed in UK, Work Permits and UK Visas available

The new British Prime Minister, Theresa May wants to reduce net migration, but nurses are desperately needed by UK employers, especially in the private nursing home sector, which cannot recruit staff locally.

Due to a severe shortage of nurses in the UK and aggressive recruitment by NHS Hospitals, the private sector is suffering the worst staffing crisis since the early 2000's, the the RCN nurses union estimate that there are 20,000 nursing job vacancies in England and Wales.

Due to a severe shortage of nurses in the UK and aggressive recruitment by NHS Hospitals, the private sector is suffering the worst staffing crisis since the early 2000's.

The EU market for nurses has been heavily depleted by numerous recruitment drives over the last three years, and employers are increasingly turning to non-EU nurses to fill the UK job vacancies.

In order to work in the UK as a nurse trained outside the EU, you should first register with the NMC on their website. You will need to take an online test and pass an IELTS exam at level 7.00 across all bands. The language test is the biggest stumbling block for overseas nurses, according to a soon to be published new study. 

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

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

Despite rising immigration in the UK and government plans to restrict skilled migrants to 30,000 per year, Tier 2 working visas or work permits are available for shortage occupation category non-EU nurses right now with excellent salary packages up to £30,000 per year.




Employers need to register with the Home Office as Tier 2 Sponsors in order to employ non-EU nurses. We can assist employers with the Tier 2 sponsorship registration process.

If you are interested in working in the UK as a nurse in a nursing home, or an employer looking for staff or Tier 2 sponsorship start by registering with the NMC where you can see all the rules.

See also:

Uber offering free English courses to migrant worker drivers

Special Report

Buy Property With None Of Your Own Money....

Mark Homer explains the strategies that have helped thousands of people buy property with none of their own money.

You can obtain the report free, by clicking here...

Train More British Nurses Instead of Importing Foreign Staff Says UK Prime Minister As International Recruits Ease NHS Staffing Crisis

Marking 100 days since the Conservatives won the General Election, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron was interviewed by Justin Webb for BBC Radio 4 this week. One of the questions he was asked was how he felt about the rising number of non-EU nurses coming to work in the UK to cover staff shortages in the NHS.

The RCN nursing union estimates that there are 20,000 nurse job vacancies in the NHS and warns of a staffing crisis as thousands of nurses retire in the next few years.

 Mr Cameron said we should be providing more nursing training for our own UK citizens for healthcare jobs that are currently growing within the economy.

Specifically on international nurses, Cameron added that the international nurses coming to work in the UK make a huge contribution to the country and the NHS, but called for better at workforce planning.

Knowing how many NHS nurses are needed, Cameron wants to encourage more young people to take nursing degrees at UK universities and promised help to provide the training places to meet the unmet demand.

In the meantime, thousands of job vacancies and shifts are being filled by expensive agency staff, which is why NHS hospitals are flying teams of managers all over the world to recruit international nurses. To add to their pressure, the government has also told NHS bosses to cut back on the millions spent on agency nurses.

Commenting on UK migration levels he stated that immigration controls go hand-in-hand with controlling the welfare system.

New immigration laws coming into force will mean that by April 2017 up to 30,000 non-EU nurses on Tier 2 Work Permits will have to leave the UK if they are not earning more that £35,000 per year. A Band 5 NHS nurse earns £25,000-£26,000, but could top this up with agency temping work.

Ironically, British trained nurses can easily earn well over £35,000 pa by taking up nurse jobs in America or Australia, prompting many of our best nurses to leave the UK each year, which only adds to the staffing time bomb in the NHS.

Bearing in mind that there are not enough places on nursing degree courses at British universities to meet current demands, and that it takes 3-4 years to train a nurse, it will be interesting to see how the NHS copes with UK nursing shortages over the next couple of years.

International nurses who want to work in the UK as a nurse should check the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) website for the requirements, such as an overall band score of 7.00 in the English language IELTS test, and new competency tests. Last year the NMC changed the old ONP scheme to a two stage test, which many nurses are failing.

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 the UK and working as a nurse or need a Tier 2 Work Permit and Home Office working visa sponsorship for a UK job in the NHS.