Under the new immigration rules, effective 4 April 2024, health and care workers sponsored for Health and Care visas are exempt from the new general threshold of £38,700; instead, a general threshold of £29,000 applies to them.
Additional Health and Care clarifications have been made to bring the existing criteria for this visa offer (originally launched on 4 August 2020) within the Immigration Rules. The criteria themselves are unchanged (other than updates to reflect SOC 2020). This addition to the Rules is necessary because the salary changes above mean that eligibility for the Health and Care Visa now goes beyond the previous service offer and reduced costs, and materially affects the outcome of an application.
The Shortage Occupations List Removed and Replaced With New Immigration Salary List
The Shortage Occupation List has been removed and replaced by a new Immigration Salary List to make it clearer that the entries on the list are those where the Government considers it sensible to offer a discounted salary threshold, rather than being a list of all occupations experiencing labour shortages. If the relevant job in the health and care sector is listed in the new Immigration Salary List, the Health and Care Worker applicant will benefit from the lower general salary threshold of £23,200. However, the previous 20% discount to the going rate requirement has been removed.
Reduced Salary for New Entrants and Holders of Ph.D. qualifications
Under the new immigration rules for skilled workers as in force from 4 April 2024, the reduced salary discounts have been retained and updated based on the latest ONS pay data relating to:
- holders of relevant Ph.D. qualifications,
- “new entrants” to the labour market, and
- national pay scale occupations.
Changes Relating To Supplementary Employment for Skilled Workers
Supplementary employment under the Skilled Worker route has been broadened to encompass all occupations eligible for the skilled worker visa route.
Updating from SOC 2010 to SOC 202
Under the new Immigration Rules effective from 4 April 2024, changes have been made to update the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code system used in the immigration system from SOC 2010 to SOC 2020. The Office designed both National Statistics systems, now only publishing new data for SOC 2020.
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