To sponsor an overseas carer in the UK, clear Home Office guidelines are lacking, but generally, overseas candidates should have relevant experience or qualifications, and employers might need to justify their recruitment decisions, especially for candidates with limited backgrounds in care.
While UK nationals can access entry-level care roles without any formal qualifications or experience, the rules differ for candidates from overseas.
There is no specific guidance from the Home Office outlining the minimum qualifications and experience they require for Health and Care Worker Visa candidates.
However, it is important to remember that this visa operates under the Skilled Worker route, which is designed for overseas workers with a background and expertise in their respective sectors.
The Home Office sets out its general criteria for assessing an overseas candidate in its Skilled Worker Caseworker Guidance. In the “Genuineness requirement” section, it explains that the Caseworker must be satisfied that a Skilled Worker Visa candidate “is capable of undertaking the role described on the CoS”, which may require the candidate providing additional information and evidence, or attending an interview to assess their “knowledge of the role” and / or “relevant experience of the skills needed to do the role”.
SESCA has also drawn insights from JMW Solicitors’ immigration team who have first-hand experience of the Home Office’s intensive scrutiny during compliance checks, especially on recruitment processes and the qualifications/experience considered. For example, they refer to an overseas engineering student who was applying to transfer to a Health and Care Worker visa, which the Home Office rejected on the grounds that the role applied for had no relevance to the applicant’s studies and there was no evidence of any previous relevant experience or training.
We would emphasise the need for clearer guidance from the Home Office so that care providers understand exactly what experience level they should be recruiting for, the training/qualifications required, and whether this needs to be completed pre-employment, or during on-the-job training (which is sufficient for entry-level care roles recruited for locally).
In the meantime, where an overseas candidate has limited experience or qualifications, employers should be prepared to provide substantial justification for their recruitment, which may well require putting the candidate through appropriate training prior to employment.