Five reasons to pick Visa & Hire

For your peace of mind, our Visa & Hire service includes absolutely everything from the day you receive a job offer to the day you start in your job. We:

• know the visa regulations in depth
• save you valuable time by doing it right first time
• support you in knowing and defending your rights as an employee
• explain to you the fine print in your contract
• help you claim the maximum pay you could be entitled to.

What is a visa?

After Brexit, every foreign national (excluding the Irish) needs a visa to enter the UK. Only European citizens who obtained settled or pre-settled status before Brexit are exempt and can still enjoy visa-free mobility into and out of the UK.

So, even if you are a European passport holder, you will most likely need sponsorship from a UK employer. Then, based on that sponsorship, you will have to apply for a visa from the Home Office.

What  is a Skilled (Healthcare) Worker visa?

A Skilled Worker visa (formerly ‘Tier 2 visa’) is the most popular type of visa to enter the UK for work. The sub-type health professionals need is known as a Healthcare Worker visa.

A Healthcare Worker visa will be issued to you by the UK’s Home Office, provided that:

• your job offer guarantees you a minimum salary per year
• you have passed an acceptable English language knowledge test. Don’t worry – your GMC registration more than meets this requirement
• you have a job offer and a Certificate of Sponsorship from an approved employer, that is a hospital, dental practice or other sponsoring organisation
• you provide satisfactory answers to a large number of questions included in the visa application. One such question may be to prove that you have available funds to support yourself during your first month in the UK.

Common mistakes that health professionals make

• Feeling pleased for being offered a job, they accept without having their contract checked by an expert.
• They manage the various hire and visa steps chaotically, wasting valuable time.
• They agree to work for less money than they should.
• They start the hire and visa process before they come to UKmed – by which time it could be too late to improve things.
• They assume that their future employer knows the law and rules – they very often don’t!

Other types of visa applications UKmed supports

• Academy of Medical Royal Colleges MTI visa for scientific work, typically for scholarships funded by European and national societies
• Other MTI (Medical Training Initiative) scheme similar but different from that run by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
• Dependant visa, typically adding family members to an already issued Healthcare Worker’s visa
• Visa extensions to keep working for the same or a new employer once your first visa expires.

MTI visa processes are a lot more complicated, so it’s best to involve UKmed as early as possible.

Prices of our Hire & Visa services

We offer the following versions of Hire & Visa:

• Hire & Visa Top Priority
• Hire & Visa Standard Priority
• Hire & Visa – Different employer (visa extension)
• Hire & Visa – Same employer (visa extension)
• Hire & Visa – Add Dependants

All our Hire & Visa services are all-inclusive, which among others means that we:

• take care of all the UK and home country bureaucracy for you
• check everything in detail to avoid errors and delays
• assess your job offer and contract and ask for corrections if necessary
• manage the correspondence with your sponsoring organisation
• fill out all the many forms
• translate everything you are going to need, including your criminal record, vaccinations logbook and proof of work experience for salary purposes
• advise you on how to negotiate better terms and avoid rookie mistakes.

Please note that our services do not include the fee charged by the Home Office for your visa application.

Contact us for a detailed discussion and quote.

When to choose Top or Standard Priority

Before you choose Top or Standard Priority, you should know that we offer the same quality of service in both Top and Standard.

Top Priority gives you these bonus benefits:

• The Home Office will process your application within days instead of weeks.
• The same UKmed expert will stay with you from start to finish.
• You will be our top priority. That’s why we never have more than 3 Top Priority professionals at the same time.

Our Top Priority service is only available when the Home Office also offers its own fast-track visa. So, sometimes it may simply not be available at all.

We recommend Standard Priority if you are not desperate for time. If you are not sure which to choose, contact us for more information.