How do I apply to bring a Care Worker from overseas?

Step 1: Applying for a sponsor licence

The first step when bringing a carer in from overseas is to apply for a sponsor licence.  Once granted, the licence sits with the business and gives you the ability to sponsor a care worker from overseas.

In our view, a good application is made up of the following key components:

1. A properly completed online application form. This is fairly straightforward and can be started here.
2. A full set of evidence which meets Home Office requirements, listed in their Appendix A: Supporting Documents. Be careful about the mandatory evidence which applies to certain businesses in the care sector.  The Home Office list is prescriptive and their wording is precise, so small errors here can lead to rejection.
3. A well-written cover letter which includes all the mandatory information required by the Home Office. You can find the mandatory information threaded through Appendix A: Supporting Documents, especially on pages 7 and 8.  Take particular care to explain in full your reasons for applying for a sponsor licence.
4. This last one is optional but increasingly sensible to provide: an explanation and evidence of how your business will comply with its duties as the holder of a sponsor licence. Since January 2022, we’ve noticed a significant increase in the Home Office making requests for this information prior to granting a sponsor licence.  You’ll save considerable time and hassle by addressing this early.

Getting all this together can be a headache, especially if you’re tight on time.  Truth Legal’s Immigration specialists will take the stress off you and your business – Contact us today and we can:

• Complete the application form on your behalf, so all you have to do is check and submit.
• Create an evidence checklist in plain English and tailored to your business, so you know exactly what evidence you need.
• Review your evidence to ensure nothing is missed, and make recommendations about how you might strengthen the evidence you want to provide.
• Write a cover letter on your behalf, checking off all the mandatory information and presenting your case in the best possible light.
• Draft an optional Pre-Licence Compliance Report. We’ve consolidated all the questions the Home Office has sent our former clients into one comprehensive report, which is designed to pre-empt the Home Office asking you the same questions.  We believe the report reduces your risk of a pre-licence check or inspection.

Crucially, we won’t let you hit ‘submit’ until we’re confident that your application for a sponsor licence will be successful.

Step 2: Certificates of Sponsorship

Once your licence is granted, you’ll need a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) for each worker you intend to sponsor.  There are two types of CoS: defined and undefined.

• You’ll need a defined CoS to sponsor someone who will be overseas when they apply for their work visa.
• You’ll need an undefined CoS to sponsor someone who is already in the UK on a different type of visa.

There are important differences in the process and time frames for obtaining each type of CoS – see below for more details.  It’s an area primed to cause confusion, and getting your certificates mixed up can at worst mean refusal or revocation.  We can guide you through it and help you avoid common mistakes.

Step 3: The Visa Application

Once you have your licence and a CoS assigned and ready to go, it’s time for your worker to apply for their visa.

Most health and care professionals are eligible to apply for the Health and Care Worker visa, which is a special type of Skilled Worker visa attracting lower fees and (in some cases) quicker decision times.

See here for the full list of eligible health and care professionals. You’ll see that Care Workers and Senior Care Workers are both eligible.

Step 4: Process, Time frames and Costs

The below is an overview of the process to sponsor a care worker*.

The fees at 1 to 3 below attach to the employer by default, while the fees at 4 are payable by the worker.  You are generally free to depart from this position, most commonly by offering to cover the worker’s fees on their behalf.  The only exception is the Immigration Skills Charge, which must be paid by the employer. These are the correct fees as of 8th April 2026:

*These are the correct fees effective from 8^th April 2026

Some additional and useful points of note include the following:

• Priority service is available, in theory.
• You can apply for a defined CoS only after the licence has been granted.  You can apply for an undefined CoS at the same time as applying for the licence, and at any time thereafter.  If you apply for an undefined CoS with your licence application, the two will be granted together after about eight weeks.  If you want to apply for an undefined CoS later, the wait is much longer: 12-13 weeks.
• This is the standard processing time for a Health and Care Worker visa, although there may be some delay at the moment due to the high number of applications generated by the Ukraine invasion.
• Applicants for a standard Skilled Worker visa have to pay £1,035 per year for the IHS.  Applicants for the Health and Care Worker visa are (quite rightly) exempt.

And remember; it’s the substance of the role which makes a job eligible for sponsorship, rather than the specific job title.  If your business wants to call staff ‘Support Workers’ or ‘Care Assistants’, for example, you can go right ahead.  Just make sure your job descriptions align with those recognised by the Home Office. These are available here by typing the correct occupation code into the first box.

What are my responsibilities as a sponsoring employer in the care sector?

By granting a sponsor licence, the Home Office places significant responsibility on an employer to assist in day-to-day immigration enforcement.

This doesn’t mean you’re expected to take to the streets and start seeking out overstayers, but you are expected to monitor and manage the workers sponsored by your business.

In practice, this involves things like:

• appointing Key Personnel within your organisation to manage the licence, who themselves have a clean criminal and immigration history;
• carrying out perfect right-to-work checks;
• keeping accurate records of sponsored worker absences, both planned and unplanned;
• keeping accurate and up-to-date contact details for your sponsored workers;
• reporting to the Home Office if a sponsored worker doesn’t start the role, or doesn’t show up for work for ten consecutive days without excuse;
• reporting to the Home Office if there are changes to a sponsored worker’s job role, such as a promotion or salary increase;
• reporting to the Home Office if sponsorship of a worker ceases for any reason, including resignation or termination; and
• diarising visa expiry dates.

We understand that none of this is particularly difficult.  Indeed, you’ve probably breezed through the above list thinking – “we do that one already”, or “we can easily incorporate that one into existing processes”.

It’s great if that’s the case, but pay attention to fine-tuning anything not quite right, and give some consideration to how you’d prove it to the Home Office if asked.

Truth Legal can help by assessing your existing processes and making recommendations to cement your compliance with Home Office requirements.  As part of the work we do for you, we will provide a Quick Reference Guide to Sponsor Licence Duties, which is a good way into the reams of Home Office guidance on this subject. If it sounds like you may need our help on any of the above, then contact us today.

Compliance, Enforcement and When Things Go Wrong

Sponsoring care workers is no longer just an administrative exercise. For many providers, the greatest risk now sits in ongoing compliance and how issues are handled once the Home Office becomes involved.

We are increasingly instructed by care providers who have received Home Office correspondence raising concerns about pay, working hours, job roles, record‑keeping, or wider sponsor duties. These emails are often framed as routine requests for information, but in practice they can escalate quickly and without warning into licence suspension or revocation.

A significant part of our work involves supporting providers at this stage. We advise on how to respond to Home Office compliance emails, prepare detailed representations to address alleged breaches, and help providers evidence that their sponsorship systems are lawful, consistent, and properly implemented in practice.

Where a sponsor licence has been suspended or revoked, or where a revocation decision is threatened, we advise on next steps and available remedies. This includes preparing Pre‑Action Protocol correspondence and, where appropriate, pursuing Judicial Review to challenge unlawful or disproportionate decisions. We are acutely aware that the loss of a sponsor licence can have immediate and serious consequences for a care provider’s workforce and continuity of care.

Our advice is practical and grounded in real experience of how sponsor compliance is assessed on the ground. We focus not only on what the rules say, but on how they are applied by the Home Office in practice, and how providers can protect their position in an increasingly strict enforcement environment.

Mock sponsor licence audits for care providers

Given the current level of Home Office scrutiny, many care providers want a clearer understanding of how their sponsorship arrangements would look if reviewed by UKVI.

We offer a mock sponsor licence audit service for care providers who want an independent, practical review of their compliance position. The aim is to identify issues early, before they result in Home Office correspondence, licence suspension, or revocation.

Our mock audits focus on the areas the Home Office is currently scrutinising most closely. This includes pay and working hours, job roles and duties, right to work checks, record‑keeping, reporting obligations, and how sponsorship systems operate in practice rather than on paper.

Following the audit, we provide clear, prioritised feedback on any areas of concern and practical guidance on how these can be addressed. Where appropriate, we also advise on how to strengthen internal processes and evidence so that providers are better prepared for a Home Office compliance visit or request for information.

For many providers, a mock audit provides reassurance. For others, it highlights risks that can be resolved before they escalate. Either way, the focus is on protecting the sponsor licence and reducing the likelihood of enforcement action.

Care Worker Sponsorship & Visa FAQs

What’s the Shortage Occupation List, and what does it mean for the care sector?

The inclusion of Care Workers and Senior Care Workers on the Shortage Occupation List is recognition from the UK Government of the staff shortages currently afflicting the care sector.

The Shortage Occupation List means that when you sponsor a care worker, you can pay them a lower minimum rate of pay than would otherwise apply.

What are the minimum salary requirements for roles in care?

Generally, Care Workers and Senior Care Workers must be paid no less than £25,000 gross per annum, and £12.82 gross per hour.  This is much lower than the standard £41,700 minimum salary which applies to non-Shortage Occupation roles.

What’s the Health and Care Worker visa, and how can it help?

There are two key benefits of the Health and Care Worker visa:

1. Cost: Firstly, applicants for the Health and Care Worker visa pay £324 or £628 depending on the length of their visa.  This is a big saving on fees for an ordinary Skilled Worker visa, which will cost an applicant any of £819, £943, £1,618 or £1,865, depending on the length of their visa and whether they’re in the UK or overseas when they apply.
   Secondly, applicants for the Health and Care Worker visa are (quite rightly) exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge, which will set other Skilled Workers back an eye-watering £1,035 per year of sponsorship, up to a possible total of £5,175.
2. Time: This is only really a benefit for workers already in the UK. Workers applying from overseas can expect a three-week wait for a decision on either the Skilled Worker visa or the Health and Care Worker visa.  However, applicants in the UK can expect the same three-week wait for the Health and Care Worker visa, but a lengthy eight weeks for a Skilled Worker visa.

Do I need to advertise for my care sector roles?

You may have heard the rumour that care providers wishing to sponsor don’t need to advertise, since staff shortages in the sector are so well known.

The Truth Legal view is that this will remain a rumour until we see it written into formal guidance.  As such, we will continue to advise that it’s sensible to provide some evidence of advertising with your licence application. It is also important to retain that evidence in case of a Home Office inspection.

The good news is that advertising for your roles is far less of a headache than it used to be. This is due to the abolition of the Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT) in December 2020.

The RLMT was designed by the Home Office as a highly prescriptive list of steps a business had to take to prove that it absolutely could not recruit from the UK domestic workforce.  Employers had to advertise in two places from a prescribed list, for a minimum of 28 days, under strict requirements about the content of their job adverts.

Happily, all that remains of the RLMT is the requirement to prove ‘a genuine vacancy’.  We find the best way to do this is through some evidence of advertising, although it’s far less prescriptive than it used to be.

As a minimum, we’d recommend including with your licence application:

• a screenshot of an Indeed advert for each job role you want to sponsor, posted for at least three weeks; and
• a record of applicants (if any) and the reason(s) each was unsuitable for the role.

It’s also sensible to retain interview notes, interview questions, and copies of your sponsored worker’s qualifications, CV, and employment references.

All this tells the Home Office that you have a genuine business need to recruit from overseas, strengthening your case for a sponsor licence.

Sponsoring in the Care Sector: Is It Worth It?

The simple truth is: if you want to do sponsorship properly, be prepared to sink some time, effort, and money into the project at the outset.

Many of our clients in the care sector tell us they’re already committing time, effort, and money to UK recruitment exercises. However, they simply aren’t getting the results they need.  One of them said – “yes sponsorship is expensive, but you should see my Indeed bill!”.  That particular client had decided to redirect their valuable resources into overseas sponsorship instead, and perhaps you’re thinking the same thing.

What’s more, sponsorship can deliver in ways that domestic recruitment cannot. One of those ways is worker retention.  Unlike British or settled workers, sponsored workers are tied to your business by the conditions of their visa. They can also bring dependants with them to the UK.  This means a whole family’s right to stay in the UK can be dependent on the worker’s employment with you, and they’re not likely to give that up on a whim.  While it’s true that a sponsored worker can leave your employment to work for another sponsoring employer, the pool of employers with a sponsor licence is far smaller than the pool of employers competing for British or settled workers.

How Can Truth Legal Help?

Truth Legal can take some of the time and effort commitment off your shoulders when it comes to sponsoring care workers.

We try to quote competitively, and we will always be upfront and transparent about what we will charge and when.  We also tend to work in stages, with each stage attracting a fixed fee, so you can spread the cost and avoid nasty surprises.  We offer a free, no-commitment, 20-minute consultation before starting anything, so you can get to know us and we can learn more about your business.

We’re one of very few UK solicitors who can claim to be genuine specialists, not only in the legal technicalities of the sponsorship process, but specifically sponsoring in the care sector.  We understand your business and we truly care about care. So, if you’d like to sponsor a care worker, we are best placed to advise you on this.

Contact us today for immigration legal support.