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RESOURCES
Visa Sponsorship
This page displays useful information, guidance and resources for practices regarding Visa Sponsorship and International Recruitment.
What's happening
Information for Visa Sponsorship
Four-month visa extension for newly qualified GPs
The government has introduced an additional four months on Skilled Worker visas for GPs completing GP Specialty Training (GPST). This will allow newly qualified GPs extra time to secure work with an employer and arrange sponsorship with them. This will also provide GP practices more time to obtain a new visa sponsorship licence if they have recruited a newly qualified GP and do not already have a licence.
Sponsored GP trainees qualifying from June 2023 are eligible to apply for the extension. For further information, please contact [email protected].
Information about applying for a visa sponsorship licence
Information about applying for a visa sponsorship licence is now available on the GP Workforce Scheme Delivery Hub.
This includes the slide pack used by the Home Office for the GP visa sponsorship webinar we hosted in June, along with some questions and answers that were raised at the webinar. Both contain useful information for people who were not able to attend.
Gaining the right to be a UK visa sponsoring practice has many advantages and could form an important part of your general practice workforce planning. One in three newly qualified GPs this year will be international medical graduates and numbers will increase in years to come. These candidates have spent three years training in England as part of the HEE programme and have excellent language skills and knowledge about the NHS.
Act now to become a visa sponsorship practice
If you are recruiting new GPs next year, now is the time to start the process for visa sponsorship applications. The next cohort of ST3s will be ready to start work as GPs in February and this includes international medical graduates, who have spent three years training in England on the HEE programme with excellent language skills and knowledge about the NHS. Most of them will require visas to work in the NHS in England.
Further information about applying for a visa sponsorship licence is available on the GP Workforce Scheme Delivery Hub, including a step-by-step guide, FAQs and guidance on how any GPs you sponsor can apply for reimbursement of their visa fees.
Gaining the right to be a UK visa sponsoring practice has many advantages and could form an important part of your general practice workforce planning.
What's happening
Resources
Please find useful updates, information and resources below
On Thursday 23 March 2023 the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a revised Code of Practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England
NHS Employers has updated the International Recruitment Toolkit to reflect recent changes in the international recruitment space and links to the latest tools and resources.
Access the updated code of practice for international recruitment here
