NHS Skilled Worker Visa Salary Requirements by Pay Band

Agenda for Change pay runs from Band 2 to Band 9 and is updated separately in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. For example, NHS England's 2026/27 Band 5 entry salary is £32,073. The immigration assessment still uses the current Home Office national-pay-scale table for the relevant nation, band, hours, and occupation, so check both sources when reviewing an offer.

A pay band does not make every job in that band sponsorable. Current sponsor guidance says Band 1 and Band 2 jobs are not eligible. A medium-skilled Band 3 or Band 4 role can support a new application only where its exact occupation code is available through the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List; otherwise only an applicable pre-22 July 2025 transitional worker may qualify.

Care Worker and Senior Care Worker roles under SOC 6135 and 6136 are closed to all new overseas applications. That restriction is separate from the rules for nurses and allied health professionals.

Registered nursing is now split across SOC 2231 to 2237, including midwifery, community, specialist, practitioner, mental-health, children's, and other registered nursing professionals. These listed public-sector health jobs use the national-pay-scale salary option rather than the standard Option A threshold.

The salary must be at least £25,000 and at least the relevant national pay-scale rate for the job, nation, band, and weekly hours. A normal full-time Band 5 nursing offer can therefore qualify without reaching £41,700, provided the correct occupation code and all other route conditions are met.

The employer must also qualify for the Health and Care Worker route, for example an NHS body, an organisation providing medical services to the NHS, or an eligible health or adult-social-care organisation. CQC registration is specifically required for SOC 6135 and 6136 jobs in England; it is not a blanket requirement for every health occupation.

For listed health and education public-sector jobs, compare the actual gross annual salary with the applicable general threshold and the national pay-scale rate for the role. The going-rate element is pro-rated for the sponsored weekly hours; the applicable general threshold is based on actual annual pay and is not pro-rated.

The £25,000 figure belongs to particular health and education salary provisions. It is not an absolute floor across every Skilled Worker application. Other jobs can be subject to general thresholds of £41,700, £37,500, £33,400, £31,300, £28,200, or £25,000 depending on the available salary option.

Band 3 and Band 4 support jobs need especially careful checking because medium-skilled occupation access is list-based or transitional and can be time-limited. Do not infer eligibility from the employer being part of the NHS or from the salary alone.

Consider a full-time registered nurse offered a 2026/27 Band 5 position at an NHS trust in England at £32,073. The sponsor must select the nursing code from SOC 2231 to 2237 that matches the duties and verify the offer against the current Home Office national-pay-scale table and the £25,000 general threshold for this salary option.

If the role and employer meet the Health and Care Worker conditions, the application receives the reduced Health and Care visa fee and the applicant and eligible dependants are exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge.

This example should not be reused for a support, care, or private-sector role without checking its exact occupation code, employer type, hours, and salary provision.

Start by identifying the exact occupation code, then check whether it appears on the eligible health and education public-sector list and which salary option applies. Compare the job's nation, pay band, annual salary, and weekly hours with the current Home Office national-pay-scale table. You can use the VisaAtlas SOC Code Intelligence tool as a research aid before verifying against gov.uk.

Once you have confirmed your eligibility, the next step is to identify NHS trusts or private healthcare employers that are actively sponsoring staff. Not every trust sponsors equally — some have issued hundreds of Certificates of Sponsorship in the past year, while others have barely used their licence. Find NHS sponsorship roles on VisaAtlas to see healthcare employers with recent CoS activity in your region.

Always verify the current rules on gov.uk before making any application decisions, as salary thresholds, the Immigration Salary List, and the Temporary Shortage List are updated by the Home Office and the Migration Advisory Committee on a rolling basis.