I spent £ 376.20 for my health care worker visa ( shortage occupation list, standard visa + early appointment).
Price varies according to the number of years that you apply for and your country.
Generally, it can be divided into two parts.
1. Fill up the application + upload the documents
2. Biometric Appointment
This post aims for experience sharing.
Kindly refer to the official pages.
You are advised to read the guideline from the official pages.
I apply a visitor visa to turn into a skilled worker visa within the UK, after being granted permission from UKVI NHS. You can refer to my last post in https://helenngjourney.blogspot.com/2022/02/nhs-worker-can-i-get-skilled-worker.html
Step 1: Read the official website.
You need to understand it before applying. From my understanding, Health worker visas are part of the skilled worker visa. As health care workers, we just apply for health care worker visas.
You can opt for a Skilled worker visa option too. At the end, I got the same.
- https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa
- https://www.gov.uk/health-care-worker-visa
Step 2: Prepare the documents
You can refer to: https://www.gov.uk/health-care-worker-visa/documents-you-must-provide
It can be varied depending on where is your home country and personal circumstance.
Basically, it includes your
- passport (mandatory, and need to bring along in your appointment)
- police clearance
- your certificate of sponsorship (COS) - the COS number, your sponsorship number
- your bank statement (if maintenance is not ticked in the COS)
- the countries that you have traveled to for the past 10 years ( you need to list it out, date in and out of the country)
- proof of TB clearance ( if you are from the endemic area )
Tips: I am applying within the UK. I don't have my TB check before came to UK when I was a visitor. Yet, I submit my proof of BCG vaccination. Another option will be the health clearance report from your hospital occupational clearance - my hospital did IGRA). Ideally, you should have the medical report as the UKVI website mentioned. However, it was the way that my friend told me and it works for them.
Some suggest registering under a GP and doing the TB check with your GP. I tried to call my nearest GP, but the receptionist didn't manage to give me a positive answer.
Tips: Prepare your documents earlier. For eg, police clearance needs to be applied and it consumes time for approval and collection.
The picture below shows that we need police clearance from each country where we had stay for more than 1 year over the past 10 years. You can refer to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants/guidance-on-the-application-process-for-criminal-records-checks-overseas.
Tips: Yes, you need to have a record of the countries (date of entry and leave) that you have traveled to for the past 10 years. You need to keep your old passport which had expired.
What is maintenance?
Tips: Ask your HR does the maintenance is tick. It is important. Otherwise, you need to have evidence have at least £1,270 in an account in their name for the 28 days before the application
Step 3: Start applying. You can open an account with your email address so that you can have a better understanding. You can always continue later on.
When you open an account, you need to select "where you apply for the visa from". Are you applying within or outside of the UK?
Link: https://www.gov.uk/health-care-worker-visa
Step 4: Fill up the detail one by one. There are six sections that you need to fill up. You can apply for your dependent along with this too.
Step 5: Payment. You can pay according to which type of service you prefer.
Step 6: You will be redirected to the "
UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service" to upload your documents and book your appointment.
- The picture below shows the documents that you could upload (optional and goes according to the personal situation). A passport is a mandatory document to upload.
- You can add the consent form as a request to fill up by UKVI into your "other" document.
- You need to upload the document here and book an appointment. You can select other types of service (with different charges).
- According to where you stay, there will be several options of the place where you can make an appointment. Try to check on different areas, prices vary with the location and if you selected an earlier date it could be more pricey.
Tips: There are 'free' appointments that you can book but could take a longer time ( need around 3 weeks time for it).
- On the website, there are other services (optional) available including 1. Interpretation 2. Document check 3. SMS service 4. Document scanning.
Tips: Scanning and uploading your own documents help to save your money.
Step 7: A barcode/ reference number will be delivered to your email box. Along with it + your passport, you need to attend at the appointed time and venue.
Biometric appointmentIt will be an appointment that took around 15minutes - take your photo, your fingerprints and check your passport.
There are lots of people waiting outside, however, only those appointed were allowed to enter the building due to covid restrictions.
After the appointment, you will receive an email mentioning that your document had success sent to the UKVI as below.
How long is it going to take?
Accordingly to UKVI website, it could be 8weeks for a standard visa.
Or it can be 3weeks as a health care worker visa.
Upon visa approval, you will receive an email like this.
My personal experience
I received my visa approval email from the home office in 13 days of working days.
I received my BRP card on day 6 after receiving the "visa approval email" from the home office.
* You will receive an email notification to inform you prior to the delivery ( I received it at the same time that I missed my delivery to the house).
If you missed the delivery like I did, you can reschedule the delivery for the next day.
I received my BRP card at 7.30am the next day (Saturday)!
BRP
- postage if you apply within UK,
- post office if you apply outside of the UK.
How the BPR card look like? Where can I get my NI number?
What is the NI number?
In the UK, National Insurance (NI) is a system of taxes paid for by employees (and employers). These taxes are used primarily to fund state benefits, including the state pension. The amount of NI contributed by an employee is dependent on how much they earn and will determine how much they get an in-state pension upon retirement.
It will also determine their entitlement to other benefits should they lose their job or suffer from a long-term illness. An employee’s NI contribution is deducted automatically from their gross wages (together with their contribution to income tax) and will be seen on their payslip under ‘PAYE’
When shall I start working?
You must have started in the post within 28 days of receipt of your Skilled
Worker Visa. Failure to start within the
required time will result in your visa being retracted as per Home Office
Guidance. (please ask your HR)
If I change if address?
Problem with my BPR:
Contact UKVI about updating your UK Visas and Immigration account details
All the best for your application.
Hope this helps.
Thank you, Praveen, Madan, and Janice for addressing all more questions when I applied for a health care worker visa.
Local community:
Facebook Tier2/ Skilled Worker And Immigration group
Other useful links:
HEE- minimum salary requirement for Tier 2 visa
What's the fees if you are applying overseas?
ReplyDeleteAlways good to refer back to UKVI website. Otherwise, you can refer to the fee written in the first picture. Hope this help.
Delete