Changes to the Immigration Rules - Care Workers and Senior Care Workers
- helen7252
- Jul 13
- 2 min read
Immigration White Paper 2025
The Home Office (UKVI) have published a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules on 1 July 2025, which outlines further changes being introduced which will mean that employers will no longer be able to bring in care workers or senior care workers from overseas from 22 July 2025.
The key changes being introduced are as follows:
Closure of entry clearance applications for Skilled Workers sponsored in either SOC code 6135 or 6136.
The changes also provide for in-country applications, for those switching from other visa routes, to continue for a transition period until 22 July 2028, at which point these occupations will be removed from the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List.
Workers must have been legally working for the provider that is sponsoring them for at least 3 months before the date their certificate of sponsorship was issued to them by their sponsor.
The requirement for sponsors to first recruit from the pool of Skilled Workers seeking new sponsorship is being removed, As a result of these changes, all applications to which the requirement applied are being closed.
The transitional provision for workers switching from other visa routes will be kept under review, to respond flexibly to any further emerging compliance issues in the sector. These include deliberate non-compliance and exploitation and broader failure to guarantee long term sustainable employment.
The Government will monitor sponsor licence revocations, expansion/contraction of the number of displaced workers and Regional Partnership feedback, including success in matching workers to new employment.
To prevent the occupation code ‘6131 Nursing auxiliaries and assistants’ being misused to circumvent these changes, a clarification is being added to confirm this occupation code only applies to roles in environments where registered nurse roles also exist.
As with the increase to the skills threshold, this Statement of Changes applies transitional arrangements to exempt workers who are already in the Skilled Worker route (or have been sponsored for an application which is later successful) or who switch to the route before the closing date of 22 July 2028.
The Statement of Changes (HC 997) can be viewed here. The UKVI news story accompanying the publication can be viewed here.
The FAQ briefing document on the immigration White Paper has also been updated and can be viewed here.
