General care nurse · United Kingdom

Work in the UK
as a nurse.

Two separate decisions, by two separate bodies: the Nursing and Midwifery Council decides whether you can join the register, and the Home Office decides whether you can take the job. The first one is where most of the money goes, and it is the one most visa guides skip.

Recognition
Regulated
Work permits sourced
4
Official sources
45
Last checked
2026-08-03
  1. IndiaYour documents, prepared here
  2. RecognitionRequired to practise here
  3. Right to work4 permits compared
  4. United KingdomEvery source read since 2026‑08‑03
Build my roadmap →Compare the permits

The short answer

Two questions, and they are not the same question.

◎Licence decision required

Recognition

Regulated · assessed case by case

Who decides: Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) — The NMC regulates nurses and midwives across the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom has no single recognition procedure. On 1 December 2023 it revoked the interim system inherited from the EU, and regulators are now free to set their own routes to recognition unless sectoral legislation or an international agreement applies. Whether you need a decision at all depends on whether your profession is regulated, and if it is, the body that decides is its regulator.

↗Always required

Work authorisation

Whatever the recognition branch says, you still need the legal right to work in United Kingdom. We have sourced 4 routes for a qualification obtained outside the EU and EEA.

  • Skilled Worker visa
  • Global Talent visa
  • High Potential Individual visa
  • Health and Care Worker visa

Qualified inside the EU or EEA? Free movement replaces this branch entirely — pick your country below and the answer changes accordingly.

Work authorisation

Every permit we can source,
side by side.

Open the full roadmap →

Skilled Worker visa

UK Visas and Immigration (Home Office)

Checklist
Salary floor
GBP 41,700 a year (2026 figure)You need whichever is higher of the £41,700 standard rate or your occupation's own 'going rate'. Several conditions move that floor: on the Immigration Salary List, the minimum drops to £33,400 a year, but you must still meet your occupation's going rate. If you are under 26, a recent graduate, or in professional training, you may be paid 70% of the going rate. With a STEM PhD relevant to the job, 80% of the going rate. With a relevant PhD in another subject, at least £37,500 (90% of the going rate). Some healthcare and education jobs, on a list the Home Office publishes, are not measured against £41,700 at all: the floor there is £25,000 a year, or more if the job's going rate is higher. A separate legacy rate — whichever is higher of £31,300 or the lower going rate — applies only if your first certificate of sponsorship (Tier 2 or Skilled Worker) was issued before 4 April 2024 and you have held Skilled Worker status continuously since, and only for applications made before 4 April 2030. Confirm which of these applies to your specific case before relying on any single figure.
Qualification
A confirmed job offer, on the eligible occupations list, from a Home Office-licensed sponsor, at or above the required skill level for that occupation code.
Decision, applying from outside the UK
Usually within 3 weeks of proving identity and providing documents
Legacy salary rate for pre-4-April-2024 sponsorship
Available for applications made before 4 April 2030
Application fee, up to 3 years, from outside the UK
£819
Application fee, more than 3 years, from outside the UK
£1,618
Application fee, up to 3 years, from inside the UK
£943
Everything about Skilled Worker visa →
The procedure, step by step4 steps · 3 possible outcomes
  1. Confirm your prospective employer already holds a Home Office sponsor licence covering your occupation, and secure a certificate of sponsorship (CoS) reference number, job title, occupation code and annual salary from them.An employer without a sponsor licence cannot issue a CoS, and without a CoS there is no application to make on this route at all.
  2. Work out which salary rule applies to your job and your circumstances, and confirm your salary meets it — see the note on the salary threshold above.
  3. Prove your knowledge of English to at least level B2 of the Common European Framework (CEFR): reading, writing, speaking and understanding.Accepted evidence includes a UK school qualification, a degree taught in English (UK-awarded, or non-UK and verified through Ecctis), or a Secure English Language Test (SELT) with an approved provider. Nationals of certain English-speaking countries are exempt from providing proof, and so are applicants in some regulated occupations the Home Office lists who have already passed an English language assessment accepted by their regulator.
  4. Apply online, either from outside or inside the UK, and prove your identity through the ID Check app or at a visa application centre.Applying from outside the UK, you'll usually get a decision within 3 weeks of proving your identity and providing your documents; this can take longer if your documents need verifying or you're asked to attend an interview.

Possible outcomes

  • A Skilled Worker visa for up to 5 years at a time, tied to your sponsor and your job, renewable while you continue to meet the requirements.
  • A route to indefinite leave to remain (settlement) after a qualifying period on the route, subject to the requirements in force when you apply.
  • Refusal, where the sponsor licence, the certificate of sponsorship, the applicable salary threshold or the English requirement is not met.

Global Talent visa

UK Visas and Immigration (Home Office), acting on the recommendation of the endorsing body for your field

Checklist
Qualification
Evidence that you are already a leader, or have demonstrable potential to become a leader, in your field, judged against the endorsing body's own published criteria for that field. There is no fixed degree, occupation or salary requirement on this route.
Endorsement decision (digital technology field)
Usually 5 to 8 weeks
Visa decision, applying from outside the UK
Usually around 3 weeks
Endorsement application (endorsement route only)
£561
Visa application
£205
Immigration health surcharge
£1,035 per year
Everything about Global Talent visa →
The procedure, step by step4 steps · 3 possible outcomes
  1. Check whether you hold a prize on the published eligible prize list. If you do, you can apply for the visa directly, without going through endorsement first.
  2. If you do not hold a qualifying prize, identify the endorsing body for your field and review its published criteria before you apply to it.For the digital technology field, the Home Office currently sends applications to be reviewed by Tech Nation, described on the guidance as 'a UK organisation ("endorsing body") with expertise in your field'.
  3. Apply for endorsement first. Only once you hold an endorsement — or a qualifying prize — can you apply for the visa itself; the two applications are separate and sequential.For the digital technology field, the guidance states an endorsement decision usually takes 5 to 8 weeks.
  4. Apply for the visa using your endorsement or your qualifying prize as evidence.Applying from outside the UK, a decision on the visa itself usually takes around 3 weeks.

Possible outcomes

  • A Global Talent visa, granted for a period you choose of 1 to 5 years at a time, up to 5 years per grant.
  • A route to indefinite leave to remain (settlement) after 3 or 5 years, depending on your field and how you qualified — the guidance does not break down which combination gets which figure on the pages reviewed; confirm the applicable period with the endorsing body or the Home Office before relying on it.
  • Refusal, where endorsement is not granted and you do not hold a qualifying prize.

High Potential Individual visa

UK Visas and Immigration (Home Office)

Checklist
Qualification
A bachelor's, postgraduate, or doctoral-level qualification, awarded in the last 5 years by a university on the Home Office's published eligible-university list.
Decision, applying from outside the UK
Usually within 3 weeks
Decision, applying from inside the UK
Usually within 8 weeks
Application fee
£880
Ecctis qualification-validity check
£252, including VAT
Immigration health surcharge, 2-year visa
£2,070 total (£1,035 per year)
Everything about High Potential Individual visa →
The procedure, step by step4 steps · 3 possible outcomes
  1. Check the Home Office's eligible-university list for the year you graduated, and confirm your awarding university is on it. The Home Office decides this list; no other check confirms university eligibility for you.
  2. Apply to Ecctis to have your qualification checked as valid and at the right level for this specific visa.The guidance states plainly that 'Ecctis will not check if your university is eligible' — that is a separate question you answer yourself against the Home Office list, not something this check confirms for you. This Ecctis product is not the Statement of Comparability described in `unitedKingdomDegreeRecognition`; do not treat the two as interchangeable.
  3. Prove your knowledge of English and show you have enough personal savings to support yourself, unless you have already held a valid UK visa for at least 12 months.
  4. Apply online. You can only ever hold this visa once, so confirm it is the right route before you use that one opportunity.You'll usually get a decision within 3 weeks if you apply from outside the UK, or within 8 weeks if you apply from inside the UK.

Possible outcomes

  • A High Potential Individual visa lasting 2 years, or 3 years if your qualifying award was a PhD or other doctoral-level qualification.
  • No route to settlement through this visa itself — the guidance states time on it does not count if you later apply to settle in the UK on another route.
  • Refusal, where the awarding university is not on the eligible-university list, the qualification is not verified as valid, or the other conditions are not met.

Health and Care Worker visa

UK Visas and Immigration (Home Office)

Checklist
Salary floor
GBP 25,000 a year (2026 figure)£25,000 is the usual floor, not the nurse's salary: if the going rate for the job is higher, you need at least the going rate, and for eligible health jobs the Home Office points to its table of national pay scales by NHS pay band and area of the UK. That table is sourced from the 2024/25 pay scales and lists Band 5 at £29,970 in England, £31,892 in Scotland, £30,420 in Wales and £28,407 in Northern Ireland. It does not say which band a nursing post sits in: your employer's offer does.
Qualification
Be a qualified nurse, with an eligible job with the NHS, an NHS supplier or in adult social care.
Visa decision
Usually within 3 weeks
Application, up to 3 years
£324 per person, from inside or outside the UK
Application, more than 3 years
£628 per person, from inside or outside the UK
Immigration health surcharge
Not payable on this visa, for you or your partner or children
Everything about Health and Care Worker visa →
The procedure, step by step3 steps · 2 possible outcomes
  1. Get an eligible job with the NHS, an NHS supplier or in adult social care, and a certificate of sponsorship from your employer with information about the role you have been offered.
  2. Prove your knowledge of English at level B2 of the Common European Framework.As a nurse you do not need to prove it again if you have already passed an English language assessment accepted by the relevant regulated professional body. The NMC's accepted tests are listed in the recognition branch above.
  3. Apply online. You will usually get a decision within 3 weeks.

Possible outcomes

  • A visa for up to 5 years before you need to extend it.
  • Refusal, if the job, the sponsorship or the salary do not meet the rules.

Recognition procedure

What the authority asks of you.

Ordered the way the procedure runs, from an origin outside the EU and EEA. Pick your own country of qualification below and the planner reorders it for you.

1

Prepare your documents

  1. Request certified copies of your degree and full academic transcripts from the Indian university or board that issued them.
  2. The Apostille Convention has been in force for India since 14 July 2005, so an apostille replaces consular legalisation. An Indian educational document cannot go straight to the apostille, though: it is authenticated first by the Regional Authentication Centre of the State or Union Territory whose authority signed it, and the Ministry of External Affairs apostilles it afterwards on the strength of that signature.Which office acts as the RAC, what it charges and how long it takes are set by each State or Union Territory, not by the MEA.
  3. Since July 2012 the MEA has not accepted documents directly from applicants. They go through one of the four authorised outsourced agencies — BLS International Services, Superb Enterprises, IVS Global Services or Alhind Tours & Travels — and since 1 January 2019 the service also runs from Branch Secretariats and Regional Passport Offices in 16 cities.The MEA advises applicants not to rely on unauthorised persons or touts. Nobody outside those channels can lodge an apostille for you.
  4. If your certificate already sits in an Indian digital depository — CBSE documents from 2014 onwards, or anything issued through the National Academic Depository — e-Sanad handles the apostille online and the physical route does not apply. CBSE physical copies from 2014 onwards are no longer accepted over the counter.
  5. An apostille certifies the signature and seal of the Indian authority that signed your document. It says nothing about what the document contains: the MEA states explicitly that it does not take responsibility for the contents.It is a check on the paperwork, never a statement about the level or the content of your qualification.
  6. Check the Regulated Professions Register first. In the government's words, if a profession is regulated you may need certain professional qualifications or experience to carry out certain professional activities or to use a professional title, and the bodies that decide whether you are qualified are known as regulators.
2

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Open an eligibility and qualification application online and pay the evaluation fee. The NMC contacts the regulator in the country where you trained to confirm your qualification allowed you to register there.If that regulator cannot confirm it, for example because you have not completed a registration examination, the NMC may not be able to accept your application.
  2. Take part 1 of the Test of Competence, the computer-based test (CBT), for adult nursing. Pearson Professional Assessments runs it in test centres in most countries: a 30-minute numeracy part with 15 questions and a clinical part of two and a half hours with 100.You have three attempts within one application, at least 10 days apart and within one year. After three failed attempts the application closes, and you wait six months before you can submit a new application and sit the CBT again.
  3. Take part 2, the practical OSCE, at one of the three approved test providers: the University of Northampton, Ulster University or Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. It has 10 stations and results come within five working days.You must pass the CBT and the OSCE within two years of each other, and the Test of Competence then stays valid for five years. OSCE resits are taken at the same test centre, up to three times.
  4. Every applicant has a face-to-face ID check at one of the Test of Competence centres, where your documents are verified as originals.
3

Close any gaps

  1. Evidence your English in one of three ways the NMC accepts: an English language test, a qualification taught and examined in English, or recent practice in English. The only tests accepted are IELTS Academic, with 7 in listening, reading and speaking and 6.5 in writing, and OET, with B (350 or above) in listening, reading and speaking and C+ (300 or above) in writing.Test scores are valid for two years. IELTS General Training is not accepted. If you trained outside a country where English is the majority language, a qualification taught in English counts only if your transcript shows a programme of at least 50 percent clinical interaction, at least 75 percent of it with patients, service users, their families and other healthcare professionals, and in English.
4

Register and start working

  1. Complete the registration application: health and character declarations, your English language evidence, professional indemnity arrangements and the registration fee. The NMC contacts your referees before it decides.
  2. Until your name is on the register, do not present yourself as registered. Under article 44 of the Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 it is an offence to falsely represent yourself as registered, or to use a title you are not entitled to, with intent to deceive.

What it costs

MEA apostille
Rs 50 per apostille sticker
Authorised agency service charge
Rs 84 per document, plus Rs 3 per page for scanning
State authentication before the apostille
Set by the State or Union Territory that authenticates the document — confirm the current fee with the relevant RAC
Qualification evaluation
£140, non-refundable. £167 for applications opened after 1 October 2026
CBT
£83 per sitting
OSCE
£794. A partial resit is £397 if you fail up to seven stations
Initial registration
£153. £182 for applications opened after 1 October 2026
Total, fees and tests
£1,170, or £1,226 for applications opened after 1 October 2026
Annual registration fee once registered
£120, rising to £143 from 1 October 2026

How long it takes

Qualification assessment
The NMC aims to assess it within 14 days
Registration application
The NMC aims to consider a complete application within 30 days
Legal limit for the decision
Three months from receipt of the completed application, after which you have a right of appeal
Time to complete
Two years from the confirmation of your eligibility, including the Test of Competence if you are asked to take it

Possible outcomes

  • Entry on the NMC register, which entitles you to use the title that corresponds to your part of it.
  • Your application is closed at the eligibility stage if the NMC cannot accept your qualification.
  • Refusal on health or character grounds, or a requirement to take an English language test. These decisions can be appealed within 28 days.
  • An application that has not progressed within three months of being opened is closed.

Possible, not predicted. Nobody here can tell you which one you will get.

Where you qualified

The answer changes
with your country.

Everything we cover →

Qualified outside the EU and EEA — permit required

Colombia → United KingdomOpen this roadmapArgentina → United KingdomOpen this roadmapIndia → United KingdomOpen this roadmapPhilippines → United KingdomOpen this roadmapNigeria → United KingdomOpen this roadmapBrazil → United KingdomOpen this roadmapMexico → United KingdomOpen this roadmap

Qualified inside the EU or EEA — free movement applies

Spain → United KingdomDifferent answerGermany → United KingdomDifferent answerNetherlands → United KingdomDifferent answer

People reach this page looking for

  • NMC registration for overseas nurses
  • NMC CBT and OSCE
  • Health and Care Worker visa for nurses
  • IELTS or OET score for NMC
  • UK nursing registration from India

Questions

Answered from the same sources.

Is general care nurse a regulated profession in United Kingdom?

Yes. Regulated · assessed case by case. The decision is made by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Which authority recognises a foreign general care nurse qualification in United Kingdom?

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The NMC regulates nurses and midwives across the United Kingdom.

Which work permits can a general care nurse apply for in United Kingdom?

We have sourced 4: Skilled Worker visa, Global Talent visa, High Potential Individual visa, Health and Care Worker visa. Each one has its own conditions, and this page compares them side by side rather than recommending one.

What salary do you need to work in United Kingdom as a general care nurse?

Skilled Worker visa: GBP 41,700 a year (2026 figure, You need whichever is higher of the £41,700 standard rate or your occupation's own 'going rate'. Several conditions move that floor: on the Immigration Salary List, the minimum drops to £33,400 a year, but you must still meet your occupation's going rate. If you are under 26, a recent graduate, or in professional training, you may be paid 70% of the going rate. With a STEM PhD relevant to the job, 80% of the going rate. With a relevant PhD in another subject, at least £37,500 (90% of the going rate). Some healthcare and education jobs, on a list the Home Office publishes, are not measured against £41,700 at all: the floor there is £25,000 a year, or more if the job's going rate is higher. A separate legacy rate — whichever is higher of £31,300 or the lower going rate — applies only if your first certificate of sponsorship (Tier 2 or Skilled Worker) was issued before 4 April 2024 and you have held Skilled Worker status continuously since, and only for applications made before 4 April 2030. Confirm which of these applies to your specific case before relying on any single figure.). Health and Care Worker visa: GBP 25,000 a year (2026 figure, £25,000 is the usual floor, not the nurse's salary: if the going rate for the job is higher, you need at least the going rate, and for eligible health jobs the Home Office points to its table of national pay scales by NHS pay band and area of the UK. That table is sourced from the 2024/25 pay scales and lists Band 5 at £29,970 in England, £31,892 in Scotland, £30,420 in Wales and £28,407 in Northern Ireland. It does not say which band a nursing post sits in: your employer's offer does.).

How long does the process take?

Qualification assessment: The NMC aims to assess it within 14 days. Registration application: The NMC aims to consider a complete application within 30 days. Legal limit for the decision: Three months from receipt of the completed application, after which you have a right of appeal. Time to complete: Two years from the confirmation of your eligibility, including the Test of Competence if you are asked to take it. These are the timeframes the authorities publish, not a prediction about your case.

Is this page up to date?

The oldest source behind it was checked on 2026-08-03. Every claim links to the official page it came from, with its own check date, so you can verify any of it yourself in one click.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

45 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest of them is 2026-08-03, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Two minutes, no account

Your qualification, your country, your roadmap.

This page answers the pairing in general. The planner answers it for the country you actually qualified in, and prints the result with its sources attached.

Build my roadmap →How we verify this